You followed the trial, you’ve read the book, now meet the authors. Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein are coming to Sorrento, and we look forward to their discussion about the 2025 trial of Erin Patterson, the Leongatha woman convicted of murdering three relatives and attempting to kill a fourth. In the hosting chair: Celia Hirsh.

Join us to hear Michael Winkler in conversation with Donata Carrazza about his new novel Griefdogg, set in Mildura.

This novel is full of local details, from the Merbein IGA mural to the beautiful Murray River. It's a book about grief, water, and the hidden currents that move beneath us, and the conversation will be warm and enlightening.

Come from 6:30pm for a 7pm start. Wine provided. Thank you to Mallee Arts coLab for the use of their space.

An evening of storytelling, banter, and romance with two exciting new voices in Australian romantic fiction

Join debut Aussie romance authors, Bridie Blake and Olivia Tolich, at Nowra Library for an engaging conversation on modern romance!

Together, our authors will chat about their writing journeys through to publication, the value of the romance genre and its evolving cultural influence, and answer any audience questions in a Q&A at the end of the panel. This event promises to be a fun night celebrating reading and writing the stories we tell about love.

Join debut authors Bridie Blake and Olivia Tolich as they talk about their writing journeys, their paths to publication and their advice to aspiring writers. Hear about what attracted them to the romance genre and why it is important to them.

Bridie’s book The Boyfriend Clause is an amazingly fun meet-disaster-turned-fake-dating story with a relatable heroine, a sexy brooding love interest, delicious pastries and complicated family dynamics.

Side Character Energy written by Olivia is all about what happens when the perpetual sidekick best friend decides to become the main character of her own story, with the help of her very own love interest.

This event will be followed by a book signing. Books will be available to purchase at the Library.

Son of Nobody tells the story of Harlow Donne, a classicist, whose research unearths an undiscovered account of the Trojan War written from the point of view of an ordinary soldier. Pairing the text of the epic poem itself with Donne’s contemporary commentary, Martel unspools a powerful meditation on life, death and the resonances of the past.  
 
Appearing in Australia for the first time in a decade, don’t miss this opportunity to see Martel live in conversation with ABC Radio National’s Sarah L’Estrange.   

Horror is hardly a genre that needs much introduction – graveyards, monsters, things that go bump in the night. But what is at the heart of horror and stories of the uncanny for Indigenous Peoples, when colonisation is as horrific as humanity gets? What does a history unburied look like in the light?

This panel will discuss Indigenous perspectives on heroes, ghosts, and hauntings, and how this genre is being subverted in the face of real, ongoing horrors.

With Alicia Elliott, Jasmin McGaughey, John Morrissey and host Jessica Johns. Curated by Evelyn Araluen and Jessica Johns.

Toni Jordan and Michael Winkler: Animal Instincts

What can animals teach us? Two beloved novelists discuss their new books that explore our relationship to our canine companions.

From poetry, to fiction, to nonfiction, to everything outside of and in-between, this event is a celebration of the encompassing, expansive, and uncontained way we know Indigenous brilliance, globally and locally, to exist.

“Sintering is bonding; it is building coalitions with your neighbours.” — Theory of Water: Nishaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Each of the featured writers hold love and joy together as a testimony to their unique cultural knowledges and thought systems, and this event will celebrate the ways in which they have come together to share their art.

Featuring readings from Quill Christie-Peters, Alicia Elliott, Jasmin McGaughey, John Morrissey, Mykaela Saunders, Chelsea Vowel and Jesse Wente. Curated and hosted by Evelyn Araluen and Jessica Johns.

What drives our fascination with the myths and legends of the past? What can they tell us about ourselves? And what happens when we reframe ancient tales through contemporary understandings of race, gender, sexuality and class?  

In this fascinating panel discussion, writers Nikita Gill (Hekate: The Witch), Yann Martel (Son of Nobody) and Zoe Terakes (Eros) consider what draws them to archetypal tales of gods, goddesses, heroes and monsters – and how their work breathes new, often subversive life into old stories.

As Martel has written: ‘The past is never done with: always the song continues.’

Life takes us in many directions, but not always the right ones. In the Festival’s major opening night, eight exceptional writers speak to a moment in their life or work where their compass was reset – by choice or by chance; hard-won or by happenstance; early in life or in its later acts – that set them on a course truer to themselves.

Lining up to tell us about their new Norths, their True Norths, and the moments of reckoning, rebellion, resilience, reinvention, resolution or raw nerve it took to find them are:

One of Aotearoa’s most distinguished novelists Witi Ihimaera (Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Ira and Ngāti Porou); acclaimed artist and activist Tāme Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe); grief expert and best-selling author Dr Lucy Hone; Women’s Prize for Fiction winner and New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones; Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement-winning author of 14 novels Elizabeth Knox; #1 New York Times and Sunday Times best-selling author RF Kuang; Booker Prize-winning Canadian novelist Yann Martel; Edinburgh’s Poet Laureate and prize-winning Scottish author Michael Pedersen.

Hosted by Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi).