Program

09:00am - 10:00am

Everyday Flashers: The Lifted Brow

Themed flash fiction led by your favourite journals! Grab your pen and coffee and get your NYWF day off to a great start in a flash.

10:00am - 12:00pm

Masterclass

Join us for a free masterclass with a leading expert. An unmissable opportunity. Come to the Crack House for more details!

10:00am - 11:00am

Best of Brow Book Cover Bonanza

Buy a copy of The Best of Brow book and design your own cover! The Lifted Brow supply paints and paper (and macaroni, paddle pop sticks etc) to make book jackets with a heavy dose of browstalgia.

10:00am - 11:00am

Fresh and Frank: An Insider’s Look at the Publishing Industry

A relaxed and friendly Q&A with four young industry insiders. With expertise in editing, publicity, marketing and rights, they can give you some top tips on self-branding, pitching your work to publishers and getting noticed.

10:00am - 11:00am

The New Niche: journals proving print ain't dead

People keep whining about print going the way of the dodo. And yet every week there's a new, excellent publication to prove them otherwise. What's the deal?

10:30am - 01:30pm

Cat & Mouse

Cat & Mouse is an experiential game devised to draw attention to our everyday actions of sensing. Working through a facilitated setting, participants are encouraged to play, to chase curiosities, to re-discover. Supported by the Lock Up Cultural Centre.

11:00am - 02:00pm

Interviews

A three hour workshop led by Triple J's Tom Tilley on the art of a good interview.

11:00am - 12:00pm

Authorial Ethics in a Self-Authoring Age

Barthes influential essay ‘Death of the Author’ fundamentally altered the status of the creator. This panel examines authorial ethics through the lens of post-documentary practice, fact-based narrative and celebrity culture.

11:00am - 12:00pm

Backchat

Your alternative to talkback, live from NYWF! One sweet hour of politics, news, and current affairs. Discussions, arguments, and interviews covering everything from the state of local music to the craziness in Canberra.

11:30am - 12:30pm

Speaking in Tongues

If a writer’s role is to exploit the possibilities of language, how might this be influenced by knowing a second (or third) one? Does biligualism change us as writers?  If so, how? Multilingual writers discuss their language backgrounds and how it ...

11:30am - 12:30pm

Lowering the Tone: writing for kids

From readers of picture books to YA novels, smaller humans can be the toughest critics. These writers tell us why and how they approach writing for kids, teens, and young-at-hearts.

11:30am - 12:30pm

Scripts, Scenes and Sluglines

These screenwriters discuss what sets their craft apart from other writing, what makes a successful script, and how to write stories that come to life on screen. Lauren Carroll Harris. With Alice Bell, Michelle Law, Holly Austin and Tom Wilson.

12:00pm - 04:00pm

Make the Call

A one on one performance conducted by zin over the telephone. It's gonna go off. Anonymously.

12:30pm - 02:15pm

Sonic Ontology: The Art of Noise

Noise is not just the sounds we hear or make, but an articulation of our contemporary inhabitance. Four thinkers discuss the sonic relations between representation, modulation and materiality. Julian Day, Amy Ireland, Benjamin Kolaitis, Jake Moore, Alex ...

01:00pm - 02:00pm

Salad Days: stories of memorable meals

Whether it was a moveable feast or crying over spilt milk, a confession of guilty pleasures or a tale of being in a pickle, these food writers and lovers share their stories of memorable meals.

01:00pm - 02:00pm

Daily Life Feminism

01:00pm - 02:00pm

This One Time...

For some it's a tea-soaked madeleine cake, for others it's a beer-soaked pub carpet. Memory is a funny thing, and in this series of presentations, three talkers take us through their best/worst/most memorable.  Dan Ilic

01:00pm - 03:00pm

Wings of Wax- An Oracle of Myth and Mind

Step behind the curtain, choose your cards and prepare to walk the labyrinth of a mind unbalanced. Here lie the tales of secrets, seductions and sorrows that pave the unpredictable path through mental illness. Luna Mrozik Gawler in conjunction with Upstart ...

01:00pm - 02:00pm

Dead Beauty Queens

Does being pretty enough to be crowned a beauty queen mean you’re pretty enough to be killed? (Side of Go Lo in a Car)

02:15pm - 03:15pm

Desiring Machines

Desiring Machines brings together work by emerging artists who explore the gulf between felt experience and mechanised production. Dawn-Joy Leong, Kirsty Hulm, Dylan Hammond, Sara Morawetz, Victoria Hempstead, Kate Vassallo, Ben Kolaitis, Tega Brain, Jake ...

02:30pm - 04:00pm

atyp/Fresh Ink present The Voices Project Launch

The Voices Project brings together the best of new writing from atyp’s Fresh Ink emerging playwright program, and presents it on stage, on page, on film and online, giving voice to a new generation of Australian writers. Chair: Alysha Herrmann. With ...

02:30pm - 03:30pm

Why Festivals?

Arts and literary festivals are better attended than ever. What is it about festivals that's so important to artists and audiences? Facilitator: Pip Smith. With Eliza Sarlos, Lisa Dempster, Sam Twyford-Moore

02:30pm - 03:30pm

How to Not Be a Douche

Is it possible to want to succeed in advertising/marketing/media and keep your ethics/soul/other creative practice intact? What happens when you have two people inside you, and one is a tiny CEO and the other a tiny Bob Dylan? Chair: Lucinda ...

02:30pm - 03:00pm

Sing Me Your Sorrow

Spill your sorrows into an empty room and watch South Australia collective Paper Ensemble transform them into song. The Paper Ensemble

03:00pm - 04:00pm

Carly and Troy Do 'A Dolls House'

Carly and Troy do ‘A Doll’s House’ explores gender, power, personal desire and nineteenth century Norway…maybe.  Emma McManus

04:00pm - 05:15pm

Ball and Ballpoint

From game coverage to investigative journalism, sport has more drama than a novel: packed full of highs, lows, power, glory, defeat and scandal. How does sports writing differ from other forms? Fiona Crawford. With Alex Vitlin, Ben Pobjie, Anna Krien ...

