Blue Mountain Writers Festival
Friday, 31 October
The Bookshelf Live with ABC Radio National (Steve MinOn)
Join Kate Evans from ABC Radio National's The Bookshelf, with award-winning authors Steve MinOn, Debra Oswald, and Garry Disher, as they discuss the books that fire them up, the latest releases they’ve loved, and their own craft and creative careers.
10:30am
The Old Stables: Lot101
Tickets here.
Workshop: The Poetics of Place with Sara M Saleh
Join celebrated author, poet and human rights lawyer Sara M Saleh for an exploration of the poetics of place.
This generative writing workshop begins with the belief that poems are everywhere: waiting in a line of text, a line break, or in line for a coffee - and that every place we inhabit leaves its mark on the lines we write.
1:30pm
Workshop Room: The Blue Mountains Cultural Centre
Tickets here.
Saturday, 1 November
Defining Motherhood: Kylie Ladd, Ingrid Horrocks and Natasha Rai
In a time of shifting family structures, evolving understandings of gender and sexuality, technological advances in fertility treatments, and competing schools of feminist thought, three authors consider contemporary definitions of motherhood, and reflect on age-old questions about nature, nurture and familial love.
11:30am
The Ballroom: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Yearning and Belonging: Jumaana Abdu and Charlotte McConaghy In Conversation With Anne-Marie Te Whiu
Some of the best expressions of yearning are in literature. Yearning for hope in the face of an uncertain future, yearning for a sense of belonging, or yearning for love and connection. When an author gets it right, the reader is pulled taut into the story, seeking resolution.
2:00pm
Grand Dining Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
How To Stay Afloat: Osher Günsberg and David Stavanger In Conversation With Jennifer Wong
When life hits you with wave after wave of challenges, you either start going under, or you learn how to surf.
One of the most recognisable faces in Australian media, Osher Günsberg is a passionate advocate for honest conversations around mental health, explored in his bestselling book Back, After the Break, and his new graphic novel So What? Now What?
2:00pm
Grand Dining Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
After Zionism: Randa Abdel-Fattah and Antony Loewenstein
Urgent and essential, we are privileged to witness Randa Abdel-Fattah and Antony Loewenstein discussing After Zionism, a collection that brings together some of the world's leading thinkers to dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and explore possible forms of a one-state solution in the most conflicted part of the world.
3:30pm
Grand Dining Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Romantasy: Olivia O’Flynn and Jasmin McGaughey
What is romantasy and why is everyone reading it? When love isn’t magic enough, add fairies. Or elves. Or werewolves. Or, in the case of Olivia O’Flynn’s swoon-worthy debut, Ever Blessed, gods, warrior princesses and witches entwined in a perilous quest!
3:30pm
The Ballroom: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Real Men Write Poetry (David Stavanger)
Listen to five brilliant poets at the top of their game read work from their latest collections, traversing love, migration, food, fatherhood, desire, identity, mental health, masculinity and revolution.
5:00pm
The Baroque Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Writers in the Sky: Ancestors Calling (Anne-Marie Te Whiu, JM Field)
To stand on the shoulders of one’s ancestors is to carry both responsibility and legacy. For authors who reach into history, this ancestral knowing provides inspiration, connection and care. Join poet Anne-Marie Te Whiu, playwright S. Shakthidharan, and author-mathematician JM Field as they discuss their incredible new books, and the living relationship they feel with their past.
6:30pm
Scenic Skyway, Scenic World
Tickets here.
Better Off Said: Eulogies for the Living and the Dead (Sara M Saleh)
Celebrating words, stories, and human experiences, Better Off Said is an evening of words it’s time to air; thoughts and reflections for the living and dead. At one time or another, we all find there was something we wish we’d shouted aloud, someone out there in the world waiting to hear an important message, a piece of history we feel our voice could have improved. Better Off Said offers the opportunity to leave no verbal stone unturned. To find closure. To sing truth from the rooftops before it’s too late.
