'Is the most writing you do in a day replying to a Grindr profile? Or working out how to make yourself appealing, inscrutable and - available? Well, the news is you're using words and words are still the building block of our world. It's how we put our thoughts (and yes lies) into order, how we communicate (or don't). It's how we tell someone we find them attractive - or that we want to meet them, like, yesterday. Without words we cease to be human. But, the way we are reading and writing is changing. We are seeking narrative and information in new medias and engaging with traditional formats in new ways. At the SameSame but Different Readers and Writers Festival authors, playwrights, poets, screenwriters and comic artists will grapple with this changing world and answer the big questions: Where is LGBTQI writing at? What are our LGBTQI audience looking for? Are LGBTQI stories still valid in 2016? Have we learned anything from our past? And what should our future look like? 'Another Dead Fag?' is the title of Sam 'Riding in Cars with (Mostly Straight) Boys' Brooks. He's Metro's pick for 'Auckland's most exciting playwright'. Other bright sparks are Aroha Awarau, Nathan Joe, Amanaki Prescott-Faletau and Josephine Stewart Tewhiu. One thing these playwrights have in common is they are LGBT. Does this give them something special or is it so far behind them it doesn't even matter? Leading playwright Victor Rodger talks to these up-and-coming stars in Auckland's theatre scene about gender, being queer and the potential of theatre to say something new. Saturday 13 February 5.30pm at the samesame but different LGBTQI Writers Festival @ AUT. Full booking details at https://www.iticket.co.nz/go-to/same-same-but-different-lgbtqi-writers-festival As readers, we are 'time-poor' yet more directly engaged with the world we live in than ever before. More books are sold electronically, newspaper articles are growing shorter yet reaching broader audiences, and we are more likely to find our daily amusement in a meme than on a page. One of the screen-based outcomes of this is the resurgent popularity of episodic story-arc television (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, OITNB, The Flash - to name a few). Series-long narratives formatted to slot into our busy lives. Yet, in a recent poll, fifty percent of respondents admitted that they preferred to binge-watch these series. When asked why, most said that the story-arcs and character-arcs were more intense and detailed if you engaged with them from start to finish. Are you a binger? If you are, chances are you're a frustrated novel reader. The same respondents who admitted to preferring binge-watching also said they wished they had the time to sit down and read a good book. As consumers of the written word (on the page, on screen, on stage) we have more choice than ever before. And thanks to e-books, library-online and netflix, it comes with almost instant access. Our choices (and the patterns these create) will undoubtedly define what LGBTQI stories look like in the future. SameSame but Different is New Zealand's first LGBTI Writers' Festival. Directed by award-winning writer Peter Wells, it sits under the Pride festival umbrella and is supported by Creative NZ. It takes place from February 12 to 14, 2016, at AUT City Campus, Mayoral Drive, Auckland. For more information and tickets, visit www.samesamebutdifferent.co.nz. Be there. Be part of our future. - 12th February 2016