Young wordsmiths are being invited to put down roots at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival.

The festival runs from October 2 to October 4, offering eight free events aimed at creators aged 18 to 35.

Based at Te Whare o Rukutia and the Dunedin Community Gallery, the festival aims to create a welcoming, inclusive and accessible space for skill-building, creativity, performance and community connection.

In a statement, Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust festival producer Vanessa Beck said she was looking forward to welcoming many young writers to the free events.

“The programme is looking exciting, full of fresh voices and challenging topics,” Beck said.

“We’ve been really inspired working alongside our tuakana, teina and workshop hosts to develop the programme — their voices are so powerful and so interesting.”

The festival continues a wānaka model piloted last year at Puketeraki Marae, supported by Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki and Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou.

This initiative supports a cohort of 26 emerging writers led by tuakana Rauhina Kohuwai-Banks and Eric Soakai.

Both mentors bring deep literary experience to the group.

Kohuwai-Banks (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Ngāi Pākehā) is a Dunedin-based poet working on a bilingual children’s book about pakake, New Zealand sea lions.

Soakai is an award-winning Samoan (Poutasi/Falealili) and Tongan (Pangai/Ha’apai) performance artist who facilitates poetry workshops for youth across the country.

The pair are mentoring participants Tara Leckie and Yueke Li, who will each present public workshops during the weekend.

Leckie will guide participants during a low-lit session exploring themes of fear in the writing process, while Li will facilitate a multilingual collaborative poetry class inspired by whakapapa that will explore embracing multilingual expression as a chorus of different voices, rhythms and histories.

Other highlights include a zine-making tutorial and the high-energy Otago Poetry Slam Champs.

The full schedule of events is available at youngwritersfest.nz/2026-programme. Events are free to attend but bookings are recommended as there is limited space.

— Allied Media