Born into care after his mother was forced to give him up, rejected by his adoptive foster family and finally released to his own care at eighteen, Lemn Sissay is a living example of the healing power of poetry. Interview by Katinka Smit.
Selina Tusitala Marsh is a Pasifika poet-scholar and the current New Zealand Poet Laureate (2017-2019). As the 2016 Commonwealth Poet she wrote and performed a poem for Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, while she recently hosted a poetry event with Barack Obama. She spoke with Katinka Smit at Byron Writers Festival 2018.
As editor of the new anthology, 'Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia', Anita Heiss has successfully brought together diverse voices, experiences and stories from across Australia. Katinka Smit met her at Byron Writers Festival 2018 for a conversation about this groundbreaking publishing project.
Our official wrap-up gallery tells the story of the 2018 Byron Writers Festival in pictures
Byron Writers Festival (3-5 Aug), wrapped up a hugely successful 22nd year with more than 140 writers and thinkers from across Australia and around the world converging on Byron Bay to share remarkable stories in the glorious sunshine. Read our full wrap-up report of session highlights here.
Described as having ‘steeliness by the bucket load', the passionate Gillian Triggs has used the annual Thea Astley address to call for a regeneration of Australian society by applying ‘a human rights lens to everything’.
This session, chaired by Melissa Lucashenko, centered on the themes raised by the book Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, compiled and edited by Anita Heiss.
'I am not defined by my scars, but my incredible ability to heal': British Ethiopian poet Lemn Sissay in conversation with Adam Shoemaker.
The kids came out in force today for the Byron Writers Festival's Kids Big Day Out.
One role of the artist is to make the invisible visible. Art might not change the world, but it might transform the way you see the world, and that might make all the difference.
Gillian Triggs, Anna Clark and Clive Hamilton tackle the messy state of ideology, universal rights and the new vicious nature of politics.
Crime fiction is fast overtaking romance as the biggest selling genre. But what is its appeal?
Investigative journalists Eskil Engdal and Kjetil Saeter talk about their debut book, Chasing Thunder: The World's Longest Sea Chase.
We all experience anxiety to some degree, whether it's the ‘fair enough’ kind, where an anxious response is necessary and appropriate, or the more existential variety, an angst that is in your bones.
Australians are obsessed with travel. Over the past decade, we've doubled the amount of overseas travel we do. It seems we can't wait to pull out our passport and hit the road.
What price freedom? Manal al-Sharif, Anne Aly and Hyeonseo Lee share stories of their extraordinary lives but it is their bravery as much as the telling that captures the audience.
With Earth Overshoot Day – 1 August for 2018 – behind us already, we have already used up the total annual amount of natural resources the planet can generate.
Meet Jacqui Lambie, former Australian senator, and perhaps not quite the person you think she is.
Whether it's love or loathing, what we feel for a character in a novel is part of the craft of writing fiction. Three authors look at their capacity to generate empathy in their books.
As one of Australia’s most successful international artists, selected to represent Australia at the prestigious Venice Biennale in 2017, Tracey Moffatt lets her work do the talking.
