SWF Live and Local 2021

On Saturday 1st May, Sydney Writers’ Festival will be streaming its headline events from Carriageworks in Sydney direct to Wollongong Town Hall. The event will engage audiences in streamed conversations, debates and discussions with some of the world’s finest authors.

In addition to the livestream, the South Coast Writers Centre has curated live events with local authors and artists, providing audiences with the opportunity to participate in live Q&A sessions with local talent as part of the event’s program.

Live & Local Program

9:30am – Welcome from The South Coast Writers Centre

10am – Barrie Cassidy and Friends: Opposition and Dissent (streamed)

11:10am – Kate Holden in Conversation with Meredith Jaffe: The Winter Road (live)

12pm – Isabel Wilkerson: Caste (streamed)

1:10pm – Joshua Lobb & Lily Hayman: From The Flight of Birds to Fledgling (live)

2pm – Sarah Krasnostein in conversation with Helen Garner (streamed)

3:10pm – Catherine McKinnon & Leland Kean: Storyland in adaptation (live)

4pm – Richard Flanagan & Laura Tingle (streamed)

SCWC members can find a discount code for Live & Local tickets under the members section of our website.

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Live Panel Author Profiles

Kate Holden is the author of two acclaimed memoirs, In My Skin and The Romantic, and a regular contributor to The Saturday Paper, The Monthly and The Age.

Her book, The Winter Road is an epic true story of greed, power and a desire for legacy from an acclaimed Australian storyteller. July 2014, a lonely road at twilight outside Croppa Creek, New South Wales: 80-year-old farmer Ian Turnbull takes out a .22 and shoots environmental officer Glen Turner in the back. The brutal killing of Glen Turner splits open the story of our place on this land. Kate Holden brings her discerning eye to a gripping tale of law, land and inheritance. It is the story of Australia.

Meredith Jaffé is the author of three novels for adults - The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison (May 2021), The Making of Christina (2017) and The Fence (2016.) Horse Warrior, the first in a children’s series, was published in 2019. She is the Festival Director of StoryFest, held on the NSW South Coast, and regularly facilitates at other writers’ festivals and author events.

Joshua Lobb is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong. His award-winning stories have appeared in The Bridport Prize Anthology, Best Australian Stories, Animal Studies Journal, Text, Griffith Review and Southerly. The Flight of Birds is published by Sydney University Press. He is also part of the multi-authored project, 100 Atmospheres: Studies in Scale and Wonder.

Lily Hayman is a theatre maker and performer from Sydney, she grew up on Dharawal land which was never ceded. Her work focuses on challenging notions of passive spectatorship, while staging the extraordinary magic of Australian stories.

Catherine McKinnon is an award-winning writer and playwright. Her novel Storyland (Harper Collins, 2017) was shortlisted for the 2018 Miles Franklin Award, shortlisted for the 2018 Barbara Jefferis Award, the 2018 Voss Literary Prize and was named one of ABC TV’s The Book Club’s Five of the Best in 2017. Catherine was co-winner of the Griffith Review: Tall Tales Short – The Novella Project 111 award in 2015. Her first novel, The Nearly Happy Family, was published by Penguin in 2008. Her plays have been produced nationally and Hurt was nominated for an AWGIE award in 2017. Her short stories, reviews and essays have appeared in Transnational Literature, Text Journal, RealTime, Narrative, Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin and the Griffith Review. She teaches creative writing and performance at the University of Wollongong.

Leland Kean is Merrigong Theatre’s Artistic Development Manager. He has over twenty years of professional experience as a Director, Producer, Designer, Dramaturg, Curator and Arts Manager. Since graduating from the NIDA director’s course in 1997 his career has been committed to the development and production of new Australian work and artists.

SCWC is proud to have Dymocks as the onsite bookseller for this event!