Clare Wright, winner of the 2014 Stella Prize for The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, will join an esteemed lineup of history writers at the Byron Bay Writers Festival.
Festival director Edwina Johnson strongly believes that the lessons and tales of times past are instrumental in shaping our sensibilities and the future. For that reason she has programmed a number of stimulating sessions, which will examine history, through fact and fiction. ’We’re thrilled to have assembled such a brilliant cast of writers whose skills manifestly bring history to life.’
Wright will join veteran broadcaster Mike Carlton, historian Ian Hoskins and former Australian Army officer James Brown for the Festival Friday panel discussion, History: A Work In Progress.
In a 40-year career, Carlton has been a radio and television news and current affairs reporter, foreign correspondent, radio host and newspaper columnist. He was an ABC war correspondent in Vietnam in 1967 and 1970, and for three years was the ABC’s bureau chief in Jakarta. He also reported for the ABC from London, New York and major Asian capitals.
Winner of the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Literary Prize for History, Hoskins will question if we take our beloved coastline for granted in his Festival Friday session, Coast: A History of the NSW Edge.
Author Ashley Hay will be in conversation with chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, Sophie Cunningham, as they explore our country’s violent weather and its impacts, notably in conjunction with Cunningham’s new book, Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy.
Then on Festival Sunday chief literary critic of The Australian, Geordie Williamson, will be in conversation with Hay about her historical novel The Railwayman’s Wife. Williamson will also be in discussion with Clare Wright on her award-winning work The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