7:30pm
Grand Dining Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Sunday, 2 November
In Our Millions: Randa Abdel-Fattah, Jumaana Abdu and Hasib Hourani in conversation With Sara M Saleh
Literature has long been a powerful way of exploring identity, belonging, and the experience of displacement. Three award-winning authors discuss the fiction and poetry of the Palestinian diaspora and its role in evoking empathy, building solidarity and effecting change, with writer and human rights lawyer Sara M Saleh.
10:00am
Grand Dining Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Our Ghosts: Steve MinOn and Natasha Rai
Metaphorical hauntings are a dime a dozen in literary fiction, but what does it take to include ghosts or spirits in your story, without risking your novel making its way onto the horror or fantasy shelves?
10:00am
The Ballroom: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Words to Sing the World Alive: Daniel Browning, Merinda Dutton and Jasmin McGaughey
An exquisite celebration of First Nations languages from a selection of Australia's finest Indigenous writers, Words to Sing the World Alive brings together forty writers and thinkers, journalists and lawyers, artists and astronomers to honour languages from across the continent, each penning an homage to their favourite and most significant words.
10:00am
The Baroque Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Literary Futures: Jumaana Abdu, Jamsin McGaughey, Bill Hope and Nevo Zisin
What does it really take to break into the creative industries when you’re still finding your voice? How can writing build connection, community and change in a world that feels like it’s shifting every day?
In this free, all-ages event, four successful young creatives share how they got started — and what they’ve learned along the way.
12:45pm
Tibbi Whalan Hall
Tickets here.
How to Read a Poem: Willo Drummond, David Stavanger and James Jiang
What makes a poem a poem? Is it the use of rhyme, metaphor, line breaks, or something more? And what do poems require from us as readers, in terms of attention and knowledge?
Presented in partnership with Sydney Review of Books
2:00pm
The Ballroom: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
True Crime or Not True Crime: Walter Marsh and Royce Kurmelovs in Conversation with Craig Reucassel
The tropes of true crime are well known. There’s a dead body (often a woman’s), a town (often small) full of kooky characters, and an obsessive investigator. But what of the books that defy these conventions despite technically being true crime?
2:00pm
Tibbi Whalan Hall
Tickets here.
How to Write a Life: S. Shakthidharan, Jessica White, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Ingrid Horrocks
What powers of perception, reflection and remembering are needed to craft a truly great memoir? And what tools can life writers use to extend memoir beyond memory to create literature that challenges, inspires and speaks to our times?
2:00pm
The Ballroom: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
Queerstories: Hannah Kent, Vivian Blaxell, JM Field, Patrick Marlborough and Maeve Marsden
Vulnerable and fierce, hilarious and heartbreaking, Queerstories celebrates the culture and creativity of the LGBTQI+ community, one true story at a time. For ten years, Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival Creative Director Maeve Marsden has produced Queerstories events around the country, with more than 500 people having now responded to the brief: “tell the story you want to tell, but are never asked to.”
3:30pm
The Baroque Room: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
The Mick Dark Debate for the Future: Royce Kurmelovs, Jennifer Wong, JM Field, Jane Rawson, Craig Reucassel and Bianca Nogrady
We’re doomed! Or, are we?
Join six big thinkers in a fight for the future, a great debate for our times inspired by the legacy of Blue Mountains environmentalist Mick Dark. Drawing on backgrounds in science, technology, journalism, mathematics and literature, two teams go head-to-head debating the topic, “We’re doomed!”
5:00pm
Tibbi Whalan Hall
Tickets here.
Intimate Epics: Christos Tsiolkas and Steve MinOn in conversation with Beejay Silcox
How do you write a book that’s sprawling in scope yet crafted with precision? Stories that feel vast yet fiercely intimate.
Beloved literary critic Beejay Silcox joins acclaimed novelist Christos Tsiolkas and debut author Steve MinOn in conversation as they reflect on their latest novels, exploring themes of desire, masculinity, ageing, class and queerness.
5:00pm
The Ballroom: The Carrington Hotel
Tickets here.
