Be Part of the Young Writers Festival
If you’re a writer (or at all interested in making books, magazines, zines and whatnot), it’s likely you already know the National Young Writers Festival as the funnest and most inspiring writer-type event in the whole country.
What you may not know is how easy it is to be part of it. If you have any ideas for events, projects, workshops or discussions, or you’d just like to be considered as a participating artist, now’s the time to get moving. The festival is calling for submissions of all kinds right now. If you’re interested, head to youngwritersfestival.org and fill in the online submission form before Saturday, March 31.
The festival is held as part of the This Is Not Art (TINA) Festival in Newcastle on the NSW Labour Day weekend each year, which in 2012 is 29 September to October 3. Lonely Planet ranks TINA as the third-best thing to do in all of Australia/Pacific, and they know a thing or two about things to do.
The festival comprises of panels, readings, workshops, and a mentoring scheme and has fostered writers like Marieke Hardy, John Safran and Benjamin Law.
This year, in addition to the festival’s usual smorgasbord of panels, readings and events, the directors of the 2012 NYWF are going to throw the spotlight on what’s getting Australia’s many writing communities most excited, with the inauguration of four new initiatives:
- an umbrella event in the streets and windows of Newcastle, showcasing the work of Australia’s most exciting young book designers and the best 300 words from every writer in the festival;
- a radio stream which will showcase the best of Australia’s storytelling nights, new writing for radio, and aural history projects.
- a scratch stream where established young writers of poetry, performance and prose will read fresh drafts alongside you reading yours;
- a practical stream featuring intimate submissions-based masterclasses run by young writers at the top of their fields, larger open workshops, commissioned collaborative writing projects and a Co-Lab of residency opportunities for writers and interstate artist, musician, or performer collaborators with showings on the final day;
If you have any ideas for events, projects, workshops, or discussions that might support or compliment the above, get cracking at youngwritersfestival.org.