AMAL AWAD is a journalist, screenwriter, author, podcaster and performer, as well as the author of seven books.
This is our 2022 line-up so far.
We will update the list as the Festival develops.
AMAL AWAD is a journalist, screenwriter, author, podcaster and performer, as well as the author of seven books.
Julia Baird’s book, Phosphorescence, is a beautiful, intimate, and inspiring investigation into how we can find and nurture within ourselves that essential quality of internal happiness - the 'light within' that Julia Baird calls 'phosphorescence' - which will sustain us even through the darkest times.
Eliza Bell is a teacher, writer and theatre actor, originally from America and now living permanently in Australia.
After working in publishing in Australia, Jemma Birrell moved to Paris, directing events at the iconic Parisian bookshop Shakespeare and Company, and co-directing FestivalandCo literary festival.
Jane Caro AM is a Walkley Award-winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, advertising writer, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator.
Tabitha Carvan is the author of This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch (2022), a memoir with a message about embracing our passions, and described by Publisher's Weekly as "a weird-in-the-best-way account of self-discovery that brims with humor and insight"
Danielle Celermajer, who lives in Berry, is a Professor of Sociology and Social Policy and Deputy Director of the Sydney Environment Institute at the University of Sydney. Her most recent book, Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future, was written in the aftermath of the 2020 fires.
Paul Daley is an author, journalist and essayist. His books, including Beersheba, Collingwood: A Love Story, and Challenge have been finalists in major Australian literary awards.
Ceridwen Dovey writes fiction (Only the Animals, shortlisted for the Stella Prize) and Life After Truth.
David Dufty is a Canberra-based writer and researcher. His most recent book is Nabbing Ned Kelly, the true story of the men who brought the notorious outlaw to justice.
Mick Elliott is an author, illustrator, TV producer, screenwriter, literacy ambassador and professional mischief-maker.
His hilarious adventure trilogy, The Turners, was nominated for an Aurealis Award and features on the Premiers’ Reading Challenge. His illustrated middle grade series Squidge Dibley has been sold into six international territories to date. He has contributed stories and illustrations to many bestselling anthologies.
Nigel Featherstone is the author of Bodies of Men which was longlisted for the 2020 ARA Historical Novel Prize, Highly Commended for the 2020 ACT Book of the Year, shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards, and received a 2019 Canberra Critics Circle Award.
Tim Flannery is a scientist, an explorer, a conservationist and a leading writer on climate change.
Dominic Frawley is a country GP in the Shoalhaven region. He is also a husband, parent, doctor and writer.
Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute and a political commentator with the ABC. He has been writing about power and politics, war and peace, booms and busts for more than 30 years. The author of three books, his latest is Red Zone: China's Challenge and Australia's Future.
Tori Haschka is a Sydney-based author, food writer and mum of two. Her first novel, Grace Under Pressure, was published in 2021.
Lisa Heidke writes stories about women in their thirties and forties navigating friendships, careers, romance, and ultimately triumphing over adversity. Her most recent novel, Lily’s Little Flower Shop asks, 'can life ever be a bed of roses?'
Anita Heiss’s latest book, published this month, is Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams. Set on timeless Wiradyuri country, where the life-giving waters of the rivers can make or break dreams, and based on devastating true events, it is an epic story of love, loss and belonging.
Ivy Ireland is the author of the poetry collections Incidental Complications (2007), Porch Light (2015) and The Owl Inside (2020).
Julie Janson is a playwright, novelist, and award-winning poet. A Burruberongal woman of Darug Aboriginal Nation, she is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize, 2016 and winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, 2019.
Keppie Coutts is an Australian singer songwriter, whose blend of jazz-infused folk melts the mellow tones of Norah Jones with the ethereal pixie spirit of Laura Marling into a Chagall painting of sound.
L.A. Larkin’s crime-thrillers have won her fans all over the world. Praised by the king of crime, Lee Child, Louisa writes edge-of-your-seat novels with lots of plot twists and characters who surprise.
Scott Ludlam is a writer, activist and former Australian Greens Senator. He served in Parliament from 2008 - 2017, and as Co-Deputy Leader of his party from 2015 - 2017.
