Conversations inspire readers and writers at Thirroul festival
The South Coast Readers and Writers Festival is back at Thirroul Community Centre
In Saturday's Welcome to Country, Dr Aunty Barbara Nicholson congratulated South Coast Writers Centre director Sarah Nicholson on preparing "a literary feast" with compelling themes.
"A number of the sessions deal with those things of belonging – needing to belong, and needing to be needed," 2024's Citizen of the Year said. "And I think it's really important. It's a popular trend in writing at the moment. It occurs to me that these needs take prominence when the world is in a bad state, and let's face it, the world is in a terrible state right now.
"So I think it's more important now than ever that we acknowledge that writing, that published writing, should have been given space to tease out those topics."
And that's just what the 2026 festival did.
More than 200 people attended each day, enjoying a diverse program of award-winning writers in conversation, as well as book shopping and author signings at Thirroul Community Centre. Scroll down to see photos from Saturday and Sunday – all thanks to Matt Houston of Ironbark Photography MJH.
