NEWCASTLE WRITERS FESTIVAL 2026

Newcastle Writers Festival 2026

I have been attending the festival since the very first one and it is always one of my favourite weekends of the year.

The week for us commences on opening night.

Friday - opening night

Opening night was one of the best I have been to - bar Miriam Margolyes, nothing could top that!

The evening was at Town Hall and commenced with the usual important speeches. Especially this year, after so much drama around other writer's festivals especially Adelaide, the importance of Newcastle, staying strong and not being bullied into changing programs was pronounced!

Rosemarie is so gallant and steadfast, her impeccable journalism shone through, and Newcastle stood tall and proud under her brilliant vision.

The guests for this opening night were Kathy Lette and Yumi Stynes, who danced their way on to the stage to Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves, and things hotted up!

Hilarious, vivacious, intelligent, and saucy in the best possible way, they had the audience in the palms of their hands.

Kathy Lette is a bloody National Treasure.

She spoke about her new book, her life, her love of Australia, and everything women!

If Puberty Blue was all she has done, it would be enough. She is one of the most amazing cheerleaders for all women, and her feminism and eternal sunshine has always impressed me. It was just wonderful to be in her presence and laugh and nod along. The men with me agreed too!

I also love Yumi who did amazingly well - as you would expect - as her interviewer. I love Yumi, her style and her feminism. Her books are so very important for young girls and young women - I am always suggesting them at work.

After having us in fits of laughter they danced off the stage to We Are Family, encouraging us all to join in, because by that point in the evening we all did feel like family.

A great opening night sets the tone for the weekend, and we all knew we had a great weekend ahead of us. 

Saturday 

We headed in for a 10am start.

Andrew listened to David Day talk about his biography on Bob Hawke while I saw Robbie Arnott in conversation with the fabulous Michael Williams.

I've read all Robbie's books and just adore his atmospheric writing. He was the loveliest guy and very quietly spoken. He talked about how he writes, which is when he can and usually in chaos, which is interesting given what he comes up with. He doesn't see himself as a historical novelist, but he does use history as a stepping stone or background. He had the audience captivated and held everyone in the palm of his hand. My friends and I were swooning as we left.

Next up we both went to see Randa Abdel-Fattah in conversation with Maeve Marsden. It was a really frank and amazing season. Randa was fierce and intelligent and eloquent. I wouldn't have expected any less. It was lovely to see an author that I've been suggesting to teens for a good decade. If you have teens who are curious about the world and the people in it, her teen novels are truly excellent. And whilst I know she was on the program before the ridiculous controversy, it was a great power move to have her there. It was important for us to hear her talk.

We then had a break and escaped the wind to Foghorn for lunch. Food is important at a festival, it keeps you going on these long days.

After lunch we had a session on censorship with a prestigious panel of A C Grayling, Antoinette Lattouf and Josh Bornstein and facilitator, Peter Greste. It was a whooping conversation of unjustness, cancel culture, and the state of the world. Marvellous!

The following panel was even more intense panel called the Unfree World. With Josh Bornstein hosting this time, the panel was Randa, Evelyn Araluen, and Cheng Lei. Evelyn wrote one of my favourite books of the past few years, Drop Bear. It is a must read. Cheng was imprisoned in China for just over 3 years. She was such a gentle soul, I cannot imagine her behind bars. I am very keen to read her book. This panel left us speechless. What a bunch of amazing women. Powerful!!

We took in Korean chicken for dinner before heading for our final session.

The Mushroom Tapes with Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper, and Sarah Krasnostein with Michael Williams. Now I worship Helen as everyone knows but I also adore Sarah and Chloe. To have them all in a room together was superb, a real treat. I loved the way the younger women looked at Helen when she spoke, with so much love and admiration. And they were a hoot together. You would love to be a fly on the wall during their conversations. I am not really a fan of true crime, especially murder, and I didn't really follow the trial, it is their writing that engages me.

As always a great but tiring day. We both went home very satisfied. Andrew summed up the day by saying listening to these amazing and intelligent women gave him hope for the future. These are the type of women who we should have in power. He was so impressed with all the women, their diversity and multi- culturalism is exactly what we need right now and they need to replace stupid old white men. He's my number 1 for a reason.

Sunday

Day 3 of Newcastle Writer's Festival did not disappoint. I was solo today but there was no shortage of lovely friends to catch up with.

I started the day catching part of a children's session. The author was Maxine Beneba Clarke. I've loved her since I read her amazing autobiography many years ago. Maxine is a fiction and essay writer, poet and illustrator for adults and children.

My lovely friend and colleague Emma was able to introduce me to Maxine prior and we had a lovely chat. And she's just gorgeous. I stayed for part of her workshop and got some great ideas for storytime. She read We Know A Place, her beautiful children's book about a magical book shop. Listening to her read and express thoughts, and show drawings, be cheeky, ask questions, and invite the children into her world was a true gift.

My first proper session the day was Siang Lu talking about Ghost Cities, which won the Miles Franklin award last year after 200 publisher rejections over 9 years! I'm 1/3 through the book and it's really intriguing and funny. Moving between modern and ancient China is 2 storylines where I am unsure where he is headed, but I am curious! Siang was quite elusive in the interview with a dry sense of humour and a real sense of self. It added to the elusiveness of the book.

My next session was a curiosity. Is Tik Tok helping or harming the book industry? So, I'm sooo not a fan of influencers, tik tok and book tok and I did have preconceived ideas but went in genuinely willing to listen. It was so not my demographic and I could feel my IQ dropping. The panel of seemingly nice people didn't really address the question. My short answer would be it's not helping or harming the book industry. I'm always happy when people are reading. I don't have to like what they're reading.

My session before lunch was much more suitable. Poetry and Publics. Keri Glastonbury interviewed Maxine, Evelyn Araluen, and David Stavenger about their poetry and the subject matter of the poems. It was a fabulous session and I was in awe at the beauty they produce. Each poet had a different style and wrote about different subject matter, but they were all so powerful and fascinating. I am so glad I returned to reading and listening to poetry a few years back.

After a lovely lunch in the sun I headed to The Con for my 2 final sessions.
Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf did their thing in a festival version of their podcast, We Used to be Journos. These gals! I just want to hang and chat with them. They did a funny slide show about their lives and how they intersected, which was funny and informative. The spoke about journalism and politics and the poor state they are both in, showcasing how they are approaching both these days, a new model. They took Questions and answered them well, it was such a fun session.

Finally, I saw the great Heather Rose in conversation with Jacinta Parsons about her new book, which I haven't read yet but sounds terrific. It was a deep dive into craft and how she pulls a book together. Amazing! She found an interesting historic story about Tasmania where she lives and writes, and once diving into the research, she found out how this story actually interwoven with her own family and life. The book is on my to read list, and I cannot wait.

It has taken me a while to write this review up, I have been busy.

In the time since the festival we have found out our lovely leader, Rosemarie Milsom is moving on from the Newcastle Writers Festival to take over Adelaide Readers Festival. How amazing! I think there is sadness that Rosemarie, someone I am proud to call a friend, will not be leading our beautiful homegrown festival anymore. But she has set up this festival beautifully for whoever is lucky enough to take it over. But I feel a wave of support behind her here in Newcastle for her to take over the festival in Adelaide. Her tenacity and intellect will prove her a sound leader to rebuild that festival. So I also feel incredibly proud. And she will still be living here in Newcastle, and will actually be able to attend NWF for the first time, which I know she wanted to do desperately. Enjoy the beast she created, so now she can.

I wish Rosemarie all the very best and cannot wait to see what she does!

I know it will be outstanding!