Melbourne Writers Festival 2018

On Monday 27 August, Rachael Glidden, Sophie Moy, Lily Bowerman, Hannah Lane-MacDonald, Henry Edwards, Tyler Wheeler, Abbey Turner, Chloe Cooper, Erin Waters and Heidi McPherson headed to Melbourne with Mr Kress and Mrs Le Rossignol for the Melbourne Writers Festival.

We departed Hobart early and arrived in Melbourne at about 7.20am. We caught the Sky Bus into town and went to Federation Square where the workshops were held.

We went to a number of different types of workshops such as, ‘’Why Is Your Life Better than Mine’’ in which the presenter talked about social media and effects of social media on teenagers and young adults.

Another workshop we went to was called “Ghost Stories” presented by Nathan Curnow, who talked about how he went to stay in haunted places to gain knowledge and experience to write his novels.

We toured the Immigration Museum and author Alice Pung presented a workshop about writing about our own identity. She asked questions such as how does our story – where we come from and where we live now – shape our identities?

We responded to these themes in a workshop.

After dinner on Lygon Street we watched the movie “Isle of Dogs.” The next day we enjoyed hearing Dr Karl give his keynote address. Author Aime Kaufman spoke about writing science fiction for young people.

Finally, we watched a performance called “Out Loud Eco Poetry Slam Competition” which had schools from across Melbourne compete against each other in a poetry slam.

Overall it was an amazing experience and we definitely enjoyed our time at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

We would like to thank some of our local politicians including Andrew Wilkie, Elise Archer, Josh Willie and Scott Bacon, for helping make this trip possible. We would also like to thank Mrs Le Rossignol and Mr Kress for taking us on this amazing excursion.

Erin Waters, Chloe Cooper and Sophie Moy - writers