Featuring eight days of panels, performances, workshops, a book fair, and parties across the city, Victoria’s LGBTQIA+ Festival of Words, Q-Lit, will be presenting its first metro festival from 20 – 28 June 2025.
Following three years of state-wide touring that brought queer literary events to 16 towns across Victoria, Q-Lit 2025 marks a new chapter for the organisation: transforming into a major cultural moment on Melbourne’s calendar and filling a long-overdue space for LGBTQIA+ literature and storytelling.
This year’s theme “What fills your cup?” asks audiences to reflect on the stories, voices, and connections that sustain us, in all their messy, joyous, and powerful forms. It’s a celebration of queer creativity across generations and genres, centring storytelling as survival, celebration, and resistance.
“This year’s program is bursting with queer brilliance, storytelling in all its forms, from poetry and memoir to drag, comedy, song, and academic insights. I’m so proud that we’re giving space to over 60 LGBTQIA+ writers to share their words with the world,” said Timothy Ryan, Q-Lit’s Creative Director and Co-Programmer.
From Books to Drag, Comedy to Conversation, the 2025 program spans eight days, with each day dedicated to different elements of the queer storytelling experience:
Friday 20 June: Opening Gala @ Mission to Seafarers, Docklands
A spectacular launch featuring performances from a cross-section of festival artists.
Saturday 21 June: Day of Books @ Victorian Pride Centre, St Kilda
Featuring a Queer Book Fair with local authors and publishers, a Youth Writing Workshop, and the community-led panel Books That Shaped Generations, shaped by a public survey on the queer books that changed lives.
Sunday 22 June: Masterclass Series @ Kathleen Syme Centre, Carlton
Learn from award-winning authors including Amie Kaufman, Reimena Yee and Claire G. Coleman in a series of interactive writing masterclasses for emerging and hobby writers.
Tuesday 24 June: Researching Our Culture @ Library at the Dock
A powerful night of lightning lectures by LGBTQIA+ academics unpacking queer identity, history, language and culture.
Wednesday 25 June: Afternoon of Stories @ Fringe Common Rooms, Carlton
An afternoon panel (Write or Wrong: Living Through Capitalism) on writing for love vs. money, followed by a powerful storytelling showcase of queer lived experience.
Thursday 26 June: Comedy Sesh @ Evie’s Disco Diner, Fitzroy
A night of queer hilarity, featuring Drag Race winner Lazy Susan on a panel of RuPaul vs. The Stories We Need, followed by a comedy showcase with stars Scout Boxall, Urvi Majumdar and more.
Friday 27 June: Evening Romance @ Kindred Studios, Yarraville
A celebration of queer love and lust through a panel on non-binary and bisexual romance in fiction, followed by Cheeky – an adults-only poetry showcase full of heart, heat and humour.
Saturday 28 June: Closing Party @ Kensington Town Hall
A massive, feel-good finale with live performances from LGBTQIA+ singer-songwriters and playful interactive writing activities. Bring your friends, meet someone new, and help us wrap the festival with joy and connection.
“If you’d asked me, ‘What fills your cup?’ at almost any point in my career, I would’ve said: books, writing, and queerness. So to now have programmed a week-long festival full of all three is a dream. There’s always a seat at our table,” said Michael Earp, Q-Lit’s Chair and Co-Programmer.
“Instead of searching a packed festival program for a handful of LGBTQIA+ writers, at Q-Lit the whole program is for us. Punters will leave feeling part of something, not peripheral to it,” said Sarah Hart, Q-Lit Co-Chair.
The 2025 Q-Lit Festival runs 20 – 28 June. For more information and full program, visit: www.q-lit.com.au for details.
Image: Queer Book Fair – photo by Telepathic Creative