FAQs | EWF’s Open Artist Callout

Keen to be a part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival in 2026? Our Open Artist Callout is open now and closes Friday 6 Feb, 11.59pm. 

Direct from our programming team, here is a rundown of what we would like from YOU in the submission process that can make your application stand out from the crowd!

IS EWF THE RIGHT FESTIVAL FOR ME?

The Emerging Writers’ Festival is a festival for writers. Our artists -and much of our audience- are storytellers of all kinds. Our mission is to champion, develop and promote Australia’s new writing talent. Our core artistic drivers are to provide professional development opportunities to emerging writers, and to support emerging writers to engage new and larger audiences. 

A commitment to diversity, inclusivity and accessibility underpin EWF’s artistic program. Through our annual festival we seek to cultivate a national community of storytellers who are imaginative, explorative, critical, and contemporary.

WHAT IS THE CALLOUT?

Each year we program as many new and emerging artists as possible from the Open Artist Callout. The Callout gives us a great picture of the kinds of ideas, concerns, topics and areas of interests that are in the collective consciousness. 

The Call Out is an opportunity to put yourself on EWF’s radar – even if you’re not programmed in the September festival, we may get in touch with you for an opportunity outside of our annual festival. You never know! 

You’ve already taken a step towards standing out by reading this. Which leads us to our next point… 

WHAT RESEARCH SHOULD I DO? 

Doing research for your EWF application is very important, just like any application process. If you’re not familiar with the festival, have a look through our most recent program. 

Programming shifts yearly in terms of content and format, but we can confirm that there will be: 

• •The National Writers’ Conference 

• •Workshops and Professional Development sessions 

• •Performances  

• •Free events (in the form of workshops, panels, round tables and performances) 

• •Digital projects 

• •New and exciting developments yet to be unveiled!  

We’re looking for ideas that are unique, experimental, educational, innovative, multi-disciplinary and collaborative. Don’t be afraid to dream big! Community is at the heart of everything that we do and is arguably what makes our festival so special 😊  

WHAT DOES ‘EMERGING’ MEAN? 

• •‘Emerging’ is not synonymous with youth! You can be emerging at any age 

• •Can mean that you’re an established writer moving into a different genre or form 

• •Can mean that you’ve recently published your first book 

• •Can mean that you’re just at the beginning of your writing journey 

• •Can mean that you’re not yet published, or that you only have a few publications to your name 

• •Essentially, if you consider yourself ‘emerging’ and you think that you can get something out of the festival, EWF is for you 

WHAT DOES ‘WRITER’ MEAN? 

• •‘Writing’ can come in many different forms. What we’re interested in is storytelling, not necessarily just the written word 

• •Audio and visual forms fall under ‘writing’ in our minds – comic artists, filmmakers, game designers, podcasters, photographers and more are all welcome, as long as your work encompasses storytelling in some shape or form 

• •Equally, if you work in one medium or are specifically interested in the written word, we also want to hear from you 

• •Fiction and nonfiction will always have a place in the festival. Come critics, come playwrights, come poets, come all! 

• •We encourage multidisciplinary approaches, and we’re interested in the intersection between forms, mediums and thematic content 

CAN I APPLY IF I’VE BEEN IN THE FESTIVAL BEFORE? 

Yes, you can still apply if you’ve been in the festival previously. Please keep in mind, however, that being programmed in the past does not increase your chance of being programmed again. If a pitch of yours was developed at a previous festival, please don’t apply with that same pitch again. If there is a common thread or theme in your work, feel free to pitch a different iteration of this topic. 

CAN I APPLY AS AN ORGANISATION OR COLLECTIVE?  

Yes. We have a dedicated stream called EWF X,  where we program events with a select number of collectives (see here for an overview of 2025’s EWF X stream). We also feature collectives throughout the program to run workshops, panel discussions and more!  

CAN I APPLY IF I AM BASED OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA?  

In its current form, EWF is a festival for writers and artists living in Australia, or Australian citizens overseas. If you are a collective or organisation outside of Australia who is interested in working with our festival, please feel free to reach out to our team directly via email to discuss opportunities.

We will not be considering applications from writers based outside of Australia.

THE APPLICATION 

We receive a lot of applications. Even if you think we know you and what you do, please tell us in your own words. Tell us what your strengths are, and think about which topics and streams you have something valuable to contribute to. We also want to know if you’re keen to try something different, or build your skills in an area that you’re not yet super confident in.

We read and re-read these applications, and the information that you give us here helps us figure out where you would best fit into the program. We can’t make decisions with information that isn’t there – include everything you think is relevant to help us decide where to put you in the festival. Pitch as many events as you’d like to, and don’t self-censor your ideas.

We should also mention that we might invite you to be a part of the festival, but not via the event or project you have pitched. Every year we receive more event pitches than we are able to program.  Inviting you to feature in an event that is able to go ahead, and that is relevant to your practice, is our most common form of invitation. This is because we have more artist spots available than events!  

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COMMON MISTAKES: 

• •Not including enough information, or assuming we know you and your practice 

• •Unnecessary information or waffle 

• •Applications that are too general / that don’t have some kind of pitch. Try and be specific as possible about where you see yourself best being placed in the festival 

• •Recycling previous events & lineups in your pitch 

• •We don’t program one person shows/performances or individual book launches, and we generally don’t program magazine/journal launches 

OUR TOP TIPS: 

• •Do your homework. Look at previous festivals and programs; think about how your voice and work fits in with what we do 

• •Be succinct, clear and concise – it’s OK to use dot-points! 

• •You have a higher chance of being programmed if your application includes an event or project pitch. Tell us why this topic and why you?  

• •Think outside the box – don’t just pitch us what you always do, or something that you’ve seen done a hundred times before

• •We aren’t able to provide feedback on applications due to the volume we receive, so be sure to study these FAQs for your best chance at being accepted this year or in future years.

• •We run an artist training session that covers public speaking, workshop facilitation and panel moderating, so don’t be afraid to pitch us something a bit out of your comfort zone. We’ve all gotta start somewhere!

As a non-profit festival, EWF has a very limited budget for travel. At this point in time, we are only able to include a very small number of interstate artists in our festival each year. We wish we could have more!

If you live outside of Victoria and are applying through the Open Artist Callout, you have a higher chance of being programmed with a digital idea, or an event or project that easily translates to the digital sphere. We love to see applications from writers across the continent, so don’t be discouraged from applying. 
 

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The 2026 Emerging Writers’ Festival will take place 10-18 September. Click below to apply to be part of the festival!

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