NT Writers’ Festival Wordstorm attracts storytellers from across the world

POETS, writers, storytellers and performers from across the Territory, country and world have descended on Darwin for the opening of the NT Writers’ Festival Wordstorm

Kristy Schubert and Katelnd Griffin will be performing a show with puppets in The Package on Friday as part of the NT Writers' Festival Wordstorm. PICTURE: Ivan Rachman

POETS, writers, storytellers and performers from across the Territory, country and world have descended on Darwin for the opening of the NT Writers’ Festival Wordstorm.

Today is the first day of the annual four-day festival, an event launched in 2004 to celebrate Territorian stories and authors.

Festival director Sally Bothroyd said Wordstorm was not just for writers, but for performers of all disciplines.

“We want to expand the audience’s horizons,” Ms Bothroyd said. “One thing we try to do is speak to NT artists.”

Alice Springs performers Kristy Schubert and Katelnd Griffin were two of the many who made the journey to Darwin to perform the non-verbal production The Package in Wordstorm. Ms Schubert said their one-hour hybrid show was “well loved” by the Alice Springs community.

“It’s been the first time to bring it elsewhere,” she said

“We’re very grateful for the writer’s festival for giving us this chance. It’s somewhere between a dream and a picture book.”

Also in the 2016 program is comedian Magda Szubanski; Indonesian Eka Kurniawan; radio presenter and journalist Richard Glover; and acclaimed NT-born author Marie Munkara.

Wordstorm 2016 runs from until Sunday, with the theme “Fabric of Family.”

For more information, visit www.ntwriters.com.au