Duyen is a freelance creative and communications consultant, producer and writer. After realising she loved her Arts degree more than she loved her Law Degree, she became a non-traditional Arts/Law Graduate working with Arts House (Festival of Live Art 2018, Refuge 2017), Melbourne Fringe Festival 2017 (Fringe Furniture, Pivot, Forest Fringe, The Children’s Party) and Transitions Film Festival 2018. She is also currently part of Malthouse Theatre’s 2018 Vanguard. 

What aspect of the Creative Producer role are you most excited about?

I’m very excited about getting an event up and running from the ground up and challenging myself with an event that I’ve never done before.

I love to work with creative people so I’m looking forward to working with the artists on my event and getting to see the journey unfold for both them and me.

I’m really looking forward to the creative collaboration because I think great work comes from bouncing ideas from one another and letting the idea go somewhere you had never planned for. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster but I’m very excited.

What are some of the other creative roles you are currently involved in?

At the time of writing, I’m currently an Assistant Producer for The Festival of Live Art with Arts House (FOLA), part of Malthouse Theatre’s 2018 Vanguard and I’ve recently finished up with Transitions Film Festival in a publicity and outreach capacity. I also do freelance work as a Creative and Communications Consultant and blog through my website, RadioHeart. Currently, I’m working on Capitalism Works For Me by Steve Lambert and New National Sport by Cigdem Aydemir as part of FOLA. Suffice it to say, I am a busy bee at the moment with EWF on top of it all.

What would the title of your memoir be?

Off the top of my head, it would be something like ‘Reaching for the sun’. I’ve never seen myself as someone reaching for the stars.

What are some key themes/ideas/representations that you hope to see produced more by emerging writers?

Well, I would really love to see more comics/graphic novels/manga in wider circulation from emerging writers. I am a big fan of Shoujo manga and I can’t quite explain how beautiful it is to see such complex emotions encapsulated in such a fantastic medium. I also hope to see more work on queer stories and the topic of love, on all sorts of love. I think we all could do with more love in the universe.

If you could visit any fictional world, which one would it be?

Without a doubt, I would want to visit the world of Harry Potter. I know it’s an obvious choice but I think I would literally cry if I was to visit the world of Harry Potter and see all the characters roaming about.

What do you hope to do after Emerging Writers?

That’s a hard one. I’ve recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts/Law and right now and I can see so many paths ahead of me. I feel old and young all at the same time and I can’t quite decide.

At this point in time, I hope to do more producing/programming/curating work but I’m also big on doing some marketing and publicity work in the creative sector. And of course, writing more.

The 2018 Emerging Writers’ Festival will run from 19 – 29 June. Duyen is working on what is sure to be an incredible event, find out details when the program launches on 15 May.

Interview by fellow Creative Producer Vishaka Kumar.