The best writers festivals for book lovers
Australians love these literary gatherings, and this year they can spread their wings
Travelling wordsmiths are bookmarking festivals in exotic places, seeking mind food and cool hotels. From Adelaide to Alice Springs, Brisbane to Byron Bay, Melbourne to Mildura, Australians love their writers festivals, and this year they can spread their wings.
Buenos Aires International Book Fair (April 27-May 15)
Literary agents, graphic designers, librarians, translators and publishers enjoy this 20-day book expo for its intensive professional workshops. Sensible walking shoes are essential, with 45,000sq m accommodating 1500 exhibitors from 40 countries. Word nerds are booking for the poetry festival, a storytelling marathon, and an interactive area for bookish children. Martin Kohan, Argentine academic, essayist and novelist, is giving the opening address. Other guests include Spanish writers Irene Vallejo, Fernando Aramburu and Arturo Perez-Reverte, Granta editor Valerie Miles, and poets Raul Zurita and Ida Vitale. Past drawcards have been Mario Vargas Llosa, Paul Auster, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Susan Sontag, Hanif Kureishi and Isabel Allende.
STAYHome Hotel, a boutique bolthole in Palermo Hollywood, with a funky barrio feel, proximity to steakhouses, malbec and artisans.
el-libro.org.ar/buenos-aires-book-fair
PEN America World Voices Festival (May 10-13)
This landmark New York event is named for the organisation that champions human rights and free expression. Last year’s festival closed with a cheeky reading of forbidden books. With its hub in Greenwich Village, this year’s program features 80 writers from 25 countries; visionaries in fiction, poetry, biography, translation, journalism and film who will probe the pressing issues of our time. Among the drawcards are the much-awarded Ayad Akhtar, Roxane Gay in conversation with scholar Rebecca F. Kuang, film and TV producer Franklin Leonard and Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist Matthew Desmond talking on the hot topics of the affordability crisis and future hope.
STAY Library Hotel, about which all you need to know, apart from its Midtown location, is it has more than 6000 books organised via the Dewey Decimal system.
Jaipur Literary Festival (May 12-21)
Imagine hanging out in Rajasthan’s Pink City for a week, listening to what co-director William Dalrymple calls “the literary special forces”. Among the line-up of 250 speakers in January were winners of Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer and PEN America prizes. There were meaty discussions on AI, tech morality, the global crisis in agriculture and the violence of the British Empire. Next month, “the elite paratroopers” of the JLF go to the barefoot luxury resort of Soneva Fushi in The Maldives, among them novelists Damon Galgut and Howard Jacobson, foreign correspondent Christina Lamb, filmmaker Muzaffar Ali and diplomat Navtej Sarna. Dedicated ice-cream, whisky and cheese rooms await festivalgoers in a paradisiacal setting. The theme this year is, not surprisingly, Slow Life.
STAY In one of Soneva Fushi’s 64 villas set in the jungle or by the beach in this UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Auckland Writers Festival (May 16-21)
This festival has attracted literary heavyweights such as Haruki Murakami and Arundhati Roy as well as local storytellers. This year’s program includes Colson Whitehead, who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and three Booker Prize winners: Eleanor Catton, Bernardine Evaristo and Shehan Karunatilaka. Indigenous writers from Canada, Australia and Aotearoa join an exchange about storytelling, language and experiences in a First Nations series, and literary foodies are well catered for. Good coffee guaranteed.
STAY QT Auckland is edgy, arty, vibrant. Add harbourfront shimmer and a kick-back martini at the rooftop bar while you reflect on the day’s wordsmithery.
Sydney Writers Festival (May 22-28)
The opening-night address stars Bernardine Evaristo, Benjamin Law and Alexis Wright, and closing-night words are from Richard Flanagan. In between is a conversation twixt Sam Neill and Bryan Brown, and words of wisdom from Julia Gillard, Geraldine Brooks, Peter Frankopan and Tim Winton. The new artistic director, Ann Mossop, has arrived at a meaty, fun and food-fuelled literary degustation that reflects a year of provocative fodder. Count on inspiration, education and sparkling dialogue.
