image: black and white photo of robin doing a wheelie with their manual wheelchair. Text reads National Young Writers Festival; Robin M Eames 2019 Artist

very excited to be heading up to the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle again this year! I’m doing a slightly absurd number of events, 4 of which are on Friday, so if by Friday evening I’m looking very sleepy and a bit ragged around the edges – you know why.

I am also one of the festival photographers, so will be intermittently wandering around being a massive dork about lighting conditions. (actually quite a small dork)

FRIDAY 4 OCTOBER

Born in the Wrong World: the role of genre fiction in queer culture
11:30am-12:30pm @ Newcastle City Library
(with the members of Transgender Writers and/or Writers with Intersex Variations Australia)

There have been many genres that paint the queer experience in a number of ways – genres like sci-fi, fantasy, and even horror. Join this discussion moderated by guest organisation Transgender Writers and/or Writers with Intersex Variations Australia.

Let’s Talk About: Tokenism
4pm-5pm @ Watt Space Gallery
(with Tilly Lawless, Debbie Zhou, and Nevo Zisin)

‘Diversity’ has become somewhat of a buzzword in the arts, but what does it actually mean? How does this differ or intersect with tokenism? Join us for this critical discussion defining the ins and outs of tokenism, and the harms and benefits of various approaches to ‘diversity’. This forms one of three in our ‘Let’s Talk About’ series.

Vampires belong in MY genre!
8pm-9pm @ Newcastle City Library
(with Claire Cao, Ray Cox, Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi, Jes Layton, Katharine Pollock, and Alexander Te Pohe)

It’s time to pit horror, sci-fi and fantasy against each other in this three-way genre fiction debate! At this event the teams will battle it out to prove once and for all what genre vampires truly belong in. Get ready for things to get heated (and probably a little ridiculous).

Late Night Readings: LIGHT MY FIRE
9:30pm-11pm @ Newcastle City Library
(with Freda Daly Sadgrove, Alison Evans, Tilly Lawless, Anthony Nocera, Claire Sullivan, Rita Therese, and Eugene Yang)

What keeps you warm at night? Whether it’s the touch of your lover, your cat at the end of your bed or a neat whiskey at 3am, at this reading we’ll hear about all the things that bring warmth on a cold winters night. Prepare for things to get sexy, funny and a bit emotional at this late-night reading.

SUNDAY 6 OCTOBER

Inclusive Writing about Sex and Bodies
11am-12pm @ Newcastle City Library
(with Tilly Lawless)

In this panel, Archer Magazine contributors discuss the intricacies of writing about sex in inclusive and respectful ways. The panel will explore what it is like to write about personal experiences with sex, sexuality and gender, and what it means to write about the body in nonfiction.

Re-envisioning mythology in the 21st century
12pm-1pm @ Newcastle City Library
(I am excited about all of these events but ESPECIALLY excited to inflict mythic nonsense on an unsuspecting audience during this solo workshop)

What is the power of myth in the modern age? Barthes writes that myth is anti-revolutionary because it explains and embeds social structures, whereas poetry is revolutionary because it unravels those structures. Myth and folklore often neglect or suppress the agency of marginalised peoples, but they also contain subversive elements that can be harnessed and reworked. Queercrip writer, artist, and historian Robin M Eames runs a workshop on adapting myth through a radical lens.