Melbourne Writers Festival

Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to producing Victoria's premier, annual literary event.

Around 50% of our annual income is achieved through the valuable corporate partnerships, philanthropic support and donations that make the Festival possible.

This important support contributes to all areas of the Festival and our Schools' Program, including author fees, travel and accommodation for Festival guests, production costs and venue hire.

Ongoing support is vital to ensure MWF continues to deliver excellent programming and is able to offer free entry to at least a quarter of Festival events.

MWF is part of the Word Alliance, a strategic international partnership which supports and showcases the work of writers and facilitates the creation of international literature projects. MWF utilises this network of eight leading international literature festivals, together with funding from Australia Council, to promote Australian writers to the world. This collaboration has resulted in the execution of global literary projects such as bringing the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference to Melbourne, ensuring that Melbourne City of Literature has a place on the global literary stage.

The implementation of a new strategic direction in 2013 led to broader Festival programming, reaching new and curious audiences with guests as diverse as Mayor of London Boris Johnson, teen publisher Tavi Gevinson, astronaut Chris Hadfield and Brain Pickings blogger Maria Popova. Introducing more diversity and fun to the MWF program remains an important goal of the Festival. Last year's record attendance of over 60,000 indicates that we achieved that goal.

2016's new strategic direction will see MWF focus on the areas of innovation, inclusivity, diversity and connection to build on past programming successes and consolidate its position as a literary festival of local importance and international stature.

Melbourne Writers Festival is Victoria's winter celebration for readers, writers and thinkers. Each year in August we present the talent and ideas of hundreds of writers from Australia and around the world, through a vibrant program of storytelling, conversation and discussion, intellectual debate, educational programs, live performance, music and art events.

The Festival includes events for people of all ages and more than a quarter of the program is free. Our highly regarded Schools' Program is Australia's biggest literary festival for students, with 15,000 attendees each year.