This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are. - Plato

In the space of a year a lot has happened. We are now a ten day festival, which operates annually, planning to publish our first book and looking forward to moving into our new home at the new Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas shortly after this year’s festival.

We are also justifiably proud to be a factor in Melbourne becoming a City for Literature. But what does it mean for the writer and especially the emerging writer… when you woke this morning did the words just flow? Did your submissions fall on more welcoming ears? Did readers ring you to ask when they could read or hear your new words? Did your workplace suddenly clean itself and do you find more time than ever before to write… and write. And write.

Many emerging writers hope there will be a clear moment, a happening, that will open all the right doors and then they can unashamedly call themselves a writer. Does this happen? Is the overnight sensation a reality or the result of many long nights? Will you get discovered after one submission? Can you instantly find an agent? In short yes, Of course it can happen

While I am as idealistic as the next person, I do believe that the single one event is always the culmination of lots of other events. Writers make their luck and constantly looking for opportunities makes the path towards declaring yourself a writer a clear and rewarding one.

Melbourne as a City of Literature isn’t the single defining moment in anyone’s career, including this Festival’s, but rather it is one of the many opportunities we are provided with. How we embrace it as writers is, as with all things in this world of writing we live in, up to us.

Within the ten days of the Emerging Writers’ festival there is a lot of opportunity for emerging writers to find inspiration, to reinvigorate their desire to be the best writers they can be as well as enjoy the work of some of the finest writers you haven’t heard of…yet

David Ryding
2009 Festival Director