A poignant moment for me occurred earlier this year, when I attended an Emerging Writers’ Festival event.

The act of witnessing a conversation between two writers on stage filled me with incredible performance anxiety on their behalf. These two writers stood on the stage, their ability to speak providing the only source of entertainment for the crowd. There was no distracting back-up band with trumpets to blow, and no pyrotechnics by the side of the stage ready to go off at a moment’s notice – it was just two writers ready to converse with each other. What if one of them suddenly forgot what to say? What if one of them was feeling a little off? What if they just didn’t like each other? These were the questions coursing through my brain.

I need not have worried, of course.

Writers are ready for these events because they are always in conversation – writing is a form of constant internal and external dialogue. The reason that writers festivals continue to thrive is because writers are increasingly comfortable with being in the public light. Long gone is the idea of the writer as a recluse. Writers are now key visual components of our cultural conversations. These conversations continue by the audience long after the writer has stepped down from the stage, and long after the last page is read.

I became involved with the event in 2010, when I was published in its annual anthology.

I was then invited to the festival in 2011 as part of a partnership with the NSW Writers Centre, where I was working at the time. I remember opening night being held in Federation Square, and there was an instantly positive connection. I had no idea I would be running the same night and the same festival only a couple of years after my initial involvement.

The festival continues to grow and continues to provide support for so many writers.

As the current festival director, I am given the opportunity to assemble a collection of dynamic local writers. The festival allows them to connect and discuss the state of the art of writing. This year we achieved a lot of great things – celebrating the festival’s tenth birthday in style, connecting with the Bali Emerging Writers Festival for the first time, and having a greater interstate participation. One fortunate author signed a three book deal after her a publisher witnessed her speaking at a pop-up reading. We put writers in the spotlight and allow Australia’s next great authors to be discovered by professionals and the public alike.