Spark creative thinking at IGNITE.
Hyphen Wodonga presents a learning event open to all students aged 12 to 18.
IGNITE is a day-long event discussing writing, life, big ideas and finding your voice.
Through a series of panel talks and workshops, young people will be empowered and learn how to express their great ideas.
Each student will have the opportunity to attend two break-out workshops on the day. Students and teachers will also attend panels by guest speakers in the auditorium throughout the day.
Guest speakers
Will Kostakis
First published at nineteen, Will Kostakis is best known for writing whip-smart comedies that break (then mend) hearts, and occasionally making national news for resisting local book and author bans. We Could Be Something is his latest novel. It won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature.
Reimena Yee
Reimena is a strange and fancy graphic novelist, illustrator and designer originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and currently based in Melbourne, Australia. She is also the curator behind the Comics Devices Library and the co-founder and co-organiser of UNNAMED and the Cartoonist Cooperative.
Natasha Hertanto
Natasha Hertanto is a Chinese-Indonesian writer, public speaker, and educator based in Naarm. Her work can be found on Kill Your Darlings, ABC, Australian Multilingual Project, Archer and more. Her short stories are part of the anthologies Everything All At Once (Ultimo Press, 2021) and New Australian Fiction 2023 (Kill Your Darlings, 2023). She is working on her debut, a historical fiction YA novel.
Alison Evans
Alison Evans is the award-winning author of the queer YA books Ida, Highway Bodies, and Euphoria Kids. Alison is a contributor in Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories, HomeTown Haunts: A Horror #LoveOzYA anthology, co-edits the zine Concrete Queers and is the fiction editor for #enbylife. They are based on Wurundjeri Land.
Michael Earp
Michael Earp is a non-binary writer and bookseller living in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia), the editor of Everything Under the Moon: Fairy tales in a queerer light, Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories, Out-Side: Queer Words and Art from Regional Victoria and co-edited Avast! Pirate Stories From Transgender Authors with Alison Evans. They have a teaching degree and a Masters in children’s literature and have worked between bookselling and publishing for over twenty years as a children’s literature specialist. Their role managing The Little Bookroom saw them named ABA Bookseller of the year. Their writing has also appeared in Archer, The Age, PopMatters, The Victorian Writer, Aurealis as well as the anthologies Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream and Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories.
Testimony from previous attendees:
"I enjoyed the workshops the most because it allowed me to connect and resonate with the person and allowed me to access my creativity. My most memorable moment was reading out something I had written and feeling safe and heard. I loved the environment and connection with the speakers. I loved being able to ask questions and understand the speakers."
"Hearing the poets, writers and authors speak was really inspirational and the workshop also gave me some different understandings of how I can be writing some stories and what personal skills they use that have also helped me. I have absolutely loved this program. It's not only been fun but learning a lot and seeing how it will be helpful for story writing in the future. Some of their speeches, for example Ren and Leanne I can really relate."