Via NSW Writers Centre Newsbite

The NSW Writers' Centre is excited to announce that we will be sponsoring a small group of writers to attend the National Young Writers' Festival in Newcastle, which is held over the NSW Labour Day Holiday Weekend in October. The National Young Writers' Festival is a great opportunity to meet like-minded writers and artists. 

The Newcastle Young Writers' Festival is a part of the This Is Not Art (TINA) festival that is held annually. The festival runs from September 29 to October 3. The festival is the country's largest gathering of young and innovative writers working in both new and traditional forms including zines, comics, blogging, screenwriting, poetry, spoken word, hip hop music, journalism, autobiography, comedy, songwriting and prose. NYWF presents 'writing' in its broadest sense through panels, discussions, workshops, launches, performances and readings.

This year the NSW Writers' Centre is sending up a select group to attend the festival and to participate in talks and panels and to act as ambassadors for the Centre and writing in Sydney and NSW.

The NSW Writers' Centre is looking to find a member to join our line-up of sponsored artists. Sponsorship will cover your train fare and provide one night of accommodation on Saturday October 1 2011. The sponsored artist will join the group to appear on panels and any other events sponsored by the NSW Writers' Centre, but most importantly will be free to enjoy the festival and connect with other young writers. This is an exciting opportunity for an emerging writer to be sponsored and supported as part of the festival.

To enter our search you must be a member of the NSW Writers' Centre and you must be under 26.

In addition to sponsoring artists, we will be covering the cost of train fare for 20 of our members to head to Newcastle to attend the festival. If you miss out on being our sponsored artist, you will go into a draw for train fare.

If you are interested in applying to be one of our sponsored artists email Project Officer Sam Twyford-Moore at stwyford@nswwc.org.au with your name, membership number and your one paragraph explanation of why you want to be the NSW Writers' Centre sponsored artist for the festival and what you can bring to the National Young Writers' Festival in 2011.

Please submit your entry by July 22.

The winner will be announced in a forthcoming issue of Newsbite. For more information on the National Young Writers' Festival visit their website at  www.youngwritersfestival.com