All Our Workshops are Now ON SALE!

Bookings are open for the Melbourne Writers Festival Workshop Program. The Festival celebrates the fact that we’re a city of readers and writers, by offering audiences a fantastic range of workshops, masterclasses and seminars with our visiting authors. 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.

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 the MWF website. Masterclasses and workshops are limited to just 14 participants so those classes tend to book out very quickly.

This year’s workshops include:

Tom Rob Smith (UK) 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 (UK)

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.

Details and bookings for the 2009 MWF Professional Development Sessions.

Nearly finished

Whilst Louise and her Tim-Tam-eating volunteers were spending their weekend stuffing envelopes to get Steve’s school program out in the mail today (yahoo!),  I was blockaded in my office for a marathon long weekend of plotting and planning.  And the result?  The program is stunning.  Can I say that about my own program? I think I can because the program’s strength is, of course, the writers who are taking part. And, this year more than in the past, I’ve had a gold-mine of new talent from which to choose. Fabulous young writers from Australia and elsewhere who are writing with breath-taking energy and originality. Many will be featured in this year’s festival – Steven Amsterdam, Reif Larsen, Wells Tower, Andrew Westoll, Petina Gappah and Evie Wyld are some of those bold young voices you’ll be hearing. In the last three years the MWF has seen debut authors blitz the festival’s best-seller list – Alice Pung and Nam Le both out-sold their more experienced colleagues and the festival is developing a reputation for being the best place to find new talent.

There has been a recent campaign to save Salt Publishing, a UK poetry publishing house which was started by John Kinsella and has many Australian poets on its list. The campaign “buy just one book” will save the press from its financial doom through the power of one. After you’ve bought one book from Salt turn your collective financial power to supporting debut writers. Next time you are in Readings make sure you include “just one debut author” in your take-home books. Be there at the beginning when a new career takes off. Be responsible for launching the great writers of the next generation. Get some zing into your life with the freshness of their writing. Impress your friends with your prescience and recommend a debut author as your bookclub ‘read’.  Get hooked.

Rosemary
Fesitval Director