Experts to chat Hollywood, crime, giant sharks at the South Coast Writers Festival

THE MAIN PROGRAM

Thursday August 17

Emerging Writers Reading

• Mentor Emma Darragh will introduce mentees Diana Plater, Deborah Huff-Horwood, Rose Searby and Spencer Barberis from Bramble literary journal, reading works in progress. Emerging Aboriginal Writers mentor Judi Morison introduces mentees Tabatha Cann and Nicole Smede. Emerging Refugee and CALD Writers mentor Zohra Aly introduces Xiaoxue Li, and Young Writers Collective mentor Helena Fox introduces Rhys Lorenc, Sky Carrall, Paige Webster and Jamilla Dempsey. 7pm - 9:30pm at the University of Wollongong

Friday August 18

Big Meg

• Join renowned scientists Tim Flannery and Emma Flannery as they tell the story of the largest and most mysterious predator that every lived. Tim Flannery and Emma Flannery appear in conversation with Claire O'Rourke. 1pm - 2pm at Wollongong Library

Opening Night: Books We Love

• Award-winning writers Kate Holden and Caroline Baum discuss the books that have moved, inspired and stayed with them, with WellRead's Laura Brading. Singer-songwriter Kay Proudlove delights with songs from her indie-folk show and Joshua Lobb, Julie Janson, Hayley Scrivenor, Dominic Knight and festival director Sarah Nicholson read from literature they have an enduring crush on. 7pm - 9:30pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.
  

Saturday August 19

Politics: thriller, horror or black comedy?

• Just how bleak is contemporary global politics? Tim Ayliffe keeps his hand on the tiller of ABC News, while also writing political crime thrillers, John Birmingham savagely skewers Australian politics for his AlienSideBoob columns, and Fiona Katauskas crafts political cartoons for The Guardian. They speak with ABC Radio's Dominic Knight about the issues in global politics today. 10am - 11am in the Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Writing and Bodies

• Best-selling author Hayley Scrivenor interviews James McKenzie Watson and Ashley Kalagian Blunt. James wrote Denizen, a rural thriller, and Ashley is the author of psychological thriller, Dark Mode. James and Ashley both live with chronic illness, and in their cult-classic podcast James and Ashley Stay at Home, they explore the intersections of creativity and health, writing and physical wellbeing. 10am - 11am in the Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

Humour and heart: Bringing teens to life

• Authors Will Kostakis and Helena Fox appear in conversation to discuss writing their latest, warm, sad, funny, and gorgeous books for young adults. Helena's novel, The Quiet and the Loud, is a poignant exploration of the human experience, and the healing that takes place when we find the courage to give voice to our stories. Will's semi-autobiographical book, We Could Be Something, follows two 17 year-old boys who each face challenges while working out their identity. Helena and Will reflect on the pains and pleasures of writing teen experience. 11:15am - 12:15pm in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

Artist Adelaide Perry

• Jo Oliver speaks with art historian Joseph Davis about her biography of Modernist artist Adelaide Perry, some of whose stunning paintings featuring local landscapes from the 1930's are held in Wollongong Art Gallery. 11:15am - 12:15pm in Wollongong Art Gallery, Bluescope Gallery.

$18,000 per annum: what's going wrong (or right) in publishing?

• $18,000 is the average amount that authors in Australia earned last year. Author Meredith Jaffee puts the state of Australian publishing under the microscope in conversation with Kate Holden, publisher Radhiah Chowdury, and Australian Society of Author's board member and author Sara Ayoub. 11:15am - 12:15pm in Music Lounge, Wollongong Town Hall.

Admissions

• We are full of worlds that can't be contained by a pill. Admissions is a ground-breaking anthology documenting mental health in Australia via poetry and prose. Join contributors Helena Fox, Sara Saleh, and Sam Twyford-Moore alongside editors Radhiah Chowdhury and David Stavanger as they explore writing about mental health/illness from lived experience. 12:30pm - 1:30pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Hollywood

• Ever wanted to step behind the Hollywood curtain? Join Castmates author Sam Twyford-Moore and esteemed director Graham Thornburn as they take a deep dive into Hollywood's fascinating one hundred- and twenty-seven-year history, following the lives of the Australian film stars who rose and burned bright in that firmament, and also, those who fell from grace. 12:30pm - 1:30pm in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

Space Opera

• John Birmingham's novels run the gamut from history to science fiction, from military thrillers to time-hop adventures, but they are all peppered with a rollicking humour and an interest in the politic of resistance and survival. In conversation with Alan Baxter, John Birmingham discusses the third book in his Cruel Stars space opera trilogy and guides us on how to tackle fascists in space. 2pm - 3pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

One Act

• Anne Howell woke up in hospital from a coma to find she had no memory of her adult life. Rachel Mogan Macintosh moved her husband and eccentric young family to regional France to live for a year. Author and podcaster Simon Luckhurst interviews the pair to find out more about their experiences, the lessons they learned, and why they decided to write the story of one specific life event. 2pm - 3pm in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

