
The Early Words: BYO Dreams
Join writer and artist Chi Tran as they guide you through some early morning writing prompts centered around the theme of ‘dreams’.

The Early Words: Poetry and Play
** SOLD OUT **
Join poet Panda Wong to play a morning round of poetry.

The Early Words: Responding to Art
** CANCELLED **
Join writer and artist Eloise Grills for a workshop on both observing and creating art in new, conversational ways.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian writer, broadcaster, and award-winning social advocate.
Asiel Adan Sanchez
Asiel Adan Sanchez is a certified chingona living in Naarm.
Freya Alexander
Freya Alexander is a queer writer, multidisciplinary artist and educator living and working in Naarm.
Jessica Alice
Jessica Alice is a writer and artistic director/CEO from Melbourne’s west living on Kaurna Yerta in Adelaide, South Australia.
Susie Anderson
Susie Anderson is a writer of Wergaia/Wemba Wemba and British descent living on Boon Wurrung land.
Eunice Andrada
Eunice Andrada is a Filipina poet, educator, and organizer.
Evelyn Araluen
Evelyn Araluen is a poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Evelyn’s debut collection Dropbear was shortlisted for the 2021 Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection and won the 2022 Stella Prize.
Adolfo Aranjuez
Adolfo Aranjuez is an editor, writer, speaker and dancer.
Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Beth Atkinson-Quinton is a broadcaster, audio producer and co-founder of podcast collective Broadwave, living and creating on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Tuesday Atzinger
Tuesday is a poet and writer living and studying on unceded Wurundjeri Land.
Timmah Ball
Timmah Ball is a writer, zinemaker and researcher of Ballardong Noongar heritage.
Renay Barker-Mulholland
Renay Barker-Mulholland is an artist, writer, and creator. Renay is a proud disabled, Biripi / Dungutti woman, and a staunch feminist who is dedicated to fighting for disability justice.
Kelly Bartholomeusz
Kelly Bartholomeusz (she/her) is a writer based in Melbourne on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people.
Selene Bateman
Selene Bateman is a highly regarded arts administrator, producer and project manager who has worked in the creative sector for nearly 20 years.
Tamryn Bennett
Tamryn Bennett is a poet, artist and Director of Red Room Poetry living on unceded Dharawal lands.
Sermsah Bin Saad
Sermsah Bin Saad’s name in the Indigenous community is synonymous with theatre, television, film, festival circuits, opera, dance and choreography.
Tony Birch
Tony Birch is the author of three novels: The White Girl, Ghost River, and Blood. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, ‘Father’s Day’, ‘The Promise’ and ‘Common People’.
Alice Bishop
Alice Bishop’s collection of short fiction A Constant Hum is out via Text Publishing.
Emily Bitto
Emily Bitto’s debut novel, The Strays, was written as part of a PhD in creative writing at the University of Melbourne.
Andrew Brooks
Andrew Brooks is a writer, artist, and teacher who lives on unceded Wangal land.
Tara Calaby
Tara Calaby lives in Gippsland, Australia with her wife and far too many books.
Claire Cao
Claire Cao is a writer and critic from Western Sydney, with a focus on screen, literature and contemporary art.
Thu Care
Thu Care is a sound artist and storyteller who lives on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri and Boon-wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation.
Julia Carlomagno
Julia Carlomagno is the publisher at Monash University Press.
Ennis Ćehić
Ennis Ćehić focuses on ideas of displacement, creativity and existentialism.
Zhi
Zhi is an experimental poet/artist based on unceded Ngunnawal, Ngunawal, Ngambri country.
Grace Chan
Grace Chan is an Aurealis and Norma K Hemming Award-nominated speculative fiction writer
Shu-Ling Chua
Shu-Ling Chua is a Melbourne-based essayist, critic and poet.
Bigoa Chuol
bigoa is a South Sudanese writer, independent Creative Producer and Curator living on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.
Paige Clark
Paige Clark is a Chinese/American/Australian fiction writer, researcher and teacher.
Greer Clemens
Greer Clemens is a writer, arts worker, and musician.
Jase Cordova
Jase Cordova is a writer, editor, and podcaster residing in Meanjin.
Paul Dalla Rosa
Paul Dalla Rosa is the author of An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life.
Hannah Debus
Hannah Debus is a writer and artist who lives and works on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia.
Alejandro del Castillo
Alejandro del Castillo (1987) is a Mexican writer, publisher, and translator.
