Writers Festivals:: the great 'unblocker' for writers block

If you didn’t already know the Melbourne Writers Festival starts this Friday (27 August –  5 September).

The program looks impressive and you can see it here.

Here’s what I’m eyeing up. Now whether I’ll get around to seeing anything is another matter…

Harvest
In Free at the Festival Harvest look pretty tempting. It was brought together by RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing course . Its’ a publication that looks at fiction, non- fiction , art and poetry so it is diverse which is great. Whether it will survive the next five year unfortunately is anyone’s guess given how competitive the literary magazine market is but worth a look.

Media law for citizen journalists and bloggers
Friday 3 September 2-5pm

Blogging is on the rise in Australia and every man and his dog is starting a blog (this weekend I read in The Agehow kids as young as 7 years old in Leopold are starting blogs) as such this workshop may come in handy. The workshop by Andrew Dodd, senior lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology will be looking at privacy, contempt and defamation.

Writers and Tea
Sunday 29 August 3-5pm and Sunday 5 September 3-5pm

If you’re wanting to side up to some of the worlds “most renowned writers” and entertain them with your talent and wit and maybe discover how to finally get that agent / publisher to cast a glance at the first three chapters of your manuscipt you’ve worked for 20 years on then consider dolling yourself up and heading off to the Sofitel for afternoon tea. Tickets are limited and a tad pricey at $65 a head but who knows aside from the finger sandwiches, tea, coffee and scones  you might get a book deal.

Hint: Don’t get distracted with having to consume $65 worth of scones to get value for money. Instead find out the list of authors going,  research their agents and publishers, target the authors you admire and network, network!

Copyright versus creativity
Thurs 6 September, 6-7pm
Presented by Cory Doctorow a Canadian-born, London-based journalist, author and blogger and named by Forbes magazine as one of the Internets Top 25 Influencers  this topic is covering the fabulously grey area of copyright. It’s enough to get any publisher hot and bothered. 

What’s catching your eye at the festival?