The Emerging Writers’ Festival work, learn and play largely on the land of the Kulin nation, and pay our respects to their Elders, past and present.

EWF celebrates the history and creativity of the world’s oldest living culture.

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Performance & Creative Performance

Scream Scenes

EWF lands back at Thornbury Picture House on Friday the 13th for a night of ghost stories, and a screening of classic fantasy-horror film, Beetlejuice. Dress up in your phantasmic finest for an evening of spine-tingling tales, from writers and ghouls alike.

Want to attend all four Performance Events across EWF? Check out the ‘Extras’ option below for a special deal!


    Supported by



Accessibility

Wheelchair, accessible toilets, street parking bay

Friday 13 September, 8PM


Thornbury Picture House
802 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071

Featuring...

Tīhema Baker

Tīhema Baker is a Māori writer who descends from the iwi (nations) of Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. His writing often deconstructs the complex interactions between the Māori and Western worlds, based on professional and personal experience. He is the author of satirical sci-fi novel ‘Turncoat’, which parodies the experiences of Māori public servants and was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2024. He is also the author of young adult series ‘The Watchers Trilogy’, and various short stories and essays.

Renay Barker-Mulholland

Renay is a self-described Blak of all trades. Proudly disabled, Biripi / Dunghutti woman, Renay is a visual artist, writer, disability and gender justice advocate.

Nina Culley

Nina Culley is a writer, critic, educator and horror enthusiast based in Naarm. Her arts essays and criticisms have been published in Kill Your Darlings, Liminal, Aniko Press, Mascara Review, among others. Nina is also an active arts and theatre contributor for Time Out Magazine, Limelight and Arts Hub. Her work often centres on Asian literature, delving into themes of intersectionality, the weird, and the fringe.

Frank Lord

Frank Lord is a writer, poet, artist, and editor living at the bottom of the world. They have had three books of poetry published—Seventy-Seven Tales From Urban Psychosis (2016), A Day in the Life (2017), and SCHLOCK!!! (2024)—and they are a regular contributor to the experimental magazine Unusual Work by Collective Effort Press. Their artwork and concrete poetry have been shortlisted and exhibited across Australia in dive bars, expensive galleries and holy holy government buildings. They have seen the future and they are afraid.

John Morrissey

John Morrissey is a Kalkadoon writer living in Melbourne. His debut collection of stories, Firelight, was published in 2023.

Emma Osborne

Emma Osborne is a queer writer and poet from Naarm. Their writing has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Apex Magazine, Pseudopod, PodCastle, the Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, WASTELANDS III edited by John Joseph Adams and HOMETOWN HAUNTS, edited by Poppy Nwosu. Emma is a graduate of the 2016 Clarion West Writers Workshop. They are an Aurealis Award and Australian Shadows award finalist. Their novella THE BEAST YOU’VE MADE OF ME is forthcoming at Interstellar Flight Press. Emma lives in Narrm with their girlfriend and many cats.