Willy Lit Fest program director Emily Westmoreland has lived in Thailand, Madrid and London, but has found a home in Hobsons Bay. She spoke to Matthew Sims about what inspires her or excites her about the west.
What is your connection with Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay?
As an adult, I’ve lived on every side of the city and the west is the first place I’ve
called ‘home’.
I’ve been here ever since.
What do you love about where you live?
The sense of expansiveness and closeness, simultaneously.
I feel close to the city, to my community and to the beach while feeling the seascape and opportunities for growth make the west feel expansive.
What other places have shaped you into who you are today?
I grew up in Thailand and have recently (pre-pandemic) lived in both Madrid and London.
Madrid and London brought me back to books – I was reaffirmed in the power of storytelling as an act of community in these cities.
Ironic, given there is more than 40,000 years of storytelling culture in Australia.
I had to leave in order to return to it.
Why is the west a vibrant place for literary expression?
So many local writers live in the west and Hobsons Bay is home to the west’s biggest, boldest, and now oldest literary festival, the Willy Lit Fest.
The festival celebrates 20 years in 2023, and we’re launching the program on Thursday, May 4.
There’s an active Homegrown Hobson’s Bay writers’ group and at least five book stores from Willy to West Footscray.
What is your favourite place to spend time?
In the water, I love swimming.
You can find me at The Crystals on a sunny morning.
I also love spending time in other peoples’ bookstores.
Tell us something people would be surprised to know about you.
All my favourite activities of reading and swimming you can do alone, but I’m actually hugely extroverted.
Whilst I love doing my own thing, I prefer to be surrounded by other people.
