Event: Melbourne Writer’s Festival

I thought I’d use today’s blog to tell you that (1) I met both legendary YA authors Rainbow Rowell and David Levithan last week, (2) they signed my copies of their books and (3) they waxed lyrical about each other’s work, diversity and young adult fiction during the YA Superstars event for MWF.

MWF, for the uninitiated, is the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, an annual event “for everyone who reads.” This was actually my first year attending, and I had such a great time attending that it made me wonder why I hadn’t been sooner!

Rainbow and David were asked lots of questions during the hour-long event from the moderator and the audience, all the while having a laugh and a good old geek-out about books. The best part though was when the pair read an extract from Rainbow’s Fangirl (Rainbow as Simon Snow and David as Baz), followed by an extract from You Know Me Well (coauthored by Nina LaCour; David as Mark, narrator and a super-gay art gallery employee, Rainbow as Kate). The scenes were so funny read aloud, especially with David’s dramatic re-enactments.

Something that I didn’t expect – though it was incredibly nice – was that I recognised several people at the event, including a vlogger, someone I follow on Twitter, and a university lecturer in Publishing. I still feel relatively new to this community and know I’ve only just touched the surface of all the wonderful reviewers and readers out there, but I’m excited about the possibility to make friends with passionate, intelligent people and keep up the discussion about the books and authors we love!

   

Did you attend any of the Melbourne Writer’s Festival events this year? Have you read anything by David Leviathan or Rainbow Rowell? (I’ve only read the four pictured below so far). Let me know in the comments!