Melbourne Writers Festival

Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) is for everyone who reads.

MWF is Melbourne’s annual, two-week celebration for writers, readers and thinkers. Each year in August we present the talent and ideas of hundreds of writers from Australia and around the world, through a vibrant program of storytelling, conversation and discussion, intellectual debate, educational programs, live performance, music and art events.

The Festival includes events for people of all ages and more than a third of the program is free. Our highly regarded Schools’ Program is Australia’s biggest literary festival for students.

STRATEGIC DIRECTION AND GOALS

The implementation of a new strategic direction in 2013 led to broader Festival programming, reaching new and curious audiences with guests as diverse as Mayor of London Boris Johnson, teen publisher Tavi Gevinson, astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Brain Pickings blogger Maria Popova. Introducing more diversity and fun to the MWF program remains an important goal of the Festival. Last year’s record attendance of over 56, 000 indicates that we achieved that goal.

In the coming years, MWF will focus on the areas of innovation, diversity and connection to build on past programming successes and consolidate its position as a literary festival of local importance and international stature.

WORD ALLIANCE

MWF is part of the Word Alliance, a strategic international partnership which supports and showcases the work of writers and facilitates the creation of international literature projects. MWF utilises this network of eight leading international literature festivals, together with funding from Australia Council, to promote Australian writers to the world. This collaboration has resulted in the execution of global literary projects such as bringing the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference to Melbourne, ensuring that Melbourne City of Literature has a place on the global literary stage.