SUCH FUN ❤
(warning: long and rambly because it’s my blog i do what i want)
Alright so Monday was night of the living novellas (spooky!!!!) and six novellas were launched that night:
.@bb_googel, literal queen #ewf14pic.twitter.com/zETxoEhHMw
— Alison Evans (@_budgie) June 2, 2014
No Limit by Holly Childs (which is totes great, I reviewed it here).
The Loud Earth by Elisabeth Murray (which is ALSO amazing, and I fangirled a little when we met and probably made a fool of myself, but she was lovely).
And the four winners of Seizure Magazine‘s Viva La Novella competition: The Other Shore by Hoa Pham, The Neighbour by Julie Proudfoot, Blood and Bone by Daniel Davis Wood and Sideshow by Nicole Smith.
THEN TUESDAY HAPPENED and I got really excited about zines and made one in the State Library before the zine panel. (Which you can go buy at Sticky Institute, a super amazing cool zine shop in Melbourne in the Degraves Subway. It’s literally underground, eyyy) Anna Dunhill talked about zines at a DIY panel with other self-publishers. And she’s the coolest lady.
@EmergingWriters yes! For sure! The aims are just different – eg zines privilege amateurism (unashamedly & in the best possible way).
— Anna Dunnill (@okayampersand) June 3, 2014
Wednesday I saw a panel about the future of teaching writing. Some questions were sort of explored in the panel, like how do you teach someone to be good at words, because really you only get good at doing words by doing words. it’s not like being a doctor or whatever, to be a writer you really don’t need a writing degree.
Like, I went to uni to study writing because I was terrified of not being in school. It helped me become so so so much better at my craft, so I guess that was the right thing for me to do. But it’s not for everyone and insisting that it makes you a better writer ain’t necessarily so, bro.
New writing courses are encouraging students to think about post-book literary futures (SMSs, apps, podcasts, zines) – Nick Keys at #ewf14.
— Writers Victoria (@Writers_Vic) June 4, 2014
Now THIS was pretty neat. I honestly can’t remember how we got onto this topic, but post-book futures!!!! how neat is that. Playing with formatting is something I’ve kinda tried out a little bit but I think it’s hard to do it without seeming contentious and I don’t know that I don’t do that. Nick mentioned he taught a student who constructed a short story choose you own adventure type thing composed entirely in text messages, people would have to SMS the author and then they’d reply.
“publish or perish” — why does being published = legitimacy #ewf14
— Alison Evans (@_budgie) June 4, 2014
… and being published traditionally at that. Is it because being published implies being paid, being paid = something about capitalism? Who knows.
Thursday had the super-best event, the launch of Archer Magazine issue 2! Held at Thousand Pound Bend (which may be the most Melbourne place ever)
aw yeah @ArcherMagazine launch #ewf14 pic.twitter.com/iWXqNBJyuG
— Alison Evans (@_budgie) June 5, 2014
and I think that tweet really says it all. The event was too fun, the magazine is too good, and you should totally check it out.
Friday was Signal’s writing workshop/thing for emerging writers under 25. Super useful, we learnt about pitching from Brigid Mullane, online editor of Kill Your Darlings. Three sentences is the way to go if you’re pitching an article to a magazine/journal. Which is a little terrifying, as you can tell from this blog post I am not very concise.
SO ANYWAY in conclusion, Emerging writers Festival is SUPER RAD and you should totally go next year if you like totally cool things.
alison evans 