I haven’t been as good at updating you all on my happenings within the Emerging Writers’ Festival as I would’ve liked, but this is my attempt to sum up a pretty good start to the festival this weekend. Little Girl … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I haven’t been as good at updating you all on my happenings within the Emerging Writers’ Festival as I would’ve liked, but this is my attempt to sum up a pretty good start to the festival this weekend. Little Girl With a Big Pen is doing much better at it than me currently.

After the opening night, Saturday consisted of a workshop on editing run in conjunction with Express Media and Sunday was spent with a casual look at Page Parlour and one of the ‘stuck in a lift with…’ chats.

The workshop titled, How To Edit Your Work for Publication was part of Express Media’s Skill Share program that had workshops going all day and I wanted to take part in this part of the festival as it’s one of the things that sets EWF apart from other festivals as a festival for writers.

Editing is also one my weaknesses as a writer and I’m making it a bit of a focus currently to improve and get my closer to publication.

It was run by Davina Bell & Julia Carlomagno, both editors at the literary journal harvest as well as both working for publishing houses. They were friendly and welcoming to the group of writers that had varying levels of experience, considering we were all a bit shy.

We covered a lot of different stuff from presenting yourself to an editor, what to look for when editing, targeting an audience and there were questions. I was familiar with a lot of it which is a nice little ego boost but was listening most intently during the bit about what exactly to look for when editing, which again, I was familiar with a bit of but would’ve liked to hear a bit more about. We did get a handout which will work as a bit of check list when going through some of my shorts.

Despite not going into too much depth in the area I was most curious about, the workshop was still useful and I plan to lay out a bit of a ‘game plan’ when it comes to editing and what I need to work on. The workshop also gave me some hunger to do some more workshops probably with the Victorian Writers’ Centre or Express Media again.

On Sunday, I decided to check out the Page Parlour at Federation Square which was full of stalls if independent titles and lit journals and zines and magazines. It was hard not to spend money and walked away with the latest issue of Going Down Swinging and finally got myself a copy of Miscellaneous Voices.

The people behind the stalls were friendly and had a bit of a chat with me which was nice. Turns out my obsession with Twitter pays off as does stalking the Festival Twitter hashtag, #EWFchat.

I also popped into a ‘stuck in a lift with…’ session with Paddy O’Reilly in conversation with Jennifer Mills which was a relaxed and interesting conversation about books and how they affect their writing. They tossed around some interesting questions like what book they forced themselves to read because they felt they had to.

I really think the festival’s integration with Twitter using the hashtag was a great idea and is working well for me. I’ve used it to kind of break the ice with a few people as it’s easier to exchange a few messages via Twitter and then have a chat in person after that rather than just not knowing anyone.

And is it just me, or does the very act of being at a festival help with writing? I think being around books, writers, talk about writing turns over certain cogs in your head and makes you think about it more. It’s like me going to political meetings keeps me mind focused on the political issues of the day.

I’m off to another open mic night tonight at The Brunswick Hotel, and aside from the online TwitterFEST events, my next EWF event will be at the Town Hall program on Saturday and Sunday.

Photos to come

The yearly book total is about to spike superlatively – this week brings the Emerging Writers’ Festival 15 Minutes of Fame book launches. I’ll be interviewing the people responsible for 16 books at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne, at 7pm Monday to Thursday this week. The books are: Featuring — Monday 24 May Miscellaneous Voices [...] Continue reading →

Yesterday’s Page Parlour for the Emerging Writers’ Festival went splendidly. I apologise I don’t have more photos to post than the one above, but the iphone does not like low-light settings. I can put the ‘flash’ on Hipmastatic, but it has little affect on the overall result (it’s more of a ‘glaze’ than a true [...] Continue reading →

Some of us are doing things for the Emerging Writers’ Festival this week. If you aren’t already booked out with EWF coolness, it would be nice to see you.
Sam Cooney is hosting a panel on writing family history on Monday night. Maddie Crofts is running a writing workshop on Wednesday night. I’ll be talking about [...] Continue reading →

Today was awesome. I woke up late, I went to Page Parlour, I met someone I’d only ever known via twitter, I went to an art show, I caught up with friends. Day three of the Emerging Writers’Festival saw the Page … Continue reading &#8… Continue reading →

Last night’s opening night of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, The First Word, was an amazing introduction to the festival full of entertainment and thoughts about writing to contemplate for the next two weeks.

The ‘call to arms’ was given by Toni Jordan, romantic literary fiction writer, who spoke wise and inspiring words about how love can inspire writers. The theme of the whole night was about love, which culminated in a hilarious debate between whether love or angst is the best emotion for writing, where three speakers made the case for both love and angst.

This year is the first time Twitter is a major part of the festival and so I was keen to try live-tweeting during the night but I was largely too focussed on what was going on to tweet, which makes it weird that I don’t remember much of the details of last night but did know I enjoyed it.

I was also lucky enough to meet, in the flesh, Jodi Cleghorn who’s the editor of Chinese Whisperings, the collaborative anthology I’m writing for this year.

So today I’m off to a workshop on editing run by Express Media as part of the festival, which I’m pretty sure if my first ever writing workshop. Editing is one of the things I need to work on so this should be a real experience for me.

Last night’s opening night of the Emerging Writers’ Festival, The First Word, was an amazing introduction to the festival full of entertainment and thoughts about writing to contemplate for the next two weeks.

The ‘call to arms’ was given by Toni Jordan, romantic literary fiction writer, who spoke wise and inspiring words about how love can inspire writers. The theme of the whole night was about love, which culminated in a hilarious debate between whether love or angst is the best emotion for writing, where three speakers made the case for both love and angst.

This year is the first time Twitter is a major part of the festival and so I was keen to try live-tweeting during the night but I was largely too focussed on what was going on to tweet, which makes it weird that I don’t remember much of the details of last night but did know I enjoyed it.

I was also lucky enough to meet, in the flesh, Jodi Cleghorn who’s the editor of Chinese Whisperings, the collaborative anthology I’m writing for this year.

So today I’m off to a workshop on editing run by Express Media as part of the festival, which I’m pretty sure if my first ever writing workshop. Editing is one of the things I need to work on so this should be a real experience for me.

Please join us at our special Monash University panel event on Tuesday 18 May from 6pm.

Following an address from the Dean, Professor Rae Frances, the launch will feature a panel discussion titled ‘From Passion to Publication’, where Jen Breach, Natasha Campo, Dan Ducrou and Kevin Patrick will discuss how they turned their personal passions into a publishing contract.

Date: Tuesday 18 May
Time: 6 – 7pm followed by refreshments
Cost: FREE
Venue: Monash University Club, Building 50, Clayton Campus
RSVP: Please register to [email protected]

The Emerging Writers’ Festival will be launching our online program this Saturday, 15 May at the Federation Square Book Market.

To celebrate all things TwitterFEST and EWFonline, we’ll be hosting…

Writing in an online world

We are all connected – but what does that mean for writers? Join Maxine Clarke, Rachael Kendrick, Philip Thiel, Angela Meyer and other special festival guests to talk about writing in an online world.

Plus be the first to see our Emerging Writers’ Festival online program!

Time & place

Saturday 15 May 2010, 2pm
The Atrium @ Federation Square, Melbourne