Welcome to my desk. If it looks suspiciously like an office desk, that’s because it is one. Hardly glamorous, but certainly functional. This is part of the office the Emerging Writers’ Festival occupies in Arts House in North Melbourne until we move to our new home at the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.
Most of the writing I do here is communicating with participants in the festival: organising flights, hotels, media biographies and so on. So far there are over 100 invited artists featured across the ten days of the festival, and they’re coming from far and wide. One of the joys of being in this job is the online contact with writers – I think they’re in their element even when they’re writing an email, and some of the correspondence I have can turn beautifully surreal, like Alice down the rabbit hole.
The festival also communicates online through Twitter, and tweets spark conversation amongst my colleagues. This flows out into the ether and back in again in marvellous loops and swerves of instant mass communication. Throughout the day a lot of low muttering goes on here, as we each stare into our computer screens, composing emails, copy for the program or media releases. Then there will be a heated and technical debate about something like the placement of the apostrophe of possession. During these discussions I quietly relish the fact that we’re all nerds, and reflexive about the process of writing. As offices go, this is a good place to write.
Annette Vieusseux is the Communications and Administration Coordinator for the Emerging Writers’ Festival. This year’s festival will be held across venues in Melbourne next week - 22 to 31 May. For more information about the program, go to www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au
See also in this series – (EWF) Nathan Shepherdson, Stu Hatton, Stephanie Convery, Kirk Marshall, (and non-EWF) Charlotte Wood, Michael Gross, Paul Morgan, Damon Young, and Caroline Petit. If you’re a writer, I’d love to hear from you… email contact in ‘About Angela‘.
Annette Viesseux’s Literary Space – Emerging Writers’ Festival special #5
Welcome to my desk. If it looks suspiciously like an office desk, that’s because it is one. Hardly glamorous, but certainly functional. This is part of the office the Emerging Writers’ Festival occupies in Arts House in North Melbourne until we move to our new home at the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.
Most of the writing I do here is communicating with participants in the festival: organising flights, hotels, media biographies and so on. So far there are over 100 invited artists featured across the ten days of the festival, and they’re coming from far and wide. One of the joys of being in this job is the online contact with writers – I think they’re in their element even when they’re writing an email, and some of the correspondence I have can turn beautifully surreal, like Alice down the rabbit hole.
The festival also communicates online through Twitter, and tweets spark conversation amongst my colleagues. This flows out into the ether and back in again in marvellous loops and swerves of instant mass communication. Throughout the day a lot of low muttering goes on here, as we each stare into our computer screens, composing emails, copy for the program or media releases. Then there will be a heated and technical debate about something like the placement of the apostrophe of possession. During these discussions I quietly relish the fact that we’re all nerds, and reflexive about the process of writing. As offices go, this is a good place to write.
Annette Vieusseux is the Communications and Administration Coordinator for the Emerging Writers’ Festival. This year’s festival will be held across venues in Melbourne next week - 22 to 31 May. For more information about the program, go to www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au
See also in this series – (EWF) Nathan Shepherdson, Stu Hatton, Stephanie Convery, Kirk Marshall, (and non-EWF) Charlotte Wood, Michael Gross, Paul Morgan, Damon Young, and Caroline Petit. If you’re a writer, I’d love to hear from you… email contact in ‘About Angela‘.