An extraordinary amount of literary talent calls the Northern Rivers home, and in its 30th year the Byron Writers Festival is celebrating with an incredible local lineup, joining Trent Dalton, Geetanjali Shree, Evelyn Araluen, Steve Toltz, Melissa Lucashenko and others.
Included in the local announcement are: Turia Pitt, who has written five best-selling books; Tricia Shantz who will launch her new book at the festival, Musicland: When the Music Came to Byron 1970 to 1995, a vivid account of the live music explosion that lit up the hills and valleys of the Shire; and 1993 Women’s World Surfing Champion Pauline Menczer, who delivers Surf Like a Woman, a story of grit, passion and blazing a trail for women in a sport that too often overlooks them.
Romy Ash, whose debut novel Floundering was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, Commonwealth Book Prize and Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, returns.
Fungi filmmakers and co-authors Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak present Planet Fungi: A Photographer’s Foray, a visually stunning journey into the hidden world beneath our feet.
But wait, there’s more…
Cedar and Stuart Anderson, the father and son team behind the world’s most successful beekeeping invention, present Flow Hive’s Book of Bees and Beekeeping, a comprehensive Beekeeping guide from the origin story of their record-breaking crowdfunding campaign, which transformed backyard beekeeping across 130 countries.
Local custodian and proud Arakwal Bundjalung woman Delta Kay will open the festival and share her incredible knowledge and wisdom with festival-goers, as will Bundjalung woman, poet and community leader, Ella Noah Bancroft.
Debut novelist Jay McKenzie brings her internationally award-winning voice to How to Lose the Lottery, while Lisa Walker, author of eight novels and a PhD in creative writing, makes her psychological thriller debut with The Pact.
Maggie Walters presents Fractured Motherhood: When Love, Trauma and Parenting Intertwine, a raw memoir tracing her journey from an abusive childhood and life with multiple personality disorder, along the long, uncertain road of adopting three children, and the healing that followed.
CBCA Book of the Year-winning author Tristan Bancks arrives with Raised By Wolves, his eagerly awaited follow-up to Two Wolves.
Lifestyle and parenting writer Courtney Adamo showcases two books at the festival this year: The Family Home is a considered reflection on creating space that honours the beautiful chaos of a growing family, plus, At Home in Every Season, a practical guide to engaging kids with nature through the changing seasons.
Kirra Pendergast, a globally recognised expert in online safety, digital risk and human behaviour in the digital age. Pendergast brings her expertise to Digital Freedom: A Guide to Less Screen Time for Safer, Happier and Healthier Families.
Acclaimed academic, author and Guardian columnist Julianne Schultz, will contribute to many big issue sessions and whose last book The Idea of Australia, asked timely and urgent questions about our national identity.
Award-winning nonfiction writer and former political journalist Sonya Voumard shares Tremor, a compelling and deeply personal account of living with the little-known movement disorder. Damien Becker, a spoken word artist and debut poet who lives and writes on Bundjalung Country in Murwillumbah, reveals his debut collection Thin Reed Throat, exploring life with cystic fibrosis and double lung transplantation with unflinching honesty, humour and lyrical grace.
Two long-awaited novels rounding out the local lineup sees Nicholas Timms offering The Lineup, a heart-pounding crime thriller set right amongst the waves of Byron Bay, and Sarah Armstrong, an award-winning journalist and Miles Franklin-shortlisted novelist who swapped the newsroom for a rainforest valley near Mullumbimby, brings her latest young readers’ survivalist story, The Wave.
In addition to the authors presenting at the festival, there will be a wonderful roster of local moderators who will be expertly guiding conversations, including Chris Hanley, Merinda Dutton, Mandy Nolan, Mick O’Regan, Angela Catterns, David Heilpern, Julianne Schultz, Royce Kurmelovs and many more.
Byron Writers Festival Artistic Director and CEO Jessica Alice said the local contingent reflects the depth of creative talent rooted in the Northern Rivers.
‘I’m delighted to spotlight talented Northern Rivers writers throughout our 30th anniversary program alongside writers from around the world with brilliant, diverse books spanning fiction, historical non-fiction, memoir, poetry and more,’ she said.
The complete festival program will be announced on 17 June. Find out more and pick up your tickets here: www.byronwritersfestival.com.
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