‘Sydney is not a shallow city’: Major change for Sydney Writers’ Festival

The Sydney Writers’ Festival will deliver year-round storytelling at a new dedicated literature hub to be established at Australia’s oldest library amid warnings that without paid speaking gigs professional writing will become an unviable occupation within 20 years.

Almost 30 years after launching at the State Library of NSW in 1997, the festival is to become a resident company of the Macquarie Street institution in the same way that Opera Australia or the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs mostly in the Sydney Opera House.

Arts Minister John Graham with State Librarian Caroline Butler-Bowdon and Sydney Writers’ Festival chief executive Brooke Webb. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong

Arts Minister John Graham has awarded $1.5 million to the writers’ festival for the first year for events at the library – outside its one-week annual May festival at Carriageworks – starting from September.

The investment precedes the upcoming launch of the state’s writing and literature strategy – the first time an Australian government has put together a comprehensive plan to support writing and literature, Graham said.

“I see Sydney as a city of ideas. I don’t accept that Sydney is a shallow city,” he said. “We’ve got some of the best writers, some of the most engaged readers and writers and, with the library and the festival working together, it will strengthen both institutions.”

Festival-led talks and events at the library will rise from the current trial of six to 10 a year to between 75 and 80 events annually, confirming the library as the festival’s second home. It’s all part of the evolution of the writers’ festival into a literary institution that conducts year-round events programs for local and international thinkers and a platform for new and diverse voices in the manner of Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre.

An event at the Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks this year.Credit: Jacquie Manning

“That’s huge growth for Sydney Writers’ Festival, and presents increased opportunities and access both for the literature sector and for NSW,” the festival’s chief executive Brooke Webb said. “There are shrinking paid opportunities for writers right now and, if we don’t address this now, in 20 years’ time writing just won’t be a viable choice for people.”

In Australia, writers are among the poorest paid creatives, earning on average $18,500 a year, yet reading and writing remain vital to personal wellbeing, and economic and social prosperity.

“Writers and their readers are the heartbeat of the literary ecosystem, and the Sydney Writers’ Festival connects the two,” Webb said.

“We are looking at creating more opportunities for paid work. The May festival is the jewel in the crown of what we do annually but the opportunity to operate all year round to engage many different audiences is truly exciting and quite inspired.”

The latest Australia Reads survey indicates a decline in recreational reading across all age brackets. More than one in four adult Australians haven’t read or listened to a book in the past year and 29 per cent of secondary school students no longer read for pleasure.

New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has prompted calls to find new ways to get young male readers to start reading books. It found the most common group of regular readers is older women (48 per cent), compared with just 10.1 per cent of males aged 15 to 24. This trend is backed up by the festival’s 2025 record attendance figures of 101,038, which show its loyalists to be women over the age of 50 despite significant growth in the younger age group.

“I actually think access, especially for regional and rural areas, has been probably the biggest obstacle to reading for the young demographic,” Webb said.

State Librarian Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon said the additional state festival funding “recognises the role the State Library and all libraries play as the homes for readers and writers, and the great contribution that writers’ festivals play in taking what is quite a solitary act – reading – and transforming it into community experience”.

The partnership will help expand the library’s already popular family days and enable the streaming of conversations and storytelling into public libraries across the state.

Undertaking a major refurbishment of the Macquarie Street building, the library has experienced its own mini attendance boom with visitation rising 25 per cent in 12 months. The refurbishment will allow the library to throw open its doors to writers’ and history groups, book launches and reader conferences for all ages and interests in a much bigger way than it currently does.

“A number of talks taking place in the library’s auditorium will be made available to the 364 public libraries across the state, which increases access for regional and rural communities,” Butler-Bowdon said.

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