Byron Writers Festival has unveiled the first list of guests for their 25th anniversary event

A Northern Rivers author will be among the guests at the festival, which was cancelled in 2020 but is scheduled to go ahead in August this year.

Byron Writers Festival is scheduled to go ahead in August 2021.

Northern Rivers author Hayley Katzen, who wrote memoir Untethered, will be among the guests at Byron Writers Festival this year.

Festival organisers have announced the first list of talent to appear at the 2021 event, which was scheduled for August 6 to 8, and will be the festival’s 25th anniversary.

Award-winning journalist and ABIA Book of the Year Phosphorescence author Dr Julia Baird, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and activist, historian and author Tony Birch have been announced as guests lined up for this year’s festival.

The festival’s organisers have also announced best-selling writer, essayist and lawyer Alice Pung, poet and coeditor of Overland Literary Journal Evelyn Araluen for the line up.

“We are delighted to be welcoming our guests and audiences back to the beautiful festival grounds at Byron Bay for three days of stimulating conversation, ideas and shared experiences,” festival director Edwina Johnson said.

Untethered author Hayley Katzen at her property in Ewingar.

“Our 25th anniversary is a significant milestone for the festival and we cherish this opportunity to come together to reflect, connect and celebrate with such incredible literary talent.”

Dr Baird, host of The Drum on the ABC, was set to appear in several sessions at the festival.

The festival will again be offering Sunday Locals’ Passes at $90 (a discount of $45), an initiative supported by Stone & Wood and available to residents of the Byron, Ballina, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed council areas.

“Byron Writers Festival is such an awesome cultural event for the Northern Rivers region and we feel it’s important that as many people from the local community are able to attend as possible,” Stone & Wood general manager Nick Boots said.

“We hope that these Sunday Locals’ passes bring familiar faces young and old to enjoy a day of deep thinking and conversation.”

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull.

Locals’ passes are now available here or at the festival office and will only be available until sold out.

Locals’ tickets are limited to two per person and purchasers will need to provide proof of address.

The full line up of more than 100 people will be announced on June 23; all tickets will go on sale that day.

The festival has meanwhile has a modification application before Byron Shire Council seeking to roll over approval of the site from 2020, when the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The application documents state it will “remain substantially the same as the development” at the Bayshore Drive property.