Events & Festivals
Runs masterclasses with some of the world’s most respected scriptwriters and developers; seminars on craft and genre; mentorship programs and a number of professional initiatives designed to give members opportunity and support in their craft and careers. The AWG also works closely with other industry organisations and government bodies to develop further opportunities for members.
Orange and its surrounding region celebrate the Banjo Paterson Australian Poetry Festival in February every year. The festival celebrates rural Australian poets and bush poetry.
The Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival is unique among Australian writers’ festivals in being situated in the magnificent natural environs of the Bellingen River and Dorrigo World Heritage rainforest. The program focuses exclusively on Australian writers to showcase the diversity of talent in this country.
Bendigo Writers Festival aims to provide a forum to meet and talk about books and writing, and, mostly, to enjoy the conviviality of a festival set in View Street, Bendigo.
Passionate about Indigenous culture, stories and books? Or curious? This is your festival. Blak & Bright is presented by First Nations Australia Writers’ Network, with Australian Poetry, the City of Literature Office, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Express Media, the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Small Press Network, the Wheeler Centre and Writers Victoria. Indigenous writing is relevant and exciting to literature lovers and readers everywhere.
Child Writes is a program which nurtures literacy and creativity. It gives children a voice by offering primary school aged children the opportunity to write and illustrate their own children’s picture books. These books are published by boutique publisher Boogie Books.
The weekend celebrates the life of CJ Dennis through a small, but unique literary festival. The main focus of the Festival is the award presentation for the CJ Dennis Literary Awards and the Max Fatchen Literary Awards for Children’s Poetry Writing. The CJ Dennis Literary Awards Competition runs from January-July each year. Awards are for poetry and short stories. Check with organisers to confirm dates.
Each year, professionals from music, film, advertising, digital and the visual arts travel to Margaret River to share recent developments in their disciplines as well as emerging trends in a series of workshops and talks. Bringing together creatives from a wide range of areas, the four-day event encourages participants to look beyond their own specialisation and broaden their thinking.
The Emerging Writers’ Festival Roadshow comes to the NSW Writers’ Centre every second year, bringing a lively mix of panels, discussions, useful information and performances. The day concludes with networking drinks.
The books are available as print books, and as downloadable e-books. See website to purchase.
Fresh Ink is ATYP’s development program for emerging playwrights. Across the year, through a range of masterclasses, workshops, one-to-one mentoring opportunites and our annual National Studio, we work with young writers to develop their work and appreciation of the craft of writing for the stage.
First held in 1958, the Festival fosters the arts in Grenfell and Australia-wide. Winners in the Grenfell Henry Lawson Literary Competition are announced at the festival.
Writing for children or young adults? The NSW Writers’ Centre Kids and Young Adult Literature Festival is all about stories for young people, from picture books to young adult fiction, scriptwriting to theatre, fantasy to horror. Speakers include writers, illustratiors and publishers and agents who talk about the kind of work they are looking for.
The KSP Open Day gives you the chance to introduce yourselves and friends to the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre, pick up information flyers on upcoming events and programs, mingle with WA writers, listen to readings, chat with the Management Committee about your ideas for the Centre, and join a conducted National Heritage Tour of the house and gardens.
PlayWriting Australia is the national peak body for playwriting with a mission to support the development and promotion of great new Australian writing for performance. We work to discover creative artists, improve and enhance playwrights’ skills and boost national networks in order to see more Australian work on stage and in print.
New Voices Festival in July showcases first time published writers and poets in conversation with well established writers. The sessions focus on the art and craft of writing and getting published. The forums aim to provide public speaking experience for the writers and inspiration for aspiring wordsmiths.
Part of the New Zealand International Arts Festival. Aims to present a selection of top writers from New Zealand and around the world. Closely resembles literary events such as the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, and focuses on fiction, poetry and serious non-fiction (history, biography etc). Approximately 16 international writers and many New Zealand writers participate in six days of stimulating and thought-provoking panels, readings, and lectures, along with book launches and other functions. Participants are selected by a committee made up of writers an…
Next Wave Festival is dedicated to nurturing our culture and contemporary ideas into the twenty-first century, supporting the work of a new generation of Australian artists and encouraging young people to engage with the Arts. Events presented across performance, visual arts, text and sound.
Since 1998 the NT Writers’ Centre has presented the NT Writers’ Festival annually, alternating between Darwin (Wordstorm) and Alice Springs. With a thousand miles between locations, the festival shifts from the tropics to the desert, from wet to dry, from coastal to inland, from Larrakia to Arrernte country, creating a kind of contrasting tone or character between festivals which reflects something of the diversity – environmental, cultural and social – of the Northern Territory itself. The Festival is unique in Australia for profiling Indigenous Austral…
Omega Writers exists to educate, support and inspire Australasian Christian writers towards excellence, impacting society with grace and truth. We want our words to change the world.
Perth International Arts Festival curates and presents an annual arts festival of the highest international quality. PIAF aspires to create new work and stimulate discourse about Western Australia and our place in a complex and political world. As a sub-strand of PIAF, the Perth Writers Festival aims to showcase and celebrate the written and spoken word. Participants include poets, novelists, social commentators, filmmakers, artists and musicians.
A biennial festival held in odd years and previously known as the Ipswich Festival of Children’s Literature. The mid-week programme is designed for students and families and is free, attracting around 6000 students. The weekend conference programme is aimed at adults with a low entry fee. It is a small conference held at Woodlands of Marburg, 45 mins from Brisbane, Qld and has some onsite accommodation. The festival includes authors and illustrators from all over Australia.
Supanova Pop Culture Expo, since 2000, is where the adoring public comes face to face with Supa-Star celebrities and the creative talent that inspire their imaginary worlds under one big roof. Gathered from comic books, animation/cartoons, science-fiction, pulp TV/movies, toys, console gaming, trading cards, fantasy, entertainment technology, books, internet sites and fan-clubs.