Gloria Demillo
Gloria Demillo (they/them) is a poet and multidisciplinary creative.
aminata diallo
aminata (pronoun is ami) is a yoga teacher and embodiment practitioner.
Jennifer Down
Jennifer Down is the acclaimed author of Bodies of Light (2021), Pulse Points (2017) and Our Magic Hour (2016), published by Text.
Camila Egusquiza
Camila Egusquiza is a Peruvian writer and aspiring journalist.
Sam Elkin
Sam Elkin (he/him) is a writer and radio maker.
Heidi Everett
Heidi Everett is a writer, award winning multidisciplinary artist, independent producer, mental health and neurodivergent advocate based in Melbourne/on Wurundjeri Country.
Isabella Fels
My name is Isabella fels and I’m truly passionate about exploring my schizophrenia through writing.
Sol Fernandez
Sol Fernandez is a South Asian multidisciplinary storyteller, maker and mother from South East Naarm.
Lara Fielding
Lara Fielding lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri Country.
Bastian Fox Phelan
Bastian Fox Phelan is a writer, musician and zine maker living in Mulubinba Newcastle on Awabakal land.
Naomi Fryers
Naomi Fryers is a widely published writer, author and storyteller.
Lisa Fuller
Lisa Fuller is a Murri woman from Queensland, who has lived on Ngunnawal and Ngambri lands (Canberra) since 2006.
Suzy Garcia
Suzy Garcia is a writer, bookseller and the deputy editor at Kill Your Darlings.
Lou Garcia-Dolnik
Lou Garcia-Dolnik is a poet and editor working on unceded Gadigal land.
Katerina Gibson
Katerina Gibson’s short stories have appeared in Granta, Overland, Meanjin, and the Kill Your Darlings 2020 New Australian Fiction anthology, among other places.
Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker
Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker is a Nyungar technologist and digital rights activist.
Glom Press
Glom Press is an award-winning comics publisher and for-hire risograph press, operating out of Preston, Victoria.
Elena Gomez
Elena Gomez is the author of Admit the Joyous Passion of Revolt, Crushed Silk and Body of Work, and several chapbooks and pamphlets.
Ana Maria Gomides
Ana Maria Gomides is a CrazySexyCool storyteller currently existing on Wurundjeri country.
Kathleen Gonzalez
Kathleen Gonzalez is a Melbourne-based Colombian contemporary artist, cultural art producer, ethno dance writer, artistic director and founder of Tunjos y Cantaros Ethnologic Dance Company & Ethnodanceology.
Alaina Gougoulis
Alaina Gougoulis is a senior editor at Text Publishing. She has worked on books by Jennifer Down, Gail Jones, Ellena Savage, Davina Bell, Kavita Bedford, among many others.
Rory Green
Rory Green is a writer, editor and digital media artist living and working on unceded Gadigal land.
Eloise Grills
Eloise Grills is an award-winning writer, comics artist and poet living on Dja Dja Wurrung country.
Eda Gunaydin
Eda Gunaydin is a Turkish-Australian writer and researcher interested in class, race and diaspora.
Ryan Gustafsson
Ryan Gustafsson is a writer and researcher who lives and works on Wurundjeri land.
Francis Hadid
Francis Hadid is a community carer, working predominantly with children and food.
Sophie Hamley
Sophie Hamley has worked as a bookseller, editor, writer, content producer and web producer.
Chelsea Hart
Chelsea is a writer living and working on Wurundjeri land.
Tristen Harwood
Tristen is an Indigenous writer, critic, editor and researcher.
Amani Haydar
Amani Haydar is an award-winning writer, visual artist, lawyer and advocate for women’s health and safety based in Western Sydney.
Mali Hermans
Mali Hermans (she/they) is a disabled and neurodivergent Koori and European woman living in Meanjin/Brisbane.
Natasha Hertanto
Natasha Hertanto is a Chinese-Indonesian storyteller and dog-mom based in Naarm.
Jenny Hickinbotham
Jenny Hickinbotham is a writer of poetry, song, fiction, academic articles; Jenny performs her creativity.
Ruby Hillsmith
Ruby Hillsmith is a writer, editor and poet based in Melbourne, on Wurundjeri land.
Tori Hobbs
Tori Hobbs (they/them) is a queer, disabled, Burgher writer and care worker living on Ngunnawal, Ngunawal and Ngambri land.
Maya Hodge
Maya Hodge is a Lardil and Yangkaal poet, curator and creative based on the lands of the Kulin Nation.
