We are so excited to introduce EWF’s new Operations Manager, Margherita Dellantonio. We sat down and chatted with Margherita so you can get to know her better.

Read on for the full interview!

Hey Margherita, we’re so excited to have you on the EWF 2026 team, as Operations Manager. We’d love for our community to get to know you better – please tell us about a little bit yourself!   

Hi! I am really excited to be part of the team and contribute to creating another edition of EWF. About myself, I come from a town in the Italian Alps, but I have lived for a long time in Rome before finally moving to Naarm and making it my new home. Yet, I still miss having the mountains all around me and enjoy hikes and nature escapades as much as possible. I am lucky to be able to grow food in the city, which helps me strengthen my relationship to this land.  

For the more ‘serious’ part, I have a background in art history, performing arts studies and publishing. Theatre has been my professional and emotional home for a long time, still is in some ways, but the literary world is another great passion and the space I now want to inhabit. I believe in the power of art and stories to change the world for the better, and stories come in all sorts of different forms, including the written word of course. 

So, what drew you to the Emerging Writers’ Festival? And, being part of the team this year, is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to? 

As I was saying stories, words and books have always played a big role in my life. I feel that my role in the art is to support artists in creating meaningful content, and I am especially drawn to new, bold voices, so EWF is the perfect fit! 

I mainly look forward to enter and explore the Australian writing community – in all its meanings and facets – and learn from all the encounters. But I am also eager to further develop my organisational skills and bring my perspective and background to the table. 

Since EWF is a literary fest, we’re obliged to ask what kind of literature catches your attention? 

I like to read eclectically, and I always tend to have some fiction and non-fiction books on the go at the same time. 

I am often drawn to literary fiction and stories that deal with all aspects of human nature. I love books that make me think and reflect on the world around me, and learn about all the different ways we can exist in the world. I am also really passionate about literature in translation – which as a non-native English speaker I always considered just literature – as I like to be taken to unexpected places and cultures. 

What kind of stories have been cluttering your bedside table or filling up your watchlist lately?  

My bedside table is about to crack under the pile of books I am trying to get to… as probably anyone with the same reading passion, the list is never ending. 

Lately though I stepped out of my comfort zone and I am reading some feminist and anarchist science fiction, which is usually not a genre I am drawn to – science fiction, that is. I have been reading lots of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin and I have just started Woman on the edge of time by Marge Piercy. 

In terms of non-fiction I finally got my hands back on Caliban and the witch by Silvia Federici, which I had started some years ago. An incredible essay that analyses the rise of capitalism through a feminist lens, identifying witch hunt as key event in the development of modern capitalist society, working class, and gender divide.

Margherita Dellantonio is Operations Manager for the 2026 Emerging Writers’ Festival, which is running 10-18 September 2026.

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