Conversations inspire readers and writers at Thirroul festival

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."

There are more great conversations to come. The final day of the South Coast Readers and Writers Festival kicks off at 10am today, Sunday 26th, at Thirroul Community Centre with a crime writing session featuring author James Bradley, then poet Evelyn Araluen joins journalist Antoinette Lattouf in conversation with Antony Loewenstein about their latest work.

Full program here: https://southcoastwriters.org/program

All photos thanks to Matt Houston of Ironbark Photography MJH