True Story Program 2025

10am–2:30pm

Whether you’re writing for online, page, stage or screen, your distinctive voice is what connects you to your audience. In this practical, inspiring workshop with journalist and narrative strategist Erin O’Dwyer, you’ll learn how to uncover and refine a voice that’s authentic and compelling—whether you’re telling your own story or someone else’s. You’ll leave with refreshed confidence, and a clear sense of how to make your writing sing. 

9:30–11:30am

Award-winning documentary maker and writer Belinda Lopez has spent many years asking the right questions to discover untold stories about families, history and society. 

In this workshop, she focuses on the art of interviewing—an often overlooked but crucial skill for writers of family and social histories, memoir and biography, as well as in documentary and journalism. She shares the approaches she has developed to unearth illuminating stories in collaboration with her interviewees. 

10am–12pm

Uncover Wollongong’s hidden feminist history with author and tour guide Sita Sargeant (She Shapes History). Take a walk through the city’s streets, shoreline and squares to discover how women shaped Wollongong’s politics, culture, and community life.

From ocean baths carved out by convicts so women could swim in privacy, to the grassroots campaigns that changed Australia’s constitution, this tour reveals a different side of the city. Along the way you’ll encounter stories of survival, protest, reinvention and creativity—from the foreshore to Market Square to the Old Courthouse.

You’ll leave with a fresh perspective on Wollongong’s landmarks and a deeper appreciation for the women who helped shape the city into what it is today.

1:15–1:30pm

Dr Jodi Edwards is a Yuin woman with Dharawal kinship connection who has dedicated her life to community, culture, education and language. She delivers the Welcome Address for this year’s festival.

1:30–2:30pm

Former mayor of Wollongong Frank Arkell was flamboyant, successful, well-off and a relentless champion of the city he loved. But there was a sinister, dark underside to his life that involved predatory sexual behaviour towards young boys as part of an alleged paedophile ring of powerful men. In his book Politics, Pride and Perversion, historian Erik Eklund has done forensic research to tell a story that is disturbing and continues to divide people to this day. He tells Professor Sue Turnbull how he uncovered the secrets of Arkell’s network and his brutal murder. 

2:45–3:45pm

Non-fiction authors walk among us! Four local writers tell ABC Illawarra host Melinda James about their exciting new titles. Biographer Jeff Apter reveals the life of trailblazing music producer Lee Gordan. Journalist Erin O’Dwyer has the inside story on the true crime memoir she co-wrote with a former beauty queen and convicted drug dealer. Electrify Everything guru Saul Griffiths explains how to Plug In! to cut household costs and carbon emissions. And journalist Jeremy Lasek looks at the people who powered the Illawarra’s Yes23 referendum campaign. Plus, our True Locals share their 'must-read' non-fiction recommendations. 

4:00–5:00pm

Two of the best new Australian biographers talk about how they bring to life remarkable lives that deserve another look. Vicki Hastrich celebrates deep sea fishing champion and millionaire author Zane Grey, who spent time fishing for marlin on the South Coast of NSW, while Anthony Sharwood travels in the footsteps of his hero, Enlightenment freedom fighter Tadeusz Kosciuscko—from Poland to France, from the US to our own high country—to ask how his name got given to our tallest peak. They are in conversation with Caroline Baum, host of Life Sentences, a podcast about contemporary biography. 

5:15–6:15pm

Stella Prize-winning historian Professor Clare Wright has long been a source of inspiring stories about our past with her award-winning accounts of the Eureka Stockade and the early Australian feminist movement as well as her television documentaries, radio programs, feature films and podcasts. We are honoured that this year she delivers our keynote address, which tells the story behind the ṉäku dhäruk (bark petitions) created by the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land to stake their claim to their country, thereby sparking the beginning of the land rights movement that ultimately acknowledged legal native title. This promises to be a thought-provoking presentation that no one interested in justice and a truth-telling can afford to miss. Following the address, Clare will be in conversation with Jaymee Beveridge.

10:00–11:00am

Nothing could be more topical than conspiracy theories, as recent events such as the tragedy at Porepunkah demonstrate; and in a so-called post-truth world, what role does scepticism have in determining who we trust and what we believe? To discuss these thorny, burning issues, we have assembled a formidable panel: Walkley award winner Ariel Bogle and her co-writer Cam Wilson, authors of Conspiracy Nation, which covers everything from pandemic origin theories to school shootings; and Tracey Kirkland, editor of Age of Doubt, in conversation with fearless media commentator Jan Fran. 

11:30am–12:30pm

From monuments to documents, men have been the main characters in our history. Now two powerful storytellers are reframing the narrative to celebrate the accomplishments of women. Join Stella Prize-winning historian Professor Clare Wright as she speaks to Yves Rees about ten trailblazing women whose connection with the United States changed the course of Australian history and author Sita Sargeant, the founder of the She Shapes History walking tours, for a fresh feminist perspective on the Australian cities and towns we thought we knew. 

1:30–2:30pm

It’s bandied around a lot these days in conversations about the US and right-wing politics, but what exactly is fascism and why would it prompt Wollongong steelworker Jim McNeil to go and fight against it in the Spanish Civil War, just as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway did? Michael Samaras has uncovered a remarkable story of idealism and courage in Anti-Fascists: Jim McNeil and his mates in the Spanish Civil War. Meanwhile, Dennis Glover brings the subject into the modern day in his book Repeat: A Warning from History, drawing our attention to the perils of populists, dictators and authoritarianism. This conversation is hosted by Walkley-award winning author and podcast producer Siobhan McHugh. 

2:50–3:50pm

In public, they looked poised, confident and fearless, but as high-profile social researcher Rebecca Huntley (Sassafras) and acclaimed musical star of Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera Josh Piterman (Behind the Mask) both admit, they have been haunted by trauma and anxiety. So how did they find a way to cope? They talk candidly with award-winning author and celebrant Dr Jackie Bailey.