The Writers Victoria team is thrilled to be launching our 2021 Season 1 Program. Members are due to receive print copies of the program with their December – February edition of ‘The Victorian Writer’, and you can download a PDF copy here. All of the workshops and events for 2021 Season 1 are now listed on our events calendar. Read on for a message from our Program Manager, Kate Cuthbert.
I will admit that when I started creating this program, 2021 felt like a relentlessly optimistic dream – would we ever even see the end of 2020, and what would it even look like if that happened? But as coronavirus numbers come down and restrictions ease, 2021 feels in many ways like a new beginning. Our theme for this new year is ‘Unfold’, and it’s important to remember that as an unfolded piece of paper still bears the marks of its past, so too do we carry these creases forward, examples of our survival and how we can do better in the future.
You will see some changes in our program as we unfold from our 2020 selves, ready to re-enter the world. First, we have expanded our online workshops, recognising the benefit of an online program from an accessibility, inclusion, and convenience factor for many of our writing community. We have also invited many new faces to our tutor line-up, acknowledging that great writing and great writers come from all backgrounds and experiences, across all styles, formats, and subject matter. Our community is only as diverse and strong as our support of it, and there is no writer that doesn’t carry with them lessons, information and experience that can enrich the literary world, even if they are working from a different perspective, on a different subject matter, or in a different format. We have also created targetted programming to include writers at all stages of their career, from our school holiday program for teens presented in partnership with the Melbourne Young Writers’ Studio, to our newly created Established Author Forum, which mixes formal and informal professional development in a casual networking setting.
As always, we welcome your feedback and thoughts on our program. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] or call us (03) 9094 7855. We wish you all the very best in these closing days of 2020 and look forward to welcoming you again to our program in 2021.
Keep writing,
Kate