Meet 2017 Digital Creative Producer Samantha Glennie! She’s a poet and writing student from Queensland with a cosmic perspective on life. We spoke with Sam this week to find out more about where she comes from, what sort of writing she’s into and why she’s excited about working with DWF.

What drew you to apply for a role with DWF as a creative producer?

I was drawn to the Digital Writers’ Festival because of its accessibility to rural writers. As an aspiring writer who grew up in rural towns, I wasn’t aware of the writing community until I began attending university in Brisbane. Living in or near a capital city tends to afford you more support and opportunities as a writer, and initiatives like the Digital Writers’ Festival are so wonderful because they help bridge this gap. I applied in the hopes of being able to contribute to and learn from this environment and, in doing so, reach out to other rural writers and create opportunities for them as well.

What sort of digital writers / texts get you excited?

I get excited about any digital writers and creatives who experiment. Some of my current favourites are Tim Urban, author of the fantastic thought blog Wait But Why – I’d recommend his Elon Musk series, and his TED talk, ‘Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator’, illustrator and comic artist Sarah Andersen, who touches on the experience of being a young creative in a hilarious and relatable way, and Nate DiMeo, creator of the mesmerising podcast The Memory Palace, which tells historical stories in a poetic, stylised tone.

What are you reading at the moment?

I’m terrible at committing to a single book – I tend to start several books at once and leave them all around the house to continue reading whenever I come across them again. At the moment, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is on my bedside table, American Gods by Neil Gaiman is in the kitchen, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson is on the couch, and I think my set texts for university are hiding somewhere in the garage.

Aside from being a creative producer, what else do you do?

I’m a third-year creative writing student at the Queensland University of Technology. I’m also working on a transdisciplinary project for the Ars Electronica festival in Austria, and a second internship with the Queensland Poetry Festival, helping to bring poets from all over the world to Brisbane. As well as those, I often volunteer at festivals, and I’m writing an existentialist science-fiction novel manuscript.

What’s the best piece of advice you can give any digital creatives reading this?

Whatever you want to do in life, do it – as soon as you possibly can. Also, watch Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey by Neil deGrasse Tyson and learn about the cosmic perspective. It’s crazy amazing that life exists at all, and it’s even more crazy amazing that we live in a time where the internet exists. Take advantage of it.

The 2017 Digital Writers’ Festival will run from October 26 – November 3. The program launches on October 2, you’ll be able to see the amazing events Sam is working on for DWF then – stay tuned!