Boundless Festival event series 2023

Call for submissions from emerging curators of writing events

Applications are now open for the Writing NSW development program for emerging literary curators from First Nations or culturally diverse backgrounds.

The program will give up to five emerging curators the experience of programming an individual event in our 2023 Boundless Festival event series. Selected curators will receive a $500 fee for their participation in the program, along with support from Writing NSW and guidance from Sheila Ngoc Pham, writer, editor, producer and curator of literary events including for The Finishing School, Writing NSW and Addi Road Writers’ Festival.

To apply for the emerging curator program, click here. Applications close 7 May 2023.

Boundless Festival History

The Boundless Festival was established by Writing NSW in 2017, in partnership with Bankstown Arts Centre and Sweatshop. The first Australian festival to focus on First Nations and culturally diverse writers, the biennial event gives a platform to established writers and emerging voices from a rich array of genres and styles. Authors, writers for performance, journalists, poets and interdisciplinary practitioners come together to discuss the important issues of our times and the value of story.

The 2019 festival won FBi Radio’s SMAC award for Sydney’s Best Arts Program. In 2021, the festival was further enriched with the launch of a new Writing NSW development program for emerging literary curators. Curators Zohra Aly, Annie Brockenhuus-Schack and Tina Huang designed the festival under the guidance of Sisonke Msimang, curator of the literature and ideas program at Perth Festival. Covid restrictions meant the 2021 festival had to be reimagined as an online event, attracting an enthusiastic audience from around the country.

More information about previous Boundless festivals can be found here.

Apply now for the opportunity to curate an event in 2023

The 2023 Boundless program will build on the success of previous festivals, and reach out to new audiences, through a series of stand-alone events curated by the successful applicants to the Writing NSW development program, and staged in different geographical locations between August and November 2023. The full program will be announced in July.

For more details about the emerging curator program and to apply, click here. Applications close 7 May 2023.

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Boundless is presented by Writing NSW with the support of Create NSW.