Love is in the air and on the page! Debut rom-com authors Bridie and Olivia will visit Traralgon Library on Saturday 28 March to discuss their soon-to-be-published novels.

• The Boyfriend Clause by Bridie Blake is everything you could ask for in a romance: relatable heroine, steamy love interest, offbeat family holiday, delicious pastries and just enough spice to set your heart on fire.

• Side Character Energy by Olivia Tolich is a sharp, wise, hilarious novel about love—romantic, platonic and toxic.

Come and hear Bridie and Olivia interrogate each other about their books, being debut romance authors, their writing practice, and more. Enjoy a cuppa and some light refreshments.

Archive Fever is a podcast hosted by Professor Clare Wright OAM and Dr Yves Rees that invites guests to go deep on the kinds of archives they use and how they use them. In this special festival edition, the podcast will be recorded live in conversation with Dr Micaela Sahhar, writer, educator and author of Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: an encyclopaedia of a Palestinian family.

Three of Australia’s most acclaimed nonfiction writers – Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein –
discuss the Erin Patterson case and our collective obsession with her strange and terrible crime. When Patterson stood trial, accused of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, the court case gripped the nation and fascinated people all over the world. Together, the writers joined the daily media scrum at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts and spent long days immersed in the case’s sinister and complex themes: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, marriage, money, mycology and murder.

The Mushroom Tapes is a true-crime book like no other — an unputdownable record of the writers’ private conversations about their impressions from inside the courtroom. Speaking to Michael Williams, the three writers explore the gap between the certainties of the law and the messiness of reality, their own ambivalence about the true crime genre, and all that remains unknowable about Erin Patterson.

Gail Jones is renowned for fiction of rare elegance and intellectual depth. In this wide-ranging conversation with Michael Williams, one of Australia’s most acclaimed writers discusses her latest novel, in The Name of the Sister, and explores how storytelling shapes memory, identity and the way we attend to the past.

Featuring readings from Zarah Butcher-McGunnigle, Fiona Kelly McGregor, Liv Moriarty, John Morrissey, Helena Pantsis and Anna Poletti.

Join us at Paperchain Bookstore to hear Michael Winkler, author of Griefdogg, in conversation with Beejay Silcox.

Victoria Brownlee, Garry Disher and Anne Olle with Francesca Carter 

Our three writers plus host Tracee Hutchison all live on the Mornington Peninsula. Each day they are inspired by the natural world around them, and each day they write. Join this discussion about the importance of where we work and its impact on how we work.

Sarah Bailey, Michael Brissenden and Garry Disher with Nicky Bisogni

From Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to Dalziel and Pascoe, crime fiction is littered with memorable investigative pairings. Our panel discusses why in some cases, two are better than one.

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.

Amanda Lohrey has over many years abandoned three tenured academic positions in order to do a lot of scribbling. She has published eight novels, a collection of short stories, two Quarterly Essays and a book on why singing is good for you. Her ninth novel is Capture (28 April 2026).