04:00pm - 06:00pm

Vanessa Berry Map Making Workshop

04:00pm - 05:00pm

Making Memories

Two writers read excerpts of their unpublished manuscripts and discuss their development process. Anamnesis and The Strays each explore nostalgia and false-positive memory as literary devices. Emily Bitto, Aden Rolfe

04:00pm - 05:00pm

Too Close For Comfort

Exploring the relationship between literary couples and families and the challenges (and benefits!) that arise from working with your nearest and dearest in the same industry. Benjamin Law/Michelle Law, Rebecca Harkins-Cross/Sam Cooney, Lizzie Stafford/Paul ...

04:00pm - 05:30pm

Can't Touch This

Love it or hate it, audience participation is everywhere these days. Hear some exciting advocates and passionate haters of audience participation.

05:00pm - 06:30pm

Double Tribute

Ever wondered what happens when the person who wrote the tribute to their dead friend dies too? Answer: Nick Coyle steps up to the plate and dances into your heart! Double Tribute: a hilarious take on boring regular tributes.

05:30pm - 07:00pm

Cornucopia of Liez

Liez A'Penty invites the audience to exchange in conversation in her new tearoom, with no judgment or expectations. Sexy Tales Comedy Collective/Stephen Jones

05:30pm - 06:15pm

MILKSHAKE

Directions: Shake well before use. Apply liberally and evenly to all areas. Re-apply as necessary. If rash or irritation occurs discontinue use. Avoid contact with eyes. Sarah Anne Ling

05:30pm - 07:00pm

Damned Whores and Fame Monsters

The image of woman as outsider remains planted in our collective cultural imagination. Three papers interrogate this trope while examining colonial Australia, Lady Gaga and Game of Thrones.

06:00pm - 06:45pm

Ether

In the grey ether between lightness and darkness twins meet to traverse their irrevocable connection. Physical Theatre by Murmur Collective.

06:00pm - 08:00pm

Sick As

Stories and anecdotes about writing when you're stuck in the sick bay. Can illness be the muse, or can you only write as well as you feel? Michelle Law Luke Ayres Ryan, Elmo Keep, Kat Muscat, Patrick Lenton

06:00pm - 08:00pm

The In-Voice

Who will get to send The In-Voice? In the style of reality TV show The Voice, editors choose teams of writers based only on their pitches. They'll cover issues like payment, pitching, communication and story angles in a journalism showdown.

06:00pm - 07:00pm

Recipe for Success

Adam Liaw is a cook, author and television presenter, best known as the winner of MasterChef Australia. He has written two cookbooks, is a regular contributor to numerous publications, including The Sydney Morning Herald, Feast magazine, and The Wall Street ...

06:15pm - 07:00pm

CATALYST 189

A CLOWN explodes. Exit A BEAR. Enter THE KING. Entry THE UMBRELLA. EXIT a HOUSE. Exit THE METHOD. Exit all. The Bloom

07:00pm - 07:45pm

PANIC

PANIC: A fresh new work exploring being young and anxious in a brave new world.

07:00pm - 07:30pm

The Set

What makes the places that define you? A daily interactive installation that creates, explores and demolishes the world around us. Corrugated Iron Youth Arts

07:00pm - 08:00pm

Tok Thoc

A multi-lingual, multicultural performance, incorporating dance, drumming and music, that reaches to the farthest end of colour blind casting. bAKEHOUSE Theatre examines how we understand one another in a multicultural world. BAKEHOUSE Theatre

07:00pm - 09:00pm

Reading the Trolls

Don't feed the trolls, read them out loud! In this flame war to end them all, these writers read their best/worst burns and bullies. May the best troll win. Host: Dom Knight. With Karen Pickering, Ben Pobjie, Amy Gray, Bethanie Blanchard, Tom Tilley

08:00pm - 09:00pm

Kids Killing Kids: A play about plays and the Pinoy people

A combination of the findings of four playwrights and their countless collaborators in a part-narrative, part-documentarian, on-stage dissection of cross-cultural collaboration, contemporary Filipino culture and the nature of fictional violence.

08:30pm - 10:00pm

The Book of Hours

The Spheres are a cadre of musicians and filmmakers who soundtrack the light thrown from projectors. Concurrent themes of collective preoccupation include the melancholy of memory, capitalism and the sea.

09:00pm - 10:00pm

Beaches Love Power

Using 400 years of history and the Bette Midler film ‘Beaches’, this show is a light and self-deprecating look at the backstabbing and general cattiness that can undermine relationships between women. Nikki Kennedy & Erica Brennan

09:00pm - 12:00am

Paranormal Formal

Join the NYWF family to celebrate the festival's sweet sixteenth birthday at the Paranormal Formal. Tarot readings and psychics! Prom dresses and ectoplasm! Come dressed as your favourite medium, svengali, or magician, and dance the night away to spookily ...

10:00pm - 10:30pm

Breathing Dirt

This dance work is an energetic yet humorous and sensitive look into Australian culture through the lens of Tim Winton's novels. Courtney Sheu

10:00pm - 11:00pm

Dead Beauty Queens

Does being pretty enough to be crowned a beauty queen mean you’re pretty enough to be killed? Hot New Sensation

11:00pm - 12:00am

Naked Uniform Vomit

The next level of high-energy, diabetes-inducing comedy, jam-packed with characters, misogynistic rap songs, witty stand-up and heaps of bright colours. Nicole Henriksen