Emerging Writers’ Festival Programme Launch: The Awkward Stage

Izzy Roberts-Orr is a poet, writer, broadcaster and arts worker based on Taungurung Country, and Digital Producer at Red Room Poetry. Izzy is a 2020-2021 recipient of the Australia Council Marten Bequest Scholarship for Poetry, and is currently completing a book of elegiac poetry, Raw Salt. ... Read more

Aïsha Trambas is an Afro-Greek arts worker based on Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung land. Aïsha is currently the Program Coordinator of the Emerging Writers’ Festival.

Vidya Rajan is an award-winning writer for screen and stage, performance-maker and comedian. She has a Masters in Writing (VCA) and has been a recipient of the Wheeler Centre’s Hot Desk Fellowship, Melbourne Festival’s Director’s Lab Program and Screen Australia’s Developing ... Read more

Kat Clarke is a writer, artist and Indigenous consultant. Being a proud Wotjobaluk woman from the Wimmera, Kat gradually developed her craft by combining her skills and knowledge in community engagement, mentoring, music, the arts, screen, and education. Her grassroots, transparent vitality and fort... Read more

Ahmed Yussuf is a writer and journalist. He co-edited Growing Up African in Australia, the first non-fiction anthology of African-diaspora stories in Australia. His work has featured in Acclaim Magazine, the Guardian, TRT World and Jalada Africa. He was also an artist in the 2018 Digital Writers Fes... Read more

Sumudu Samarawickrama is from Werribee. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, Overland, Meanjin and the Lifted Brow. She co-produced Sidekicked 2017 Melbourne Fringe Category Award Winner ‘Best Words and Ideas’. She was a Witness Performance New Critic in 2018. She wants to use art to ... Read more