FESTIVAL 2024
IN 2024 THE NZ YOUNG WRITERS FEST TURNED 10!
Proudly produced by Dunedin Fringe, NZ Young Writers Fest (NZYWF) uplifts the voices of young writers aged 15-35 and celebrates a diverse range of wordsmithing. The festival is the only literary festival in Aotearoa focussed on young writers.
NZYWF 2024 involved over 40 artists in 18 events with over 600 audience and participants involved.
Stay tuned for NZYWF 2025. From curious young minds to art and literature loving adults, all are welcome to celebrate Aotearoa’s next generation of literary talent.
Nau Mai, Haere Mai from 2024 Guest Curator Ruby Macomber
Tukua atu te hiku o te taniwha ki tana wai e rere nei – Release your hold on the tail of the taniwha so that it may roam free in the flowing water.
Guided by one of my favourite whakataukī, my curatorship for this year’s NZ Young Writers Fest (NZYWF) aimed to honour the various ways we arrive on the page, stage and screen: the big feelings, the villages beside us, the narratives passed and those that will persist long after us.
My arrival at the page was in response to immense grief. Seven years later, writing is still one of the few practices where I feel inextricably human — loss, joy, fear, love, love, love. I invite attendees to this year’s festival to really lean into that last one! Loosen your grip on the products of your creative endeavours and celebrate the messiness of the process, the unlikely connections, and the mana in your own narrative whakapapa.
Ngā mihi nui ki Ngāi Tahu for holding each creative who has made this kaupapa possible. Enjoy the 2024 New Zealand Young Writers Fest!
Mauri ora,
Ruby Macomber (Rotuma, Ngāpuhi)
BY YOUNG WRITERS,
FOR YOUNG WRITERS.
Our programme is created through a selection process led by our Guest Curator. Each year we invite young writers from across Aotearoa to pitch new events, which form the festival programme.