Dan Hogan
Dan Hogan is a non-binary working class writer and public school teacher from San Remo (Awabakal and Darkinjung Country).
Hasib Hourani
Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, and arts worker living on unceded Wurundjeri Country.
William Huang
William Huang is a writer whose work focuses on psychological states, a sense of place and ambience, and which borrows freely from his fascination with electronic and ambient music in particular.
Sue-Anne Hunter
Ms Sue-Anne Hunter is a Wurundjeri and Ngurai illum Wurrung woman, Deputy Chair and Commissioner for the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Hyphira
Hyphira is a composer, producer and audio engineer from Naarm (Melbourne), whose practice is centred upon the hybridisation of bodies and the digital world.
Hella Ibrahim
Hella Ibrahim is an editor with a passion for activism through the Arts.
Schizy Inc
Schizy Inc is a disability led arts NFP collective based in Melbourne/on Wurundjeri.
Eric Jiang
Eric Jiang is a Chinese-Australian writer/director living and creating in Sydney.
Simone Amelia Jordan
Simone Amelia Jordan is a prize-winning writer, journalist and host, who works as Director Of Special Projects for Media Diversity Australia.
Saanjana Kapoor
Saanjana Kapoor is a Bachelor of Arts student at the University of Melbourne.
Georgia Kartas
Georgia Kartas/Saint Jorge is a poet whose research explores the relationship between quantum physics and metaphysics, as a pathway to radical re-worlding.
Gurmeet Kaur
Gurmeet Kaur is a writer and poet from London, living in Wurundjeri country.
Jessica Knight
Jessica Knight is a writer based in Naarm. last year she was a recipient of an arts accelerate create grant from arts access Victoria to work on her first book.
Sabina Knox
Sabina Knox is a Queer Disabled maker of all things, sometimes finishing them and sometimes they will live on the shelf of good ideas never to see the light of day.
Akuch Kuol Anyieth
Akuch Kuol Anyieth is a graduate researcher in crime, justice and legal studies.
Kim Lam
Kim is a Vietnamese-Australian illustrator and writer living in Narrm.
Jamie Marina Lau
Jamie Marina Lau is a writer, multidisciplinary artist and the author of Pink Mountain on Locust Island and Gunk Baby.
Jes Layton
Jes Layton is a writer, content creator, freelancer and artist, who has appeared in a number of writers festivals including National Young Writers’ Festival, Sydney Writers’ Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival and Emerging Writers’ Festival among others.
Jacinta Le Plastrier
Jacinta Le Plastrier is a poet, writer and editor who lives and writes on Boonwurrung Country.
Tabitha Lean
Tabitha (or as her ancestors know her, Budhin Mingaan) is a Gunditjmara storyteller, poet and abolition activist, born and raised on Kaurna yerta.
Jeanine Leane
Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic from southwest New South Wales.
Carissa Lee
Carissa Lee is a First Nations actor and writer based in Narrm, and First Nations Commissioning Editor for The Conversation.
Iris Lee
Iris Lee is a white settler trans woman, 3CR community radio producer and writer.
Bella Li
Bella Li is the author of three books with Vagabond Press, and is the associate publisher at Cordite Books and the managing editor at Scribe Publications.
Littlefoot & co
Littlefoot and Company are a Creative Events and Art Therapy company.
Astrid Lorange
Astrid Lorange is a teacher, writer, editor, and artist.
Joshua Jon Lynch
Joshua Jon Lynch is a proud Ngaati Te Wehi poet and dancer exploring what it means to be in a body that is both flesh and story — colonised & coloniser; queer & straight; here & there.
Elena Macdonald
Elena works, studies and creates between Naarm, and Trouwunna/lutruwita.
Gemma Mahadeo
Gemma Mahadeo moved to Australia in 1987. Their written work and multimedia work has been published nationally, both online and in print.
Rhoda Makur
Rhoda Nyakor Makur is an unapologetic South Sudanese multidisciplinary artist living on Wurundjeri country.
Chantelle McColl
Chantelle McColl (24) is a writer and editor based in Melbourne, Narrm, who specialises in video game analysis and experimental writing.
Jasmin McGaughey
Jasmin is a Torres Strait Islander and African American writer and editor.
Caitlin McGregor
Caitlin McGregor is an essayist, editor and critic living on unceded Jaara land.
Laura McPhee-Browne
Laura McPhee-Browne is a writer, social worker and counsellor living in Melbourne, on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Catriona Menzies-Pike
Catriona Menzies-Pike is the editor of the Sydney Review of Books.
