By Jess Lilley
Behind the headlines, writers festivals still fulfil a core community function.
Najma Sambul is a journalist and comms professional who has grown up in Braybrook. The west is home to her, a place where she feels at ease. But it’s not the case everywhere. She says, “I’m noticing more and more, people see a muslim woman in a hijab and feel comfortable approaching me to demand answers for the questions they have, based on misinformation they’ve seen online. The barrier between digital and real world confrontation seems to be diminishing, and it’s a worry.”
It’s experiences like this that have informed the discussion Najma will host at the Footscray West Writers Fest on Saturday, March 28th: The Algorithm is Leaking.
In an effort to make sense of how fractured news sources and online echo chambers are fuelling people’s real-world choices, Najma will be joined by former Guardian journalist, Deepcut News founder and Sunshine resident, Antoun Issa; and writer, journalist and trans activist, Natalie Feliks.
Speaking of echo chambers, Liberty Victoria president and public law barrister, Gemma Cafarella (herself a West Footscray resident), will also be taking part in a discussion, titled Alarm Bells & Echo Chambers. She will be joined by Yorta Yorta writer and broadcaster, Daniel James, and Centre Against Racial Profiling founder, Ilo Diaz, in a clarion cry to the west to maintain its true character in the face of a kind of suburban homogenisation and gentrification that uses fearmongering around crime and safety to dull a community’s cultural edges.
It is conversations like these that go to the heart of what writers festivals are good for – a question repeatedly asked over the past twelve months after they have been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Both the Bendigo Writers Festival and Adelaide Writers Week faced mass boycotts and accusations of censorship following hamfisted responses to the targeting of Palestinian-Australian writer Randa Abdel-Fattah. It has given us a moment of pause in our programming for Footscray West Writers Fest 2026. A moment that has galvanised our purpose behind this year’s theme, Words & Action – a promise to platform writers, ideas and conversations that are meaningful to our local communities, creating ripples of action that can improve our little patch of the world. While we have a core group of predominantly volunteer festival organisers, the program is born from a broad community of writers, poets and thinkers, whose ideas traverse a huge range of discussions, readings and workshops.
Until the recent news headlines, writers festivals have had the veneer of being quite sedate affairs, where controversy only reared its head when audience members mistook question time for an opportunity to make their own lengthy statements (or Gormansplaining, as I like to call it.) But that was to miss the point of these incredible opportunities for community gathering, discussion, conversation, debate and, importantly, listening.
To dig a little deeper, a discussion titled Why Writers Festivals? In light of recent events, Blak & Bright festival founder and Bardi Jawi descendant, Bebe Oliver, and historian and festival curator, Prof. Clare Wright, will consider the role of writers festivals moving forward.
But Footscray West Writers Fest isn’t just about discussions. We are proud to be hosting a huge number of writers reading their own work, kicking off with an incredible opening night lineup featuring artistic collaborations between writers and performers at Footscray Drill Hall, titled Words Can Save the World.
These moments for writers to connect with audiences are invaluable, both as sharing, validation and practice for the writers but also as a horizon-expanding moment for audiences to hear and experience other ways of seeing the world.
At our program launch at The Chestnut Tree Book Shop on 13 February, we were overwhelmed by the community turnout. Time and time again we were told how much we all need these opportunities for gathering, reflection, discovery and discussion that we rarely have time for in the cut and thrust of our everyday lives.
For one weekend, let’s ignore the algorithm completely, and instead be led by the wonder of words and ideas that just might spark action for us all.
Jess Lilley is a writer and broadcaster and one of the organisers of Footscray West Writers Fest.
