The Wheeler Centre’s Hot Desk Fellowships are wrapping up for 2023, and in this instalment of our ever-popular Next Big Thing series, we’re showcasing writers from the third intake of fellows. Grab a drink from the Moat bar and be the first to hear excerpts from these exciting projects-in-progress. Featuring Caroline Arnoul, Sienna Barton, Anneliz Marie Erese, moirra, Jack Nicholls, Ellen O’Brien and Lucy Robin, these works – ranging from speculative fiction, literary fiction, memoir, non-fiction essays and young adult fiction – have all been refined over the writers’ ten-week fellowships. Unfortunately, Ellen O'Brien and Lucy Robin are no longer able to appear at this event.
The Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowships are supported by the Readings Foundation and Just Pretending theatre group.
The Next Big Thing takes place every month at the Moat and is a cherished Melbourne institution. It’s the place to be if you want to hear great emerging writers read from new and adventurous work.
Accessible toilets available
Assistive Listening
Registered Assistance Animals welcome
Wheelchair accessible
Caroline Arnoul lives and works on the Mornington Peninsula outside Melbourne on the lands of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. She is a graduate of the RMIT Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing ...
Sienna Barton is a Naarm-based writer, artist and model. Her writing focuses on issues like body image, relationships and sex, feminism, and familial trauma. She holds a BA in Creative Writing, an Hons in Media Comms and ...
Anneliz Marie Erese is a Filipino writer whose works have appeared in Going Down Swinging, The Saturday Paper, Meanjin, Island Online and Cordite Poetry Review, among others. She is an alumnus of Express Media’s Toolkits: Fiction program (2017) ...
Jack Nicholls writes science-fiction stories, cultural essays, children’s books and whatever else takes their fancy – all part of their attempt to chronicle the narrowing space in our culture between plausible imagination and ...
moirra (xe/xer, they/them) is a Yorta Yorta, Boon Wurrung, Jewish, and queer transsexual self-taught writer, poet, and artist living in Naarm. Xer work has been showcased in multiple art exhibitions, including the Koorie Heritage ...
Diem is the Wheeler Centre’s Program Coordinator. She has worked at the Emerging Writers’ Festival, Writers Victoria, and the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) ...