Georgia Mill
Georgia Mill is a writer and artist based in Melbourne.
Nina Mingya Powles
Nina Mingya Powles is a writer, zinemaker and librarian from Aotearoa, currently living in London.
m00ncup
Serving you a heady cocktail of flirty pop, nostalgic noughties, funky disco and house, m00ncup is all about tracks that make you want to boogie.
Gareth Morgan
Gareth Morgan is the author of When A Punk Becomes A Spunk and Dear Eileen.
Brigid Mullane
Brigid Mullane is a commissioning editor at Ultimo Press. She previously worked at Hachette where she was the Managing Editor.
Gabriella Munoz
Gabriella Munoz is a Mexican-Australian writer and editor.
Kalarni Murray
I am a storyteller, artist and creator.
Kalem Murray
Kalem Murray is an award-winning writer, editor and voice-over artist.
Monique Nair
Monique Nair is Naarm based writer and editor of Indian-Italian-Polish heritage exploring diaspora experiences, language, coming of age narratives and questions of identity and meaning.
Adalya Nash Hussein
Adalya Nash Hussein is a writer and editor.
Jo Newman
Jo Newman is a chronically ill Yamatji writer from Boorloo (Perth).
Nadia Niaz
Nadia Niaz is the founding editor of the Australian Multilingual Writing Project, an online journal publishing creative work that combines multiple languages.
Mia Nie
Mia Nie is a Chinese-Australian comic artist, zine-maker, and award-nominated ex-poet.
Genevieve Novak
Genevieve Novak is a writer from Melbourne. She writes romantic comedies, content, and really long text messages.
Jessica Obersby
Jessica is the Writeability Program Manager for Writers Victoria.
Luke Patterson
Luke Patterson is a Gamilaroi poet, folklorist and musician living on Gadigal lands.
Hiếu Phung
Hiếu (he/him) is a patient ocean and a deep listener.
Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh
Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh is a writer, producer and arts worker living and creating on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Tom Polachek
Tom Polachek enjoys writing as a song lyricist.
Adam Pollock
Adam Pollock is Com/passionate about full healing from extra/non ordinary states of consciousness through all art mediums.
Jinghua Qian
Jinghua Qian has been a performance poet, a radio broadcaster, a television journalist, and an arts critic.
Vanessa Radnidge
Vanessa is the Head of Narrative Non-Fiction and Head of Literary at Hachette and her passion is for connecting great storytellers and great stories with readers.
Christopher Raja
Christopher Raja is the author of a memoir, Into the Suburbs: A Migrant’s Story (UQP, 2020), a play The First Garden (Currency Press, 2012) and a novel, The Burning Elephant, (Giramondo, 2015).
Harry Reid
Harry Reid is the author of the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend (Puncher & Wattman, 2020) and a co-director of sick leave.
Rebekah Robertson
Rebekah Hawthorne Robertson works in Project Investment at the Australia Council for the Arts, the Commonwealth Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
Ursula Robinson-Shaw
Ursula Robinson-Shaw is a writer living in Naarm.
Julia Rose Bąk
Julia Rose Bąk is a queer, Māori-Polish writer, researcher, organiser and abolitionist who grew up in Boorloo and now resides in Narrm
Jane Rosengrave
Jane Rosengrave is a proud Yorta Yorta woman and disability advocate.
Polly Sara
Polly is a Queer, Chilean-Syrian immigrant who makes art because BIG fucking love is simply too big to hold alone.
Mykaela Saunders
Mykaela Saunders is an award-winning Koori and Lebanese writer, teacher, community researcher and the editor of THIS ALL COME BACK NOW.
Melanie Saward
Melanie Saward is a proud descendant of the Bigambul and Wakka Wakka peoples.
Ian See
Ian See has worked in editing and publishing for more than a decade, and is currently an editor at Text Publishing.
Hayley Singer
Hayley Singer teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Melbourne.
Ella Skilbeck-Porter
Ella Skilbeck-Porter is a poet and PhD candidate in French Studies at the University of Melbourne.
Anita Solak
Anita Solak is a poet, writer and editor living and working on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Marc Sorbello
I am Marc Sorbello I have attended Way Out West Art classes for 15 years
Carlos Soto-Román
Carlos Soto-Román is a poet and translator.
Veronica Sullivan
Veronica Sullivan is the Head of Programming at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, and the chair of the Custodial Committee of the Kat Muscat Fellowship.
