Worthy warm-ups for wordsmiths’ favourite festival
We can’t reveal the guest list for this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival, but we can divulge some good news on two out-of-season literary events.
Holding events all year long means that Brisbane Writers Festival is a bit of a never-ending story.
The festival proper is on in October at Brisbane Powerhouse, but the rest of the year is seeded with out-of-season events that are becoming hugely popular.
The guest list is impressive and already this year BWF has presented Yann Martel, Kathy Lette and A.C. Grayling, to mention just a few.
BWF artistic director Jackie Ryan says having these events outside the festival “is a nice little reminder that we are there”.
“And these events do sometimes bring in some new people who might be fans,” Ryan says. “We have even had the occasional new person come along and say … ‘I didn’t know there was a Brisbane Writers Festival’. That’s both exciting and depressing.”
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Obviously, some people just aren’t paying attention because BWF is now firmly part of the national literary landscape and has been building a reputation for decades. Now authors are vying to get on the program, if they can.
Last year’s festival was a cracker with guests including historian superstar Bettany Hughes, Hollywood insider Griffin Dunne, Irish economist and author David McWilliams and local hero Trent Dalton.
So, who’s on the guest list this year? I try to trick Jackie Ryan into divulging the 2026 literati but she’s like a vault and will continue to be until August 5 when the main program is launched. Fair enough.
Although this week BWF did announce Brisbane Writers Festival Schools Program, a celebration of reading, writing and storytelling that is always a hit. It’s an impressive list of featured authors this year for that program, including Jacqueline Harvey, Morris Gleitzman, Dr Matt Agnew, Gary Lonesborough, Kate Foster, Sally Rippin, Carla Salmon, Bori Cser and Peter Carnavas.
This will be the second year at the festival’s new home, Brisbane Powerhouse, and that venue went swimmingly last year.
“People pretty much loved it,” Ryan says. “There is a bar, and writers and bars do go well together. There’s good food, good coffee, good music. People were pretty happy.”
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She says parking and transport was an issue for some but that seems to be ironing itself out. Buses do go straight to the Brisbane Powerhouse precinct and the CityCat service stops nearby, so that helps.
This year’s festival will include “something for everyone”, which is a bit of a Jackie Ryan signature. She has a very broad-brush approach, which works well and ends up being very inclusive.
And, yes, there will be a hot line-up of international guests but, no, she cannot tell me who. Not yet anyway.
To warm up for the main event there are two final out-of-season events before the festival proper.
There’s Meg Mason at Brisbane Powerhouse on August 16. This global bestseller and author of the literary sensation Sorrow and Bliss is back with a new novel, Sophie, Standing There. Meg Mason will be in in conversation with fellow novelist Kimberley Allsopp.
Then on September 4 at Brisbane City Hall superstar author Liane Moriarty will be grilled by podcasters and Disco Club founders Lise and Sarah.
The news that Moriarty has a new book coming out is exciting enough. But wait, there’s more! This isn’t just a new book – it’s the follow-up to her international mega-hit Big Little Lies, which was made into a blockbuster HBO series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern.
I’s time to return to picturesque Pirriwee, your favourite Northern Beaches hotbed of secrets and subterfuge. In Big Little Truths, best friends Madeline, Celeste and Jane are still haunted by the events of 10 years ago. They’re just trying to get on with their lives – until a severed finger shows up and a strange man in a green Volvo starts hanging around the kids. The truth will come out … and it’s going to cause chaos.
That should help warm everyone up for Brisbane Writers Festival and we will get back to you with a guest list as soon as we have it. Stay tuned.
Brisbane Writers Festival runs October 8-11. For information on out-of-season festival events and this year’s BWF, go to: bwf.org.au
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