This year EWF has three fantastic opportunities for you to come and perform your work to a live audience!

Swinburne Presents: Spirit of Punk

An open mic with attitude. Spirit of Punk is a wordslam / reading event that evokes the ethos of punk rock – to have a go and have your voice heard. Come prepared or improvise – any genre, any style – just no longer than a Ramones song.

When: Thursday 15 June, 2017, 5.30pm

Where: 1000 £ Bend (Unknown Union), 361 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Cost: Free

Late Night Lit: Poetry

Pull up a pew for the political and personal with a night of contemporary poetry to get you right in the feels and inspire action and connection. Bring along some of your own words to step up and have a go at the open mic.

With: Jessica Alice, Bigoa Chuol, Soreti Kadir, Molly Lukin, Jesse Oliver

When: Thursday 15 June, 2017, 5.30pm

Where: 1000 £ Bend (Unknown Union), 361 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Cost: Free

Late Night Lit: Collisions

“Instead of wanting to hide that leaning, my impulse has often been to showcase it, to make this thinking-with-others, this weaving of mine and others’ words, part of the texture of my writing.”

Maggie Nelson

“They open doors inside me. It’s as if they’re keys. To rooms inside myself.” Alice Walker

All writing is relational; no writer is created in a vacuum. This night is about exploring alternative canons and genealogies of literary inheritance. Each writer will perform a reading in response to a text that has contributed to their development as an artist.

In the second half, we invite you, the audience, onto the stage. Join us for the open mic portion of the night! Come prepared or improvise —in any genre or style — and perform a reading that responds to the theme. We ask: which texts inspire you?

Email Creative Producer Linh Nguyen (linh@emergingwritersfestival.org) to express interest, or sign up on the night!

With: Adolfo Aranjuez, Bobuq Sayed, Soreti Kadir, Elena Gomez, Thanh Hằng Phạm

When: Wednesday 21st June, 2017, 9.00pm

Where: 1000 £ Bend (Unknown Union), 361 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

Cost: Free

For a look at the entire program for the 2017 Emerging Writer’s Festival, click here.