Two of the genre’s biggest Australian names take the stage with a successful debutant to unpack the keys to success and how to keep the genre fresh and captivating.
Candice Fox
Chris Hammer
Mitch Jennings
Facilitator - Michaela Kalowski
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Join rewilding facilitator, adventurer, writer and inaugural winner of Alone Australia Gina Chick, and social activist, radical entrepreneur and founder of the Moroccan Soup Bar Hana Assafiri as they share the life journeys that, in their own unique ways, underline the importance of kindness and connection.
Facilitator - Michelle Barraclough
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Great authors capture our imagination not just through their latest publications, but across a body of must-read work. Rarely do we take time to discuss a writer’s work in detail and explore what shapes their stories individually and collectively. From The Underdog to The Book Thief to his recent memoir Three Wild Dogs and the Truth, this session is sure to be a fascinating insight into Markus Zusak’s creative career.
Facilitator: Michaela Kalowski
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Technology makes life easier, right? But how easy is too easy? How do we manage the consequences - expected or otherwise - of AI on society, and with it the future of employment, health, education and democracy? Join multiple Walkley Award-winning author, journalist, broadcaster and the inaugural national convenor of Women in Media Tracey Spicer AM, and Toby Walsh, Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales and CSIRO’s Data61 and author of five books on AI including A Short History of AI (release April 2025), in conversation with journalist Anne Markey as they unpick the ramifications of our brave new world.
Facilitator - Anne Markey
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Join us for the opening of StoryFest 2023 when key storytellers with strong connections to our community shared their own perspectives of what makes the Milton Mollymook Ulladulla area on Murramarang country so special.
Featuring author and Walkley Award-winning journalist Bronwyn Adcock (Currowan), proud Gunai woman, award-winning author, multidisciplinary artist and consultant Kirli Saunders, StoryFest Patron Markus Zusak, local musician Paul Greene, and other special guests as we kicked off the festival weekend in style.
In a world of fake news, AI, and concentrated media ownership this session explores the nature of truth and our increasingly tenuous grip on it. Author, businesswoman and activist Wendy McCarthy will host a lively (and no doubt honest) discussion with veteran SMH cartoonist Alan Moir, journalist Bronwyn Adcock, and historian David Hunt.
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Join us as we dive into the world of character and caricature in our nation’s storytelling, and what makes the Australian character and character writing unique. Featuring host Kirk Docker (ABC’s You Can’t Ask That) with Michael Winkler (Grimmish), Chris Hammer (Scrublands, The Tilt) and Holly Wainwright (The Couple Upstairs).
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Stories can be transformative and none more so than real-life writing. Writer and mentor, Lee Kofman (The Writer Laid Bare: Emotional Honesty in a Writer’s Art, Craft and Life) will lead an exploration of how memoir and life writing can help both writers and readers gain new insights, and find resilience, resolution or new ways to thrive in the face of adversity, with authors Jackie Bailey (The Eulogy), Dominic Frawley (Malachy) and Frances Peters-Little (Jimmy Little: A Yorta Yorta Man).
Laughter may be the best medicine, but comedy is the hardest thing to write. Leading authors Holly Wainwright (I Give my Marriage a Year), Jackie Bailey (The Eulogy) and Katharine Pollock (Her Fidelity) have tackled the task more successfully than most, and will take the stage with irreverent moderator David Hunt (Girt series) for what’s sure to be a lively and laughter filled session.
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Creator of award-winning documentary series You Can’t Ask That, Kirk Docker brings his unique interviewing style to StoryFest when he explores the importance of giving voice to stories that need to be told with Zaheda Ghani, author of the Richell Prize shortlisted novel Pomegranate & Fig, recipient of the Western Sydney Emerging Writers Fellowship and Ambassador for Australia for UNHCR; proud Gunai woman, award-winning author, multidisciplinary artist and consultant Kirli Saunders (Bindi, Kindred); and Michael Mohammed Ahmad (The Other Half of You, The Lebs) award-winning author and founder of the Sweatshop Literacy Movement that empowers culturally and linguistically diverse communities through reading, writing and critical thinking.
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Almost 10 years ago, author and columnist Peter FitzSimons AM and broadcaster Richard Glover set a world record for the longest interview (24 hours). For StoryFest 2023, they reunite for a shorter, but no less wide-ranging discussion about Peter’s latest publications (The Battle of Long Tan, The Opera House), his views on Australia today, and where we are headed tomorrow.
