Tuesday 16 September, 1PM-2PM
Open Air
(Anti) Literary
Writing circles can feel like exclusive clubs—hard to crack and harder to belong.
Hear emerging writers share their struggles to access these spaces and the exhausting gymnastics of fitting in. Unite in dissecting the rat race of performative wine-and-cheese readings, curated bios, and the tension between art and capitalism.
Pay-What-You-Wish
Say Cheese, Trocadero Arcade
Shop 6/119 Hopkins St, Footscray VIC 3011
Ronia Ibrahim
Ronia Ibrahim is a writer, artist and designer residing in Melbourne. Her work is interested in exploring modes of storytelling across poetry, non fiction and performance. She has had her work featured across Australia and New Zealand, including Overland, Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal, Starling, Bankstown Art Centre, Pantograph Punch and the Te Papa Chinese Languages […]
Suri Matondkar
Suri Matondkar is a writer and doctoral student interested in language and identity. She was a 2024 Hot Desk Fellow at the Wheeler Centre and was awarded the 2025 Eric Dark Flagship fellowship by Varuna, The National Writers’ House. Her work has been shortlisted for the Island Nonfiction Prize and the Catalyse Nonfiction Prize and […]
Mabel Gibson
Mabel Gibson is a twenty five year old yamitji writer. Mabel grew up in boorloo (Perth), kinjarling (Albany), and jambinu (Geraldton) – three vastly different locations, whose landscapes and climates all play an important role in Mabel’s story. Crybaby is Mabel’s debut book, a collection of micro memoirs, that follows her through all the seasons […]
Imogen Lenore Williams
Imogen Lenore Williams is a writer and all round busy bee living in Melbourne, on land of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri people. Imogen is completing her final undergraduate year at Swinburne University, studying Creative Writing, Marketing and History, while working as Social Media Marketer for Glen Eira Cheltenham Art Group and as an English Tutor. […]
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Saturday 13 September, 2PM-3PM
From the Chrysalis
Surrounded by living symbols of metamorphosis, writers share from their own cocoons — tender, raw, and reverent.
Saturday 20 September, 2pm- 4PM
Memory Before Eyes: A Walking & Writing Workshop with Blak & Bright
Join Taungurung Elder Uncle Larry Walsh and his daughter Isobel Morphy-Walsh for a meander through the arts precinct of the city, pointing out sites that link to the cultural memory of Naarm.
Following the walk, Uncle Larry and Isobel will lead a writing workshop, taking inspiration from the history, memory and narrative that exists all around us.
Thursday 18 September, 9AM-10:30AM
Impermanently Yours: Poetic Therapy for Loss
Be guided through creative group exercises, meditation & prompted writing to distill wounds into a medicinal elegy.
Sunday 14 September, 4:15PM-5:15PM
National Writers’ Conference
NWC: Currents and Trends
To close out the NWC for another year, booksellers, publishers, editors and agents come together to discuss the literary landscape of 2025 and beyond…
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