For a few special days every year, Sydney comes alive with writers, journalists, public intellectuals and book lovers – who gather for the Emerald City’s long-standing celebration of literature, reading and ideas: the Sydney Writers' Festival.
This year marks the 27th anniversary of our city’s most beloved celebration of words, and the festival’s 2024 theme is Take Me Away – a theme that reflects our universal affinity for escapism, a role that literature has always played in society. Comprising 223 free and ticketed events, this year’s program is a pretty impressive one.
The urban corner of Sydney that’s home to the spectacular space that is Carriageworks will act as the hub for this year’s festival, but events will be popping up across the city: including at Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall and The State Library of NSW, as well as at smaller venues across Greater Sydney and the nation through the Live & Local streaming program. Keen to get involved? Read on.
For the 2024 program, almost 300 writers from all over Australia and the world will come together to share stories and interrogate ideas, all around the central theme of Take Me Away. A celebration of Australian thought-leaders, 263 of the speakers on this year’s program are Australian, with 35 international speakers joining them on stages across the city.
Highlights from this year’s program will include a live podcast recording with London-based author and podcaster Katy Hessell, a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the hit true crime podcast The Teacher’s Pet, and a talk exploring life in the technological age from philosopher and author A.C. Grayling. International headliners include Bonnie Garmus (Lessons in Chemistry), Michael Connelly (Resurrection Walk), Celeste Ng (Our Missing Hearts) and Ann Patchett (Tom Lake), who will open the festival with a sold-out event on Wednesday, May 22. Australian headliners include three Miles Franklin winners, (Shankari Chandran, Melissa Lucashenko and Anna Funder), Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, international best-seller Trent Dalton and Walkley-winning broadcaster Julia Baird.
If you’re on a starving artist budget, fear not: the program features heaps of free events, including a fascinating lecture series examining everything from intuition to fishing to being alone.
For budding writers and readers, there’s a whole day dedicated to the YA (young adult) genre taking place on Saturday, May 25 – with $15 tickets scoring you access to an incredible line-up of talks and workshops.
The line-up is extensive this year, so if there’s a niche Aussie writer that you’ve always adored, chances are they’ll be in attendance – you can check out the program and book tickets over here.
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