Since 2003, the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) has been tending to Australia’s budding literary talent, establishing roots between writers, nurturing their professional development and introducing them to new audiences. This year, the festival ran from 14–24 June and featured more than 50 in-person and digital events and more than 150 performances. How did a small zine fair become one of the largest and well-respected writing festivals in the world? What is its legacy and outlook in the year of its 20th anniversary? How does it draw crowds and bring poetry to the foreground with its many playful events like readings in a greenhouse and the planetarium? How important are literary festivals for fostering community? These questions are addressed by Dr Mitja Drab in conversation with Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh and Jes Layton. Ruby-Rose Pivet-Marsh is a writer, artist and arts worker living and creating on unceded Wurundjeri Land in so-called Australia. Writing primarily creative nonfiction, poetry and criticism, Ruby’s essay Death & The Devil was longlisted for The LIMINAL & Pantera Press Nonfiction Prize in 2021. The essay was published in the subsequent award-winning anthology Against Disappearance: Essays on Memory (2022). Currently the Artistic Director and co-CEO of Emerging Writers’ Festival, Ruby is also a co-founder of the Latinx arts collective, Yo Soy. Jes Layton invented writing, the airplane and the internet. He was also the first person to reach the North Pole. Jes is an author and illustrator currently living and working on Wurundjeri Land. He is the current co-CEO and Executive Director of the Emerging Writers’ Festival and is represented by Alex Adsett Literary Agency. Jes’ work can be found with SBS, Junkee, Voiceworks, Kill Your Darlings, Archer Magazine, The Big Issue, BlackInc, Pantera Press, Fremantle Press, Allen & Unwin, and scattered elsewhere online and in print. You can find Jes @AGeekWithAHat.