10 Reasons Why Going To Melbourne Writers Festival This Year Is A Matter Of Life And Death

Listen up, words people. This year's Melbourne Writers Festival promises to be a writers festival like you've never seen or heard before.

For 10 days, the Melbourne Writers Festival is putting on a rich, interactive experience that’ll teach us about life, death, love, literature, and more.

You can get up close and personal with the authors you adore, sometimes in small venues and libraries, as they explore the power of words and the writing process. For example, see Nobel Prize for Literature winner JM Coetzee read his new story "The Glass Abattoir" at Animal Church on Flinders Street.

Could it even make you fall in love with life again? Big claim, but we're making it. And here are the reasons:

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Reason #1: You may learn how actually to be happy.

Four artists share their thoughts and processes for staying positive and changing their inner monologues for the better. Open your ears to author Hedley Derenzie, commentator Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, journalist Jill Stark, and performer Sista Zai Zanda (pictured), with Idil Ali.

Reason #2: You may resolve the eternal question of whether it's possible to separate your heart from your art.

Join singer-songwriter and author Sally Seltmann (Lovesome) in conversation with ABC and Eurovision superstar Myf Warhurst about love, the creative process, and women who make art.

Reason #3: You may rediscover the joy of walking.

Stroll alongside creative duo The Gents as they walk down memory lane, reminiscing on 16 years of life and love in Melbourne’s CBD. Exploring the personal and political, the walk will highlight places of historical significance for Melbourne’s LGBTIQ community.

Reason #4: You may pick up some inspiration for your intimate life.

Check out a session called Sacred Texts: The Book That Made Me a Better Lover, in which four panellists reveal the books that set them on a path to a more pleasurable love life.

Reason #5: You can get great tips on what for many would be the ultimate fulfillment — finding a publisher.

Join award-winning author Claire G Coleman (pictured) and her publisher Robert J Watkins in a talk with Sybil Nolan from Grattan Street Press about getting your manuscript seen, how to choose the right publisher, and knowing if you really need a literary agent.

Anyway, onto the other side of the equation, here's why the festival is as much a matter of death as it is of life:

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Reason #1: If anyone can teach us about death, it's this guy.

This former African child soldier escaped war-torn Burundi and became a rapper and young Victorian achiever of the year. Fablice Manirakiza will be discussing the healing power, strength and influence of music with his mentor, Paulie Stewart, front man of rock band Painters and Dockers.

Reason #2: They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.

That's the title of a conversation and performance about the role of music in activist movements and the lyricism of resistance featuring American poet, essayist, and critic Hanif Abdurraqib (pictured), Peruvian-Australian music video director and writer Triana Hernandez, and New Zealand poet, playwright, and musician Courtney Sina Meredith.

Reason #3: If you've lost a pet, you can come sing it out!

Join chorus master Henry Wagons in an almighty hymn to the animal friends we’ve loved and lost in an event titled Farewell Old Friend: A Singalong.

Reason #4: You can also explore another proven way to deal with loss, which is to write about it.

In a workshop titled The Funeral Parlour: Love Letters to Loss, you are warmly invited to write a letter to whom or what you have lost. Your words of sorrow and heartache will be folded to form an intimate artwork of woe. This participatory art will immerse audiences in a cathartic healing experience.

Reason #5: You can take comfort in — or be appalled by — the idea that, at the end of the day, we're all just walkin' bags of meat.

Join writer and academic Hayley Singer in The Fleischgeist, a conversation about flesh, meat culture, embodied resistance, ruthless commodification, queer animal-human corporealities…and novels that tell stories of meaty bodies.

So, that's about the sum of it. Life and death, people. In Melbourne.

Oh, and literary tattoos.

The Melbourne Writers Festival runs from 24 Aug–2 Sept. See the full program here.

All images and facts courtesy of Melbourne Writers Festival unless otherwise stated