2009 MWF Professional Development

The Melbourne Writers Festival celebrates the fact that we’re a city of readers and writers, by offering audiences a fantastic range of workshops and seminars with our visiting guests. When bringing writers from around the world (and around Australia), it seems unwise not to utilise their knowledge and thus our program of Workshops & Seminars has been developed to develop our local talents.

In 2009 the MWF is continuing to run both workshops and masterclasses, a seminar series and The Whole Shebang – our very popular day for those seeking to begin their writing career.

Workshops are for all-comers, no matter what their level of experience, while masterclasses are for those with some record of publishing success.

More details will be found on our website when the program is launched.

This year’s workshops include:

Tom Rob Smith (US) on Commerce & Creativity
Lisa Lutz (US) on Giving Voice to Unique Characters
Kate de Goldi (NZ) on Writing Fiction for Children
Wells Tower (Canada) on Writing Short Stories
Jessa Crispin (US) on Being a Critic During the Death of Print
Wayson Choy (Canada) on The Secrets of Memoir Writing – Truth or Consequences?

Our masterclasses include:

John Boyne (UK) on Historical Fiction
M J Hyland (UK) on How to Write Good Fiction – From First Draft to Last
Philip Hensher (UK) on Building Character

Our seminars include:

Aspects of the Novel, with Philip Hensher (UK) & Wayson Choy (Canada)
Aspects of Fantasy with Margo Lanagan (NSW)
Aspects of History with Glen David Gold (US) & Alexander Waugh (UK)
Aspects of Thrillers & Mysteries with Jewell Rhodes (US) and Tom Rob Smith (US)

Finally, to give an insight into the world of publishing, the festival runs The Whole Shebang, our intensive day-long workshop for emerging writers. This is a very popular day and features conversations on the author–editor relationship, grant writing, ways to get published and how to create you own success, in addition to presentations from all the key organisations. This day is an essential starting point for all those wanting to begin their writing career.

Steve
Associate Director