Berry Writers Festival is excited to have a wonderful line up of talented authors
who will share their insights with us.
Watch this page as we continually add more details about authors and hosts.
Amal Awad is the author of Courting Samira and This is How You Get Better as well as the non-fiction books The Incidental Muslim, Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women, Fridays with my Folks: Stories on Ageing, Illness and Life, and In My Past Life I Was Cleopatra. She has also contributed to the anthologies Growing Up Muslim in Australia: Coming of Age and Some Girls Do…: My Life as a Teenager.
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.
Danielle Celermajer is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. Summertime: Reflections on a Vanishing Future is a book about the experience of climate catastrophe in the intentional multispecies community where she lives.
Paul Daley is the author of the political thriller Challenge. He is a novelist and playwright whose books have been shortlisted in major literary prizes. He writes about Indigenous history, Australian culture and national identity for Guardian Australia.
Suzanne Daniel’s latest book is Allegra in three Parts. It sees the world through the eyes of a seven year old girl and paints a nostalgic and alarming picture of women's lives and feminist activism in the '70s. ‘Heartwarming... touching... funny... charming...’ The Weekend Australian.
Suzanne lives in Berry.
Ceridwen Dovey is a fiction writer and essayist based in Sydney. Her latest book, Life after Truth has been described as The Secret History meets Big Little Lies and as witty, clever, and very much of its time. It is both a murder mystery and study of modern manners and mid-life challenge
David Dufty has written a rich historical account of a secret and little understood side of the war, interwoven with lively personalities and personal stories. It is the story of Australia's version of Bletchley Park, of talented and dedicated individuals who significantly influenced the course of the Pacific War.
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.
Tim Flannery's latest book, The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19 was published in November 2020. It is an urgent and essential call to arms from one of Australia's most respected climate scientists, and leading writers on climate change.
Dominic Frawley is a country GP in the Shoalhaven region. He is also a husband, parent, doctor and writer. Malachy, his first book, is a memoir and a tribute to his son, a ‘Heart Kid’ whose fourteen brief years inspired many who crossed his path. In its pages, Dom explores the bond of love between parent and child, as his family employs activism, humour, and resilience to face his son’s disability and death, as well as their grief.
Sulari Gentill studied astrophysics before switching to law. She went on to practise corporate law before becoming an award-winning, best-selling author of The Rowland Sinclair Mysteries.
Sulari’s novel Crossing the Lines won the 2018 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award 2018 for Best Adult Crime Novel.
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 mother of two. Her articles have featured in Grazia, The Times, The Guardian, Mammamia and The Sydney Morning Herald . Her blog eatori.com was ranked by Saveur as one of the five best food and travel blogs in the world.
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 Incidental Complications (2007), Porch Light (2015) and The Owl Inside (2020). Ivy’s divergent career paths have included bookstore owner, magician’s assistant, harpist, cabaret performer, writer and lecturer in Creative Writing.
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.
Yumiko Kadota is the author of Emotional Female, a brave, honest and unflinching work from a major new talent. It is a passionate account of the toxic culture of bullying and overwork that junior doctors can experience in the workplace as part of their training.
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.
Jonica Newby's new book,
Angela O’Keeffe’s novel Night Blue is a potent, haunting and lyrical narrative largely told in the voice of the painting Blue Poles. It is also the story of the essential power of art to change our personal lives and, by turns, a nation.
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.
Mark Tredinnick’s latest book is Walking Underwater, his fourth collection of poetry. Mark is one of Australia’s most celebrated poets, essayists and writing teachers. Walking Underwater, his twentieth book, is a catchment of poems written over a decade in which the poet was asked to learn life again.
Marian Wilkinson is one of Australia's most respected investigative journalists. Her latest book, The Carbon Club, reveals the truth behind Australia's two decades of climate inaction.
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.
Perrie Croshaw’s first career was in journalism, working at The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Financial Times in London, Westpac’s Private Bank magazine and Monash Graduate School’s, Monash Business Review. She wrote Money Matters: Financial Management for Women.
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.
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?'
Ivy Ireland is the author of Incidental Complications (2007), Porch Light (2015) and The Owl Inside (2020). Ivy’s divergent career paths have included bookstore owner, magician’s assistant, harpist, cabaret performer, writer and lecturer in Creative Writing.
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.
Colleen is an award-winning journalist with a background in communications, journalism and philosophy. She has worked in radio, television and documentary production along with writing and producing weekly radio programs interviewing authors, artists and entrepreneurs.
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.
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.