Michael Sun
Michael Sun is a critic and essayist based on Gadigal land / Sydney who loves beautiful dogs and ugly fonts.
Emily Sun
Emily Sun is an emerging writer who lives and works on the unceded lands of the Noongar Whadjuk people. Her works have been published in various anthologies and journals including Meanjin, Cordite, Westerly, and Growing up Asian in Australia.
Bo Svoronos
Bo is currently completing his first novel, he’s self published short stories and poetry, had a foray into writing for live performance, theatre and cabaret and been commissioned to research and develop various tours and projects.
Cher Tan
Cher Tan is an essayist, critic and editor.
Christy Tan
Christy Tan has been published in Cordite Poetry Review, The Suburban Review, Australian Poetry, Runway Journal, Going Down Swinging and Peril Magazine, amongst others
Margot Tanjutco
Margot Tanjutco is a writer, director, and actor.
Alexander Te Pohe
Alexander Te Pohe is a Māori trans man living on Whadjuk Noongar Land.
Anne-Marie Te Whiu
Anne-Marie Te Whiu is a poet, cultural producer, weaver and Senior Project Manager at Red Room Poetry.
Maggie Toko
Maggie Toko is a Standup Comedian, Singer, Writer and all round Mental Health Advocate.
Chi Tran
Chi Tran is a writer, editor and filmmaker interested in thinking about language as an active lifeform, and as a site for devotion and prayer.
Thabani Tshuma
Thabani Tshuma is a Zimbabwean writer and performance poet.
Aviva Tuffield
Aviva is a publisher at UQP and has worked in Australian publishing for over twenty years. Previously she has worked at Black Inc, Affirm Press and Scribe Publications.
Michel Paul Tuomy
Michel Paul Tuomy is a playwright who identifies with the lived experience of schizophrenia.
Hannah Turner
Hannah is a 26 year old writer living with complex chronic illnesses.
Abigail Ulman
Abigail Ulman is a writer from Melbourne.
Sam van der Plank
Sam is Publishing Officer at Monash University Publishing, where he – among various other duties – helps coordinate the submissions and acquisitions process.
Ellen van Neerven
Ellen van Neerven is the author of three books: Heat and Light, Comfort Food and Throat, as well as the forthcoming Personal Score.
Sam van Zweden
Sam van Zweden is a Melbourne-based writer interested in memory, food, mental health and the body.
Nikki Viveca
Nikki Viveca is a multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses poetry, standup comedy, theatre, improv and burlesque.
Dženana Vucic
Dženana Vucic is a Bosnian-Australian writer, poet and critic.
Allison Walker
Involved in all kinds of things to do with sound, Allison works in lots of areas across the audio landscape: she is a composer, audio engineer, live coder, sound designer for games, and a very average drummer.
Bella Waru
Bella Waru (Ngati Tukorehe // Te Ati Awa) is a movement and sound artist, cultural producer, performer, weaver, community arts facilitator and body worker living, listening and responding across sacred, unceded Indigenous lands, currently those of the Kulin Nation in so-called-australia.
Chloe Wilson
Chloe Wilson is the author of the short story collection Hold Your Fire, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Glenda Adams Award in the NSW Premiers Awards.
Beau Windon
Beau Windon is a neurodivergent writer of Wiradjuri heritage based in Naarm.
Panda Wong
Panda Wong is a poet. She is also an Associate Editor at The Suburban Review, a Performance Review board member and a 2020 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellow.
Fiona Wright
Fiona Wright is a writer, editor and critic.
Michelle Write
Michelle Write (Vasiliu) is an established children’s author who is venturing out as a novice into the world of adult performance writing, in particular spoken word, theatre and screen writing.
Hannah Wu
Hannah Wu is a writer and musician from Aotearoa, studying on unceded Wurundjeri land.
Jess Zanoni
Jess Zanoni is a writer and musician living on Wurundjeri land.








Gabriel Gallery, Footscray Community Arts
Get directions
45 Moreland Street
Footscray VIC 3011


Melbourne Planetarium, Scienceworks
Get directions
2 Booker St, Spotswood VIC 3015




Online, via Zoom
Get directions


Riverside Lawn & Gabriel Gallery, Footscray Community Arts
Get directions
45 Moreland Street
Footscray VIC 3011





The Lawler, Southbank Theatre
Get directions
140 Southbank Blvd, Southbank VIC 3006




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