Words on the Waves Festival

Thursday 28 May

Late Night Lit with Jazz Money

Time: From 7pm

Location: Bar Toto, 83/189 Ocean View Rd, Ettalong Beach, NSW

Sink into an evening of spoken word, poetry, literary readings and other surprises at Late Night Lit. Together, we can celebrate some very special authors all with a trademark Bar Toto cocktail in hand. What’s not to love?

Joining us for this festival edition is Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money (how to make a basket and mark the dawn). We have been inviting Jazz to join us for Late Night Lit since it began, so to say we are excited is an understatement! Also lighting up the stage will be poet and deep sea researcher, Prema Arasu (Vampire Squid), coming all the way from Western Australia. Tyree Barnette will share his experience as an African American in Australia as captured in Stolen Man on Stolen Land. And Lebanese-Australian journalist Antoun Issa will take us beyond the headlines with his mother’s true experiences of love, heartbreak and new hope during the violence of civil war in Beirut, 1974.

As usual, we will also welcome a clever crew of local writers and artists to share some new work with you as open mic participants.

Purchase your ticket here

Saturday 30 May

Secrecy & Survival with Ian Kemish

Time: 1:30 pm to 2:30pm

Location: Ocean Beach SLSC, 176 The Esplanade, Umina Beach, NSW 2256

Ian Kemish and Louise Milligan have storied public careers – for the former, a diplomat, the latter, a journalist. Now they turn their talents to fiction set in their motherlands, and boy are we glad! Two Islands follows a Balkan War survivor to Scotland, while Shellybanks dives into Ireland’s dark past.

Modertaed by Virginia Hausegger

Inked in Ash with George Kemp

Time: 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Location: Umina Beach SLSC, Ocean Beach Rd, Umina Beach, NSW 2257

Inga Simpson, Samuel Elliott and George Kemp with moderator: Jennifer Mills

Fire closes in; for these novelists, will it bring destruction or regrowth? Soft Serve seeks emotional sustenance in a fast-food world, with teenage mates and a grieving mother sheltering at a regional Maccas. In Haze, a town is plagued by fire-obsessed cults and a missing child. Inga Simpson’s fiction and short stories race through burned landscapes.

Sunday 31 May

Truth is Slippery with Debra Adelaide and Angela O'Keefe

Time: 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Location: Festival Marquee, Peninsula Recreation Precinct, Sydney Avenue, Umina Beach, NSW 2257

Debra Adelaide, Angela O’Keeffe and Moderator: Fiona Kelly McGregor.

Each of these literary gems unearths deep human truths: Angela O’Keeffe’s eerie take on human violence from the point of view of a book inPhantom Days and Debra Adelaide’s heart-rending ode to friendship and grief inWhen I’m Sixty-Four. And, they show truth can be slippery, too.

Secure your festival passes here