Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival 2024: Four days packed with literary magic as creators share knowledge

Book worms and creators are in for a fantastic weekend as the 19th Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival kicks off next Thursday, celebrating all things literary over four days. From October 10-13, one of Geraldton Regional Library’s biggest events will attract readers and writers from across the region, who will explore their imagination and explore new ideas. This year’s keynote speaker is Australian novelist Yumna Kassab, who became the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature in 2023. As part of the title, she will write a book combing through personal memories of growing up and working in her NSW hometown. Retired Australian diplomat of 35 years Dr Sue Boyd is another guest speaker. Her work in international affairs extended to Fiji, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Hong Kong and New York. With more than 20 years of experience in the music industry, Naaguja-Wilunyu woman Theona Councillor is a singer-songwriter who is currently working on the development and co-production of Murla-na Bula Wula Bulangul — an opera telling the Councillor family’s oral history of frontier violence that took place in the Mid West in 1854. Artist and writer Dr George Criddle is another co-producer in the opera. He self-published a book documenting the Pelican Spring Massacre of 1854. Author Annie de Monchaux’s non-fiction novel Cray Tales, which delves into WA’s lobster fishing industry, was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Literary Award and became the basis of a documentary. David Whish-Wilson has published three creative non-fiction books and 10 novels, two of which have been shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards, while leading Australian crime fiction author Chris Hammer, who published his most recent book in October, will both attend the festival. Singer, poet and actor Jake Dennis, picture book author and illustrator Gabriel Evans, remote community school teacher Sally Herzfeld, poet, writer and university lecturer Caitlin Maling, writer and academic Deborah Pike, storyteller Glenn B Swift and bestselling author Tess Woods will also be in attendance. This year, seven writers have been shortlisted for the Big Sky Short Story Prize -- Carrie Puzzar, Annie Chandler, Samantha Chant, Sarah Jane Greenlees, Marc Christoffersen, Annette Sellers and Darcy Hay. The award winners will be announced at the opening night of the festival on Thursday. For more information about individual sessions, visit the library website.