With David Quirk, Emilie Zoey Baker, Sean M. Whelan, Matt Kelly, Cusser Kev, Damien Lawlor, Ben Poijbe, Will Hindmarsh & Clem Bastow. Curated by Josh Earl.

Melbourne's finest wordsmiths have been invited to create new works inspired by and drawn from the lyrics of iconic singer/songwriter Nick Cave's vast repertoire for WORDSTOCK, a one night festival of words. New songs, poems, short plays and performance pieces will be unleashed.

Both reinvention and inspiration, WORDSTOCK is set to once more be the highlight performance event of the Emerging Writers' Festival. Transcending genres like Nick Cave himself, this homage through bricolage challenges poets, spoken word artists, stand up comedians, ranters, theatre groups, sketch comedians and choirs to storm the stage with their new works inspired by the best of Cave's catalogue including Red Right Hand, Into My Arms, Dig, Lazarus Dig!, and Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow.

WORDSTOCK has been curated by Josh Earl, a comedian (by night) and librarian (by day).

WORDSTOCK performers include:

David Quirk, a stand-up comedian, who grew up as a theatre based actor before dedicating himself to stand-up after studying Performance Studies at Victoria University. In 2007 he made his Melbourne International Comedy Festival debut with his solo show 'I don't wanna tell jokes'. David's 2008 MICF show 'Kathleen Grace' received a Golden Gibbo award nomination.

Emilie Zoey Baker, one of Australia's finest performance poets, who has just returned from a North American tour, and is the 2006 Nimbin World Performance Poetry Cup champion. Her first book, She Wore The Sky On Her Shoulders is out now.

Sean M Whelan, a writer of poetry, prose and works for performance. In 2009 he was a special guest at the Writing Festival in Montreal, Canada. His second book of poetry, Tattooing the Surface of the Moon was released in 2008.

Ben Poijbe, a poet, comedian, writer, and blogger with a weekly column at Australian news commentary site New Matilda. Ben has published two books: a collection of stories and poems, Handy Latin Phrases; and a collection of scripts, The Adventures of Guanacoman.

Will Hindmarsh who performs in the psych pop ensemble The Great Apes, and recently co-wrote and performed the multimedia pop-musical Dan Brown Gets a Visit from Opus Dei in 2008 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Clem Bastow, a senior contributor for Inpress and and writer for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age, Defamer Australia, Beat, Big Issue Australia, jmag, StylusMagazine.com, and many others. She is a member of the RocKwiz Brains Trust and her work has hit bookshelves in Measure Magazine's Best Independent Music Writing of 2003, Playlists, RocKwiz and RocKwiz Volume 2, and the forthcoming anthology Your Mother Would Be Proud. Clem hosts a weekly drive show, on radio 3RRR.

Matt Kelly, the genial half of The List Operators, whose recent sketch and improvisational show was in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Cusser Kev, a musician who has contributed music to the film M and performs as part of the band Smedley & Rolphe

Damien Lawlor, a 3RRR broadcaster and massive Nick Cave fan.