It’s time to get together and celebrate the new, young and emerging writers of Australia, with writing’s night of nights. Hosted by Justin Heazlewood (aka the Bedroom Philosopher), we invite you to join us for an evening of powerful performances and the presentation of two of Australia’s premier prizes for emerging writers.

We are proud to be announcing the winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, with the big announcement and powerful words from last year’s winner Maxine Beneba Clarke.

The festival will also announce the winner of the Monash University Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing, discovering the best creative writing student from Australia and New Zealand.

There will be a kicking keynote by US-based poet and EWF international guest Derrick Brown! The New York Times called Derrick’s book Strange Light “a rekindling of faith in the weird, hilarious, shocking, beautiful power of words.” His keynote will no doubt do the same and set the tone for the rest of the fest!