Crime Worlds

• From ganglands to international espionage: Tim Ayliffe draws on his very real experience in news to plunge readers into the worlds of global terrorism and political crime in his John Bailey series, while Lorraine Peck's crime thrillers intimately inhabit the urban noir of Australian streets. The pair talk crime with Sue Turnbull. 3:15pm - 4:15pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Belonging

• Sarah Ayoub and Sara M. Saleh unpack belonging: what does it mean to be 'Arab-Australian' and othered? While their acclaimed spans across a wide range of genres, from poetry to young adult, and adult novels to picture books, their unifying themes are the exploration of women straddling homes, homelands and identities, while negotiating choices in a patriarchal society. Sarah Ayoub and Sara M. Saleh appear in conversation with SCWC's Zohra Aly. 3:15pm - 4:15pm in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

Ritual, Nature and Grace

• Join Indira Naidoo, one of Australia's most popular broadcasters, and Tamryn Bennett, poet and the director of Red Room Poetry, as they discuss nature mysticism and medicine, rituals, and how writers express the things that strain beyond words, with festival director Sarah Nicholson. 4:30pm - 5:30pm on The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Unearthing the Hidden Dark

• What's underneath? In Julie Janson's Madukka the river serpent, investigator Aunty June unearths more than just murder, and in Dark Mode, Ashley Kalagian Blunt's psychological thriller takes the reader deep into the unsettling depths of the dark web. Ashley Kalagian Blunt and Julie Janson discuss the truth hidden in the dark in conversation with Bad Sydney Crime Writers' Andy Muir. 4:30pm - 5:30pm on The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

Wollongong Poetry Month Showcase

• An electric line-up of poetry and spoken word including Dakota Ferrier, Sara Saleh, Lore White, Mark Tredinnick, Holly Isemonger, Butch Schwarzkopf, Tamryn Bennett, and Rozanna Lilley plus a guest musical set by Jodi Phillis (The Clouds). Hosted by Nicole Smede, this event is presented in partnership with Red Room Poetry. 6pm - 7:30pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Sunday August 20

The Literary Podcast

• Caroline Baum, Siobhan McHugh and Pamela Cook unveil the success of podcasting as a medium, how great narrative podcasts are made, and why we've fallen in love with audio storytelling all over again. 10am - 11am in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Speculative Fiction

• From haunted familiar worlds to unrecognisable futures, speculative fiction summons us to enter the uncanny. Editor of This All Come Back Now, the world-first collection of blackfella speculative fiction, Mykela Saunders, along with and Alan Baxter, author of horror, supernatural thrillers, and dark fantasy, talk speculative writing with the University of Wollongong's Chrissy Howe. 10am - 11am in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

True Story: Everything and Nothing

• Celebrated stage and screen actor Heather Mitchell speaks with Caroline Baum about her powerful, immersive and intimately candid memoir, Everything and Nothing, which explores the light and shade that co-exist in love, family and the arts. 11:15am - 12:15pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

History, Heritage and Home

• Robyn Cadwallader's The Fire and The Rose is set amidst the maltreatment and expulsion of Jews from England in 1276. Shankari Chandran's novels, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens and Song of the Sun God, explore the effects of Sri Lankan civil war across generations. The duo chat with Laura Brading about what it is to be made 'other', the power of language and heritage to shape our lives, and the need for belonging, hope and home. 11:15am - 12:15pm in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

In Conversation: The Writer at Work

• Celebrated authors Fiona Kelly McGregor (Iris) and Kylie Needham (Girl in a Pink Dress) discuss their acclaimed new novels, the writing process, and the gift of creating stories with strong female protagonists with renowned Storyland author Catherine McKinnon. 12:30pm - 1:30pm in The Music Lounge of Wollongong Town Hall.

Writing the Everywhen

• Two Award-winning writers, Darug Burruberongal poet, playwright and novelist Julie Janson' and Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer-editor Mykaela Saunders, sit down with Judi Morison to yarn about writing time past, present and future while affirming community, culture and, always, Country. 12:30pm - 1:30pm at Wollongong Art Gallery.

Love, Loss and Lust

• Kate Scott and Susan McCreery's novels are both set in NSW coastal towns, explore love, loss and lust. They talk with Holly Trenaman about how coastal settings serve as a powerful backdrop for capturing the complexities of love, the depths of loss, and the intoxication of desire. 12:30pm - 1:30pm in The Ocean Room of Wollongong Town Hall.

SCWC Poetry Award 2023

• Announcement of the South Coast Writers Centre + Wollongong Art Gallery 2023 Poetry award. Hear from judges Peter Ramm and SCWC director Sarah Nicholson, plus readings from the winning poets. Stay to have a glass of wine to celebrate the end of the festival. 2pm - 3:30pm at Wollongong Art Gallery.