Absorbing, wise and inspiring, The Kindness Revolution is a distillation of Hugh Mackay's life's work. Written for our times, this truly remarkable book shows how crises and catastrophes often turn out to be the making of us.
An award-winning journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Jacqueline Maley is the author of the much praised novel (her first), The Truth About Her.
Chris Mansell, who lives in the Shoalhaven, has published over a dozen books of poetry and a collection of short fiction, has been translated into many languages, and won prizes for her work.
Iain McCalman is a historian with a strong sense of how narrative transforms us. His most recent book is Delia Akeley and the Monkey: A Human-Animal Story of Captivity, Patriarchy and Nature (2022).
Wendy McCarthy OA is one of Australia’s most accomplished women and the author of Don’t Be Too Polite, Girls: A Memoir (2022).
Fiona Kelly McGregor has published seven books, including the novel Indelible Ink, which won the Age Book of the Year and was shortlisted for several other awards.
Phillipa McGuinness’ most recent book is Skin Deep: The Inside Story of Our Outer Selves.
Rick Morton is a senior reporter for The Saturday Paper, a regular guest on ABC’s The Drum and an award-winning author of three non-fiction books: One Hundred Years of Dirt, On Money, and My Year of Living Vulnerably, as well as the editor of Growing Up In Country Australia.
Jonica Newby's new book,
Jessica’s most recent book is Mary Ann and Captain Piper:
The remarkable true story of the convicts' daughter who became the toast of colonial Sydney.
Angela O’Keeffe lives in Sydney on Gadigal land. The daring and much-praised Night Blue is her first novel.
Michael Pascoe is one of Australia's most experienced and thoughtful finance and economics commentators. His new book, TheSummertime of Our Dreams: A Memoir of Mateship and Mortality, will be published in August 2022.
Gary Quinlan was Australia’s Ambassador to Indonesia from 2018 until April 2021. Prior to that he was Deputy Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Australia’s Senior Official to ASEAN and the East Asia Summit.
Suzanne Daniel, a Berry resident, is a novelist -- Allegra in Three Parts is her most recent book -- and journalist who has worked for The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC TV, the United Nations, BBC London and in crisis management and social services.
Allison Tait (A.L. Tait) is an internationally published, bestselling author of the middle-grade adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles the Ateban Cipher novels, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries.
Mark Tredinnick is one of Australia’s most celebrated poets, essayists, and writing teachers.
Nicole Abadee is a literary critic who writes about books and contributes to the Two of Us for Good Weekend, and has a podcast, Books, Books, Books on which she interviews top Australian and international writers about their latest books. She appears regularly as a moderator at writers’ festivals and other literary events.
Suzanne Burdon is a sociologist, research consultant, marketing and communication specialist. She is also the author of an award-winning novel, Almost Invincible, a biographical novel of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, and a collection of poetry Socio-Illogical.
Mary Cunnane was a vice president and senior editor at W.W. Norton & Company in the US before founding The Mary Cunnane Literary Agency in Australia in 1999. She is currently a publishing consultant and freelance editor after having closed the agency in 2013.
Mick Elliott is an author, illustrator, TV producer, screenwriter, literacy ambassador and professional mischief-maker.
His hilarious adventure trilogy, The Turners, was nominated for an Aurealis Award and features on the Premiers’ Reading Challenge. His illustrated middle grade series Squidge Dibley has been sold into six international territories to date. He has contributed stories and illustrations to many bestselling anthologies.
Kate Fullagar is a professor of history at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University. She is also co-editor of the Australian Historical Association’s journal, History Australia
Jennifer Mors lives in Berry NSW where she is creating a five-acre garden, writes book reviews for the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and volunteers in the Remedial Reading Program at Berry Public School.
Helen has worked as a journalist for over 25 years winning awards in science and health journalism, a Walkley nomination and becoming the Australian Society of Travel Writers’ Travel Writer of the Year.
Christina Slade has worked as an academic and university leader in Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, Mexico and the United States.
Louise is the founder and CEO of Walsh Capital a bespoke capital raising business who’s clients are boutique investment managers.
Robyn Williams, presenter of The Science Show and Ockham’s Razor on ABC Radio, is one of Australia's best-known and best-loved broadcasters and the author of sixteen books. He is a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland.
