As part of Q-Lit, the Queer Victorian Festival of Words, Shepparton Library is hosting free workshops with a series of guest speakers for aspiring writers of all ages this Saturday.
The Q-Lit festival celebrates the work of LGBTQIA+ storytellers by building community, developing inclusion and providing opportunities for those that are often marginalised in mainstream arts and literary circles.
The festival is for all types of storytellers: fiction, non-fiction, graphic novelists, singer-songwriters, playwrights, screenwriters, mixed media creatives, children’s authors, poets and academics.
The project is a collaboration between Scratch Arts chief executive Timothy Ryan (they/he) and novelist and academic Kate Hall (she/her) and is funded by Victoria’s Pride — Midsumma Festival and funded by the Victorian Government’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
The festival will start at 10am this Saturday, January 21, with a workshop for children aged 4 to 12 and their families called Reading and Writing Picture Books that reflect your Rainbow World.
This will be followed by four other workshops, one for young adults and three masterclass workshops for VCE students and adults.
Participants are able to attend as many workshops as they like throughout the day and hear from guest speakers such as Michael Earp, Jack Kirne, Achala Green and Fleassy Malay.
At the end of the day, there will be a free artist’s showcase from 6pm to 10pm at The Church @ Maude.
For more information or to RSVP your attendance, as bookings are essential for these workshops, go to the Goulburn Valley Libraries website.