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Sydney Writers' Festival

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Check out the head of hair.

Writers, I’m on your side – now here’s my list of complaints

Even as a forgiving reader, I have my quibbles.

  • Richard Glover

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Cardinal George Pell celebrates a special mass in Sydney’s St. Mary’s Cathedral in 2004.

Sky News’ favourite college opens Cardinal George Pell hall

Campion College, a small institution in western Sydney, is a safe space for conservatives.

  • Kishor Napier-Raman, Stephen Brook and Liam Mannix
Marian Keyes

Good food, good craic as bestselling author Marian Keyes gets real

Lunch with Marian Keyes is a revelation; sex, alcoholism, life and death. Nothing is off the table.

  • Margot Saville
Melbourne-based Nam Le wins NSW Premier’s Literary awards for the second time with his second book.

Sixteen years ago, Nam Le’s debut won a major literary prize. His follow-up has done it again

Australian-Vietnamese writer Nam Le has taken out book of the year at the 2025 NSW Literary Awards for a poetry collection he fought to get published.

  • Linda Morris
Butter, a cult Japanese bestseller by Asako Yuzuki inspired by the real-life case of a serial killer convicted of poisoning three of her male lovers, is being hailed overseas for its exploration of misogyny, fatphobia and sexism in modern Japan.

How a Japanese book about a woman who murders her lovers became a global phenomenon

Met with a muted reception in her native Japan, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter won fanfare around the world.

  • Thomas Mitchell
Novelist Torrey Peters.

Torrey Peters went off-grid and came back speaking lumberjack

And she doesn’t just talk the talk. Peters can walk the walk, or in this case, fell the trees.

  • Melanie Kembrey
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Kaliane Bradley’s time-travel novel, The Ministry of Time, brings Graham Gore, who was on Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition, back to life.

‘I went slightly nuts’: How a TV horror binge inspired this bestselling time-travel novel

A lockdown TV binge prompted author Kaliane Bradley to dig into polar exploration. Now the novel that came of it is being turned into its own series.

  • Jason Steger
Disagreement is not harm, says SWF artistic director Ann Mossop.

‘Disagreement is not harm’: Sydney Writers’ Festival reveals program after sudden resignation

Weeks after festival chair Kathy Shand resigned citing concerns about the range of opinions programmed, the 2025 line-up has been revealed.

  • Linda Morris
Kathy Shand has resigned from the writers festival.

Festival head quits as Middle East debate continues to split art world

The Sydney Writers’ Festival program is due to be announced in weeks but its chair Kathy Shand, who is Jewish, has sent her resignation to board members.

  • Paul Sakkal and Linda Morris
Laura Tingle, chief political correspondent of the ABC’s 7.30.

What price starting a culture war? For Laura Tingle it was just $600

The ABC stalwart’s comments at the Sydney Writers’ Festival kicked off a culture-war meltdown. In monetary terms it probably wasn’t worth the hassle.

  • Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/sydney-writers-festival-62w