Get Connected at The Digital Writers’ Festival

by Katie Sharrow-Reabe

Expose yourself to new literary tastemakers from the other side of the globe without leaving your desk (and by desk, I mean couch). The Digital Writers’ Festival is happening right now, and you don’t need to travel to Australia or pay to participate.

The Digital Writers’ Festival is presented by the Emerging Writers’ Festival, based in Melbourne. The festival is a series of panels and meet-ups that are almost all live-streamed online via Google Hangouts. Over the course of 12 days, you can join up-and-coming writers and industry insiders as they discuss topics such as how to market your ebook, the best way to handle trolls, and ways to approach global readership and translation. There is also the opportunity to submit your short story and get editorial feedback via a 30-minute Skype session for a slight fee of $100.

This festival is a great alternative to the upcoming AWP Conference, which will be hosted in Seattle and is not open to the public.

A word of warning: the festival’s calendar employs Australian Eastern Daylight Time, which is 16 hours ahead of New York. View the full list of events on the festival’s website. Don’t forget to live tweet the festival using the hashtag #DWF14.