STAY The Old Clare Hotel, a 62-room boutique hotel in Chippendale that encompasses two heritage-listed buildings on the edge of the CBD.
Hay Festival (May 25-June 4)
Writers and readers love this Welsh festival by the River Wye for its meadows, camaraderie and more than 20 bookshops. The 2023 program features more than 600 writers; global policy makers, pioneers and innovators in conversations, performances and debates. Participants include Barbara Kingsolver, Ranulph Fiennes and Tracey Emin. Several lauded novelists are introducing new works, among them Margaret Atwood, Eleanor Catton, Fflur Dafydd, Caleb Azumah Nelson and Alexander McCall Smith (who seems to have a full dance card this year).
STAY Llangoed Hall, dating from 506AD, offers a timeless country-house experience. It was formerly owned and refurbished by Laura Ashley’s husband Sir Bernard Ashley.
Motive Crime & Mystery Festival (June 2-4)
From cosy crime and police procedural to psychological thriller and true events, mystery and crime books inspire gripping stories. Last year’s inaugural Toronto festival welcomed 100 authors, among them Kathy Reichs, Mark Billingham, Val McDermid, Thomas Enger, Marissa Stapley and Emily Jenkins (aka E. Lockhart). Presented by the much-loved Toronto International Festival of Authors, held each September (and which has introduced no fewer than 22 Nobel laureates), the program includes conversations, readings, book signings, masterclasses and music.
STAY Radisson Blu is a glamorous downtown crash pad with 157 guestrooms and suites, fitness centre, pool and stunning views of Lake Ontario.
Edinburgh International Book Festival (August 12-28)
The setting is an awesome neoclassical city with castle. The fact this event is held during the arts festival, with concerts, ballet, cabaret and comedy, is the icing on the cake. Panellists have included Nobel Prize winners Maria Ressa, Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz and Malala Yousafzai as well as literary luminaries George R.R. Martin, Haruki Murakami, Elif Shafak and the late Hilary Mantel. This year’s will be the last festival for director Nick Barley, who will have notched up 14 programs. Favourite children’s characters may make an appearance, we hear, and expect sightings of literary locals such as Val McDermid and Ian Rankin.
STAY Doubletree by Hilton Edinburgh City Centre is in the Old Town, a stone’s throw from the festival hub, with a rooftop bar that commands views of the castle.
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (October 18-22)
This year is the festival’s 20th anniversary and there will be a new head of programming, Gene Smith, ex-Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Alongside authors in conversation and panel discussions, expect Indonesian dance and performance, literary lunches, guided tours of Ubud, late-night comedy, music and spoken-word events, along with book launches and workshops. The full program is announced in August but past guests set the flavour: Nick Cave, Yotam Ottolenghi, Amitav Ghosh, Audrey Magee and Fatima Bhutto.
STAY Maya Ubud has 100 spacious suites and villas capturing views of misty valleys, lush rice terraces and private gardens.
Emirates Lit Fest (January 31-February 6, 2024)
Like everything about Dubai, this is big. The event’s InterContinental hub looks across Dubai Creek to the new and imposing Mohammed bin Rashid Library, which houses 1.5 million books. Expect Arabic writers and a strong contingent of internationals. The line-up at the family-friendly event this year (formally called Emirates Airline Festival of Literature) included Irish writer Cecelia Ahern, British-Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid, Indian politician Shashi Tharoor, comedian and children’s author David Walliams, and bestselling novelists Jeffrey Archer and, yes, Alexander McCall Smith. A highlight was Desert Stanzas, poetry readings and music under Dubai’s night sky.
STAYInterContinental Dubai – Festival City is luxe writ large, with 508 guestrooms, gym, spa, pool, fine dining, shopping and the festival on its doorstep.
