This year’s festival celebrates some of the most vital and impactful storytelling in Australian literature, with a dedicated program of First Nations writers whose work spans historical fiction, picture books and Indigenous knowledge and whose voices are reshaping how this country understands itself.

Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin is encouraging local councils and rugby union clubs to take advantage of an opportunity to upgrade their facilities, player pathways and increase local participation.

The Echo loves your letters and is proud to provide a community forum on the issues that matter most to our readers and the people of the NSW north coast. So don’t be a passive reader, send us your epistles.

A Ballina Greens councillor is calling on the government agencies to act immediately over claims that native clearing is occurring on a private property in Lennox Head.