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.

Enter site

Artist

Zoe Simmons

Storyteller. Content creator. Changemaker. Zoe Simmons is an award-winning journalist, speaker, author and fierce disability advocate who uses the raw power of storytelling and lived experience to smash stigma and create change. She’s been published hundreds of times around the globe, and candidly shares her experience as a chronically ill, multiply disabled, autistic LGBTQIA+ person.

Zoe has been published in 10 books as a poet and author, and works regularly in media, now co-hosting her second season of Laneway: CTV News. Zoe is also working on her first solo TV show, which will launch at the end of 2026/beginning of 2027.

Appearing In

Wednesday 16 September, 7.30pm-8.30pm AEST

Written Out: How Australian Media Is Failing Disability Representation

This panel brings together artists working in various pockets of the creative industries to share their stories, perspectives and lived experience. Together they’ll celebrate how far we’ve come, reckon with how far we haven’t, and dream up the future that disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent people deserve.

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Major Supporters