After a troubled year, former volunteer takes reins of Melbourne Writers Festival

When Veronica Sullivan was 21, she joined the army of volunteers who make sure that all goes to plan when the Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) is up and running. She helped out for several years.

Now she has returned to the organisation in a more elevated position – as the new director. She has taken over from Michaela McGuire, who finished her four-year term after this year’s event. “I wouldn’t have dreamed to think that I might one day be directing the festival,” Sullivan said.

Veronica Sullivan wants to broaden the ways we think about writing and storytelling.Credit: Simon Schluter

What really stuck in her mind from her volunteering days was then-director Lisa Dempster’s approach.

“I loved volunteering for her festivals because I felt like she knew who I was, even though I was one of many volunteers. I think that kind of generosity in leadership – to never be in an ivory tower and to always be friendly and have a relationship with everyone who is part of the festival – that’s something I really admire, and it has stayed with me in terms of what it means to be programming events.”

That encouraging experience propelled Sullivan into curating cultural events. She has interned with the Emerging Writers’ Festival; been prize manager for the Stella Prize; a founding board member and programming manager of the Feminist Writers Festival; and for more than six years has been ensconced at the Wheeler Centre, first as program manager and most recently as head of programming.

She felt that after more than three years in that creative leadership position, “it was the right time for me, but also for the Wheeler Centre, to have some new leadership come in”.

This year has been a troublesome one for MWF. Its then chair, Alice Hill, left in March, and deputy chairman Leslie Reti resigned in protest at what he considered to be anti-Israel material in the festival program. Also departing were the chief executive, development manager and head of marketing.

While Sullivan agrees that it’s been a year of personnel change, she said she felt that it presented an opportunity for a fresh start.

“It’s a privilege to come in and build a team and think about what kind of culture I want to create internally and what qualities I admire and can bring into the new era. And what things I can do differently.”

She acknowledges that it presents a creative challenge, but said she didn’t feel there were any “skeletons in the closet that were alarming”. The festival was robust and had strong systems in place: “I feel very well-supported and very excited.”

In its financial report for last calendar year to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, MWF stated it had four full-time employees and a gross income of $1.59 million, made up of $620,200 from government, donations of $243,319, and revenue “from goods and services” of $707,100. Its net surplus was $105,972, and its net assets amount to slightly more than $500,000.

In her programming, Sullivan said she would like to explore “broadening the ways we think about writing and storytelling – of course, retaining traditional books and journalism – but also thinking about oral storytelling and podcasting and other ways of consuming story”.

Sullivan is also keen to increase the presence of genre writing in the festival and consider more commercial books such as romance and romantasy that haven’t historically had a strong place in festivals, yet have huge readerships.

Miranda July is on Veronica Sullivan’s wishlist for MWF.Credit: Getty

She’d also like to increase the amount of free programming at MWF, but cautions that it’s hard to do when recovering from the financially challenging COVID years. “I think there’s scope now to start bringing in some [free events],” she said, but added that the organisation was not in a position to make the whole festival free like Adelaide Writers’ Week.

“But MWF does have a really good mix of different forms of revenue. Ticket sales are obviously very important, as is government funding, but we also have significant philanthropic support, strong partnerships and corporate sponsorships. So there’s a nice sort of diverse range of revenue streams, which is really great in terms of sustainability.”

Despite taking the helm of a big-city writers’ festival, Sullivan is a fan of smaller regional festivals, of which there are more and more.

“I think there’s a need and a demand in every community. And what’s really beautiful about a lot of these regional and smaller festivals is that they have their own distinct personality that’s very tied to their location. Western Port Writes has a lot of [Mornington] Peninsula-based writers. I think that’s really beautiful, celebrating the local community.”

Meanwhile, Sullivan is busy sending off invitations to her first festival. On her wishlist are American writers Ta-Nehisi Coates and Miranda July – “she’s a really interesting thinker who’s also an artist” – and Chinese writer Liu Cixin.

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