Emerging Writers’ Festival Launch: Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
Oscar Wilde noted that, ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ But what about, as Fatboy Slim sagely pointed out, that rare air in between?
The Emerging Writers’ Festival launches its 2016 program with four tales of failed ambitions. Each of these writers will reveal a time they have sought success, and share whether failure stoked their ambition.
The evening will reveal a packed program of events where Australia’s emerging talent takes to the stage and wows audiences, as well as unique professional development opportunities that cover all aspects of being a writer in 2016. Each year EWF brings writers, editors, publishers and performers together with readers for a festival that is an essential part of Australia’s literary calendar.
Hosted by Emerging Writers’ Festival Director Michaela McGuire, with Brodie Lancaster, Rajith Savanadasa, Laura Davis and Emma Marie Jones.
Featuring
Michaela McGuire is the Director of the Emerging Writers Festival. She is the author of Last Bets: A true story of gambling, morality, and the law, the Penguin Special A Story of Grief and Apply Within: Stories of Career Sabotage. Her journalism has appeared in the Monthly, the Saturday Paper and... Read more
Brodie Lancaster is an author and essayist from Melbourne. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Vogue Australia, the Guardian and New York magazine. Her first book, the pop culture memoir No Way! Okay, Fine, was published by Hachette in 2017. She co-hosts See Also, a w... Read more
Rajith Savanadasa was born in Sri Lanka. He runs Open City Stories, a website documenting the lives of a group of asylum seekers in Melbourne. Rajith was shortlisted for the Asia-Europe Foundation short story prize in 2013, the Fish Publishing short story prize in 2013 and received a Wheeler Centre ... Read more
Laura Davis is a stand-up comedian and television host known for her peculiar style – riding the line between charming and challenging. Recently winning awards for Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe and Best Independent Show at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Laura has been earning praise an... Read more
Emma Marie Jones is a Melbourne-based writer, 2015 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow and 2016 Felix Meyer Scholar. She is the author of Something To Be Tiptoed Around, a work shortlisted for the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers in 2015 and due for release by Grattan Street Press in 2018. Emmaâ... Read more
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