Since 2001, the Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship has been inspiring writers on the path to publication. This year saw four writers spend a week in Possum Creek being mentored by Walkley Award-winning journalist and author, Sarah Armstrong.
The Lismore floods and climate change, finding your place and your people, love and loss, and forced adoption are themes tackled by the authors in this year’s prestigious Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship.
Nic Margan’s experience of escaping the rising flood water in Lismore with his wife, one-month-old daughter and their three chickens inspired him to write about it.
‘It amazed me how even small insights from the others inspired a whole new passage of the story, and helped me get closer to the heart of my manuscript,’ he said.
Sarah, an early graduate of the program with her novel Salt Rain, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Literary Award, said ‘programs like this, run by Byron Writers Festival, help build a supportive local writing community’.
‘I look forward to reading the work of these writers between covers one day.’
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