by Connor Goodwin
Over the next few weeks (Feb. 13-24), there will be an "online carnival dedicated to what happens when technology and the written word collide." Otherwise titled, the Digital Writer's Festival. The festival itself will take place in Australia, but not to worry for all the events will be live-streamed. However, all events will happen in Australian Eastern Time (AEDT). For those in Chicago (CST), we are 14 hours behind. All those literary insomniacs will have something to preoccupy themselves with for the month of February. The festival is largely composed of panels that will be discussing all aspects of the literary sphere and its interaction with the digital sphere. This includes publishing with e-readers, sexting, teen blogs, the multilingual web, the ethics of digital journalism, and many more. There are dozens of writers, readers, and publishers involved in the festival. Many will be participating via video conference call. Included are authors such as Giancarlo DiTrapano (NY Tyrant Books/ Magazine), Blake Butler (HTMLgiant), Ken Baumann, and Mira Gonzalez. Not surprisingly, all of these names came across through their internet presence, via Twitter, blogs, and Tumblr. The authors mentioned above are only a small fraction of those participating—the festival is hosting an international array of speakers. This global scale emphasizes the kind of transcendence of boundaries made possible by the digital age.