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Wendy McCarthy and Clementine Ford come together in conversation to explore how ways of disrupting and breaking the system have changed - or if they have changed at all. What works, what doesn’t, and what’s required in future to address issues of inequality and injustice in Australian society? A must-attend session featuring two powerful but distinctly different voices from different generations.
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Katharine Pollock (Her Fidelity and @thatrecordstoregirl) interviews former punk rocker and award-winning crime author Dave Warner (After the Flood), alongside Frances Peters-Little (Jimmy Little: A Yorta Yorta Man), about song-led stories and the impact of songwriting and music on the Australian narrative. Full of song and fascinating chat about songwriting, influences and inspiration, this is a session to sing about!
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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Nearly half of all Australians have read a crime, mystery or thriller novel in the past twelve months. Hear from some of the biggest names in Australian fictional crime writing when best-selling author Chris Hammer (Scrublands, The Tilt), Wollongong-based Hayley Scrivenor (Dirt Town), and former punk rocker turned crime writer Dave Warner (After the Flood) join journalist Philip Williams at StoryFest.
Storyfest Website - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
Pip Williams’ novel The Dictionary of Lost Words was the highest selling novel in Australia in 2022 and her follow-up, The Bookbinder of Jericho, is touted for similar success. In conversation with Michelle Barraclough, Pip discusses the motivations behind the novel, the magic of words - both common and those excluded from our everyday vocabulary - and why every word is so important.
Storyfest Web - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram - @storyfestinc
Join Robbie Arnott (Limberlost, The Rain Heron) and Inga Simpson (Willowman, The Last Woman in the World) for this intimate conversation between two of Australia’s leading authors with a shared love of our coast, our characters and our continent, as they explore how the magical properties of the natural world shape and shift their approach to storytelling.
Storyfest Web - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
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In this fast-paced storytellers shootout, David Hunt interviews six locals from the Shoalhaven who have recently published their work. You’ll hear a little from each storyteller and find out why you need their book on your shelf.
Featuring:
Patti Bartlett & Jenny Cleary - Five Villages
Helen Moody - Islands of the NSW South Coast
Marita Smith - Kindred Ties Trilogy
Julie Bozza - Writ in Blood
Robert Hollingworth - The Finding
Colin DeFries - Ulladulla Bush Poets
Storyfest Web - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram - @storyfestinc
Romance novels are sometimes dismissed as a lesser genre compared to more critically acclaimed writing styles. Leading romance writers Penelope Janu (Shelter from the Storm, Clouds on the Horizon), Alice Boyle (Dancing Barefoot) and Clare Fletcher (Five Bush Weddings) join author and moderator Claudine Tinellis (Talking Aussie Books podcast) to discuss their latest novels and explore why romance writing has never been more important or more misunderstood.
Storyfest Web - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram - @storyfestinc
The publication of the Dhurga Dictionary and Learner's Grammar in 2019 is the culmination of decades of work and a turning point in the revitalisation of one of the key indigenous languages on the NSW south coast. The journey began when Brinja-Yuin woman Kerry Boyenga, a teacher at Broulee Public School, approached the principal about teaching Dhurga as a language other than English. From these small beginnings, Kerry and her siblings, Waine Donovan and Patricia Ellis, developed the Dhurga language course as a Certificate 1 in Aboriginal Language/s, which they taught at TAFE campuses in Nowra, Narooma, Ulladulla, Jervis Bay and Moruya. Realising how hard it is to teach a language without a dictionary, Patricia Ellis spent more than ten years researching and compiling this valuable resource. Now, a new generation has the opportunity to learn their language and through that, reconnect with their culture, identity and country. Patricia Ellis joins Inga Simpson to talk about that journey and how a dictionary facilitates understanding of culture and connection.
Artist: Patricia Ellis
Host: Inga Simpson
Storyfest Web - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram - @storyfestinc
In their latest novels, Charlotte McConaghy and Kate Mildenhall have imagined the future. One where climate change has resulted in mass extinctions of threatened species. The other, an Australia ruled by the ominously named The Department which tracks every move you make. They are both novels that ask questions about love, loyalty and what drives us to commit desperate acts. Join them as they discuss what setting a novel in the future allows a storyteller to do and the attraction of speculating about how the world might be.
Artists: Kate Mildenhall, Charlotte McConaghy
Host: Inga Simpson
Storyfest Web - https://www.storyfest.org.au/
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram - @storyfestinc