Local author Tricia Shantz will be talking about a seminal time and place in her new book Musicland: When the Music Came to Byron 1970–1995 at the Byron Bay Library on Thursday, 29 October at 3pm.

Byron Writers Festival spoke with poet, musician, writer, singer, producer, and former Goanna frontman, Shane Howard. Speaking to Shane is like mining for gold. If by mining you mean reclining on a lilo in a pool with a cocktail, and the person doing the hard graft is handing you nugget after nugget of the good stuff.

The Byron Shire has been renowned for its music, its festivals, and its innovation that has had a huge impact on the Australian music scene.

For a small regional area the Byron Shire and Northern Rivers have had an outsized impact on the culture and music in Australia.

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.