SYDNEY Writers’ Festival Live & Local program comes to Hervey Bay in 2023 to bring the best of the festival direct to Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre.

One of Australia’s most loved forums for literature, ideas and storytelling, Sydney Writers’ Festival will live-stream its headline events to Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre on Thursday 25, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 May.

This year’s Festival will stream live events to over 50 different local areas in regional Australia which Hervey Bay is fortunately part of. This offering to audiences provides access to new ideas across the country, and the opportunity to participate in sessions by sending questions direct to the Sydney stage.

This will involve conversations, debates and discussions featuring some of the world’s finest writers and thinkers. The program includes crime novelist Jane Harper who will talk about her new crime novel Exiles. Also Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Geraldine Brooks discusses her best-selling novel Horse and much-loved radio host and author Richard Fidler delves into his recent book The Book of Roads & Kingdoms.

Audiences are able to participate in live Q&A sessions at each event, sending their thoughts via SMS straight to the Sydney stage.

With this year’s festival theme, Stories For The Future, in mind, the events cover various topics spanning from food to politics and technology to comedy.

Live to the Bay, culinary icons Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer reflect on their decades-long friendship and decorated careers which have transformed how Australians think about food and the future of Australian politics is unpicked by political correspondent Barrie Cassidy and other Australian political commentators.

Join like-minded readers and thinkers to ponder, debate and revel in the literary festivity this May.