Byron Bay will again serve as the backdrop for a festival of ideas, conversation and storytelling – Byron Writers Festival.
The 2021 line-up features more than 150 writers, thinkers and commentators including Archie Roach, Kate Grenville, The Betoota Advocate, Evelyn Araluen and more.
This year marks Byron Writers Festival’s 25th anniversary. Audiences can expect to be treated to the sharing of stories, a collection of writers’ workshops, a programme for children and a large range of satellite events across the Northern Rivers region.
“Now more than ever our world needs writers and stories for healing,” Festival Director Edwina Johnson says. “At the core of our festival is the belief in the power of story as a means to connect, heal and make change.”
“Story provides the framework for understanding. Never more so than when we are faced with the shock of a pandemic that has insisted we learn new ways of being and engaging.”
The first day of the festival (Friday) brings with it 35 sessions to choose from. There’s literary hard-hitters like Robert Dessaix, Pip Williams and Richard Flanagan; pandemic commentators Dr Norman Swan and Raina MacIntyre; The Betoota Advocate make their literary festival debut; national treasure and ARIA Hall Of Fame inductee Archie Roach; and award-winning author/festival guest curator Roanna Gonsalves among others.
Image © Kurt Petersen
Saturday sees some diverse, compelling and entertaining material – fiction lovers will be enthralled by conversations with authors Craig Silvey and Alice Pung, and Chigozie Obioma and Kate Grenville will join the festival via Zoom. Later, former Labor MP Kate Ellis and NSW Greens Senator will offer insights into the experience of women in politics, and comedians Kitty Flanagan, Judith Lucy, Christian Hull and Mandy Nolan will explain why ‘My Life Is A Joke’.
The festival will end on a high with a series of panels celebrating the beauty and power of nature and the importance of human connection. ABC TV’s ‘The Drum’ host Julia Baird joins up-and-coming young writer Emily Brugman and author Jock Serong in ‘That Oceanic Feeling’; novelists Meg Masonand Sam Coley join memoirists Mimi Kwa and Alison Croggon in the ‘Brothers And Sisters’ panel; food lovers will be delighted thanks to chef, farmer and food writer Matthew Evans joining local food producers and farmer Pam Brook and journalist/writer Gabrielle Chan for ‘Food: It Starts On The Farm’.
The kids will get a whole marquee to themselves on Sunday morning, as they’re entertained by their favourite authors and illustrators for Kids Big Day Out, featuring Tristan Bancks, Dub Leffler, Will Kostakis and more.
Byron Writers Festival is on from 6-8 August.
