Each year, the National Young Writers’ Festival (NYWF) supports over 100 artists, 40 volunteers, two dozen staff and board members to deliver an entirely free four-day festival in Newcastle, NSW. We celebrate our 23rd birthday in 2020: look at us becoming adults!

We are Australia’s original young writers’ festival, helping launch the careers of artists and writers.

For over 20 years, we’ve pulled off this significant festival with the support of generous funding partners. But we want to grow, expand and provide more support and features for our artists, staff, volunteers and audience – so we’re asking for your help. This year we're online, but we want to make sure we can sustainably bring the festival back to Newcastle!

• Did you know that we pay each artist $60 minimum per event?
• Did you know that, on average, it costs us $400 to have an artist attend the festival?
• Did you know that it costs $3,000 to provide (only!) 15 travel stipends to help artists from marginalised communities attend the festival?
• Did you know that it costs $5,000 to run our Younger Young Writers’ Program, which provides teenagers with access to writers, authors and publishers?
• Did you know that, at our last in-person festival, 40% of our budget is dedicated to paying artists, including their accommodation and travel?

Ongoing support is vital to our festival to ensure that we continue our long legacy of introducing new Australian voices to the community and that we continue to produce a 100% free festival.

NYWF is a not-for-profit organisation with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status, and we are a registered charity. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Become a superhero today: our donor levels are listed below.

• Superhero: $500+
• Side-kick: $350+
• Wise mentor: $150+
• Fanclub: $0.01+

If you would like more information on how you can support the National Young Writers’ Festival, please email Saoirse Nash at Saoirse@youngwritersfestival.org