Booktok, NightBlogging, carefully curated Spotify Playlists, Meta Posts and Pinterest Boards. We’ve all been there. If we like something, we probably love it and if we love it, we saturate ourselves in it, weave pieces of it into something of a cloak, throw it across our shoulders and absorb these things into our own online identity. But as mainstream social media becomes more and more profit driven, and algorithmic, is it possible we’re approaching something of a Tumblr renaissance? These three writers with varying passions discuss their early experiences of ‘loving THE thing’, whether they expressed that love by writing reviews or fanfiction, by writing on online forums or in the back of their school notebooks. A panel about passion, nostalgia and special interests.

Artists

Merryana Salem

Jarni Blakkarly

Julia Faragher
How to participate

Create your account
Our festival is 100% free. It’s always free. You can create a watch list on our website which will allow you to create a personalised schedule. To watchlist an event, click the yellow button underneath the artist headshots (right column of this page).

Tune in and get involved
Log in for your scheduled events: you can watch directly from your account dashboard or through our YouTube channel. When this event is available for streaming, you can also click the ‘watch now’ button in the top banner of this page (under event title and date info). Comment and engage on social media: tag us at @nywf / @nationalyoungwritersfestival, #nywf2022

Support NYWF
The National Young Writers’ Festival is a non-profit organisation made by and for young artists to help foster a sense of community and allow young writers to connect, share skills and hone their craft. We pride ourselves on paying all writers programmed for the festival but we are reliant on government funding and philanthropic support to make our festival happen. Your donation allows us to continue supporting young artists, increase the number of writers we are able to program, and improve our capacity and resources to hold high quality events.

NYWF is a registered non-profit, so your donation (above $2) is also tax-deductible.

Make a donation to NYWF.