Dempster to leave EWF
The Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) has announced that this year’s festival will be the last for current director Lisa Dempster.
The 2012 festival, which will be held between 24 May and 3 June, will be Dempster’s third festival. As previously reported by Bookseller+Publisher, Dempster was appointed festival director in 2009, replacing David Ryding.
ArtsHub reports that EWF will begin a search for a new director after this year’s festival. EWF board chair Matt Davies told ArtsHub that EWF is ‘extremely proud of Lisa’s achievements’. ‘She has contributed so much not only to our organisation but to Australia’s literary landscape more generally,’ said Davies. ‘At a time when many smaller arts organisations are finding it difficult to gain traction, Lisa has grown the festival’s reputation among industry and government funding bodies, paving the way for us to continue to grow and develop. Her leadership has provided inspiration not only to our board but to countless new writers across Victoria and beyond.’
During her time at EWF, Dempster has expanded the Victorian-based festival to other states, including a mini-conference held in Brisbane last year which was ‘crowd-funded’ through a partnership with fundraising platform Pozible. Dempster is also the founder of EWFdigital, an online portal for panels, interviews, discussions and networking throughout the festival.
For more information about this year’s Emerging Writers’ Festival, click here.
Category: Local news
