How is YA represented at small writers festivals?
Ask Alice is an online column written by our former Secretary, Dr Alice Boer-Endacott, who has published several young adult fantasy novels and a non-fiction mini, under ‘A B Endacott’.
Hand to God, I started this piece in November 2025, long before the absolute mess that devolved into the cancellation of the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week occurred. Had I not gone into labour six weeks ahead of schedule, this would have been the November Ask Alice.
Last year after I wrote about the programming of YA at major festivals someone suggested I write about the presence (or lack thereof) or YA at smaller writers festivals in Australia. A subsequent conversation with author Troy Hunter where he shared his experience pitching to smaller festivals around Australia ahead of the release of his second novel Gus and the Burning Stones (his comment: “The smaller festivals are fantastic and punch above their weight”) convinced me this was worth investigating. Although the Adelaide Festival disaster emphasised the importance of robust festival programming and structures, long before this scandal was a twinkle in the eye of the Board members, there was bigger conversation to be had about the often overlooked parts of our literary (festival) landscape.
Troy was kind enough to share with me his research and point me to the Literary Listings site (which includes a yearlong calendar of Australian literary festivals), and this site (which lists literary conferences and literary festivals in Australia state-by-state). He also gave a shoutout to the Instagram account of Literary Listings run by Jill Langhammer because of its regular updates on Australian writing events and news. His generosity extended to discussing his observations about such festivals as a participant.
In addition, I reached out to several smaller festivals. My first note is that these festivals are, financially, run off the smell of an oily rag (if that), and yet in most instances, I received almost immediate replies. So with that in mind, this month’s column asks how is YA represented at small writers festivals?
My first, and most enduring, takeaway is that the Australian literary scene is actually very vibrant. There are a huge number of literary events run in various locations across the year. They span festivals in rural areas (eg The South Coast Readers & Writers Festival in Thirroul, NSW or the Geraldton Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival in WA), to those run by local government area (LGA) libraries, especially in Victoria. Whenever ‘larger’ festivals court controversy, it’s worth remembering there are many other places to go to talk about books. Moreover, many of these festivals are very accessible, both in terms of price and location.
That accessibility is very important. I have been part of several discussions about the fact that people living in rural or regional areas can find it difficult to physically get to major writers festivals, especially when events of interest are on weekdays (and thus, workdays). Additionally, festival tickets can often be prohibitively expensive. Consistently, the smaller festivals with whom I spoke told me their attendees were local to the area, and often, that their events were free or relatively cheap.
With the above in mind, it makes sense that catering to a specific audience on a shoestring budget requires careful selection of what events you program so as to encourage the most attendees. Because of this limitation, teenagers are often a demographic for whom it is unideal to program in the main festival. As SezzaJai Sykes, Executive Director at the Norther Territory Writers Centre said, when I spoke with them about the NT Writers Festival, events need to fill, or come close to filling, 200 seats, and there is no guarantee that teenagers would come to an event in that number. This is one of the reasons – in addition to the festival’s mandate to platform a minimum of 30% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, many of whom are not writing YA – that YA does not really appear in the festival’s program.
It makes sense. Teenagers have limited mobility and resources, so even if they are interested in an event, their capacity to attend it is often minimal. However, this raises the question: how can we reach teenage readers so they know about – and can attend – events for them?
Michelle Hart-Crombie a Team Leader in Children and Youth at Monash Public Library Service was good enough to answer my questions about Monash WordFest. She explained that, although the festival is focused on Adult books, the challenge for any YA-focused event (including standalone ones) is “how do we market our events to them [teenage readers]. With children, their parents book them into events and Adults will read our marketing and book themselves in,” but when it comes to teenagers, “we would love to know how to reach them […] In the past we used to always put a writing workshop for young adults as one of the Festival sessions but […] sessions would always be half full.”
I spoke with Alice Reid, program co-director of Willy Lit Fest, manager of a school library, and director of the 2024 RMIT student-led literary festival, Odyssey Lit Fest. Last year, the Willy Lit Fest program did include several YA authors, including Lili Wilkinson and Demet Divaroren (on romantasy); Troy Hunter and Amy Doak (on why teenagers love murder); and Louise Karch and Lauren Draper who both ran writing workshops. The 2024 Odyssey Lit Fest also had a YA panel, because it was proposed by some students who read and write YA and are passionate about helping young people find books they enjoy.
Alice acknowledged that because she works in a school library, she has a direct connection to “12-18 year old high school students living in Hobsons Bay [the LGA in which Willy Lit Fest is situated].” To make them aware of the events in the festival, she said, “I will create a Google sign-up sheet and post it on year level classrooms, school bulletins and social media, and those who are interested can sign up.” However, “Most teens won’t pick up a hardcopy program for a literary festival and see there’s a YA event happening … and only sending the info onto schools can be tricky, too, because it might just end up in a time-poor English teacher’s inbox.”
This is somewhat supported by Troy’s experience: “from the festivals I’ve been to, YA audiences are great and engaged. They are often adults, or a parent and a child (road testing before they buy), unless the panel/event is specifically targeted as a kids’ activity.”
That doesn’t mean YA texts and audiences are impossible to reach. But, again, there was consensus across the people with whom I spoke: YA texts and audiences are generally considered best addressed through schools programs.
Michael Hyde is an honorary fellow at Victoria University, published YA author, former secondary school teacher, and former lecturer in creative writing and childrens literature. He also managed the 2025 Fishy Stories Writing Challenge for Fishy Stories Festival, a one day festival in South Gippsland, Victoria, focusing on literature for primary school-aged children. He noted the festival’s age orientation is deliberate: “From my experience and perspective the best approach for any festival is to offer teen and YA writers talks and workshops et al to schools in the area, thus widening the scope of festivals. Of course that would entail more money.”
Michael emphasised that the place to make the most inroads when it comes to providing events for teenage readers, and raising the profile of YA novels is at the school level through: “Author talks. Writing electives. Writing Comps. Student newspapers. Student editorial produced anthologies. Writing walls. Encouragement of underground writing leaflets. Strategies for getting more boys into writing electives.”
However, while one may think money and resources for an in-house program only needs to cover the fee of the author or facilitator, you’d be wrong. SezzaJai explained that the NT Literary Festival regularly sends authors into schools to engage with younger readers. However, this work is directed to primary age students, not teenagers. One key reason is the lack of facilitators who are trained in engaging with teenage audiences, and a lack of funding to cover the appearance fee of authors and facilitators to keep the events free so schools can access these programs.
SezzaJai pointed out that teachers being overworked is an issue, or, in Alice’s words: “competing with a stacked curriculum makes it hard to organise these kinds of events and not interfere with students’ classwork.” However, SezzaJai drew my attention to something else I hadn’t considered. Much engagement work with schools is dependent on the point of contact, and the willingness of teachers to do the work associated with hosting. Because Alice is the only librarian on campus, she has to do “the admin for, and promotion of, these events on my own,” in addition to her regular work.
Equally, on the festival side, it isn’t as simple as having people who are properly trained to go into schools and provide a good experience for students. As Emily Westmoreland, festival program director of Willy Lit Fest from 2023-2025, emphasised, festivals are hampered by a “lack of festival staff/funding to pay staff to complete the additional paperwork and planning that working with schools and an already full curriculum requires.” Remember, any contact with minors triggers a whole range of regulatory requirements.
Moreover, SezzaJai explained that often, the teacher who is a point of contact will leave the school either without handing over the relationship, or without there being someone willing to take over that extra work. What strikes me here is there is need for there to be buy in from both sides – school and festival – for literary activities to happen in schools.
Troy observed that, especially when it comes to raising the profile of local authors and OzYA, “Teachers and librarians seem to be the secret sauce,” adding, “the CBCA seems very influential too.” Thus, finding points of contact in schools, and being able to put on good events for them is a key way that even small festivals program YA.
But there’s one final piece of the discussion when we talk about YA at festivals: adult readers of YA – where do they come into this?
Obviously YA is primarily intended for, well, young adults. But we can’t ignore the fact that at least half of all YA readers are well and truly adults. Troy suggested writers festivals “just don’t know what to do with [YA]” when it comes to programming. He revealed that he encouraged the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival to feature YA crime by “pointing out the significant stats showing how many YA readers are adults.”
One potential avenue is for festivals to consider actively working to reach a younger audience. SezzaJai shared with me that the NT Writers Festival’s audience demographic is largely educated attendees, 80% of whom are women, and 50% of whom are over 50. This is in keeping with other festivals, as has been widely observed. SezzaJai said that the NT Writers Festival is trying to lower the age of attendees, which includes a new marketing strategy in terms of look and language, supported by diverse programming, such as the mothers panel or queer panel in 2025.
It makes sense. To ensure their longevity, festivals need to attract new (and younger) attendees. However, one might also argue those demographics aren’t showing up because events aren’t events put on for them. Alice noted of Odyssey Lit Fest: “due to being a student-led festival, the audience skewed younger than other literary festivals. A lot of the audience was probably between 18-30.” There’s something in here about the potential of undergraduate university students being an untapped market and demographic for YA (or New Adult!)-related events.
Alice further pointed out: “the inclusion of YA programming at festivals = future-proofing the literary sector. It’s an opportunity to ignite the spark for so many young people, who might then become adult readers/writers/festival attendees.”
Ultimately, smaller writers festivals need to be vociferously applauded for their dedication and output. It makes sense that their limited resources require them to pick and choose their programming, especially when teenagers have limited mobility and funds to be able to attend mainstream festival events.
If there’s any takeaway from this beyond appreciating the often unsung heroes of our literary sector, it’s that you simply cannot underestimate the resources required for festivals to hold in-house events for schools. If there were a way to provide those resources and develop closer relationships between smaller festivals and schools, that seems like a great way to see an expansion of YA events.
However, I do think there’s also a conversation to be had about finding ways to reach the demographic of 18-23 year olds who often do have mobility, financial resources, and free time to attend mainstream program events. Maybe that means partnering with universities to hold events on campus. Maybe that means more direct marketing to that age group who are local to smaller festivals. Maybe it’s something else.
Certainly, it’s a conversation in which I’d be a very willing participant.
As always, a huge thanks to the people who have so generously contributed to this month’s Ask Alice:
Troy Hunter’s debut novel Gus and the Missing Boy was published in March 2024 and was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Best Debut Crime Fiction Award and the BAD Sydney Danger Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction. The sequel Gus and the Burning Stones was published in August 2025. He is the co-host of the Words and Nerds spinoff podcast @queerwritessessions. You can find him on his Instagram: @troyhunterwriter.
Fishy Stories and Michael Hyde who was a secondary school teacher for 25 years, then a lecturer in Creative Writing and Childrens Literature for 20 years at Victoria University, as well as an author of Young Adult fiction.
Byron Writers Festival (who were very quick to reply to me, but unable to meet my timeline)
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