February 6, 2023
Local developmental editor and writing mentor Laurel Cohn profiles the Italy-based Australian writer and educator Lisa Clifford, and examines the importance of writers forging and maintaining connections.
News & Editorial
January 6, 2023
Volunteers continue to be the lifeblood of Byron Writers Festival’s connection to community. Tom Wolff, our festival administrator, paid a visit to two of our most treasured to talk about their fifty years in the Northern Rivers and what they love most about Byron Writers Festival.
August 31, 2021
In the wake of the cancellation of Byron Writers Festival for a second year in succession, 'northerly' contributor Rebecca Ryall, who was scheduled to be our on-the-ground reporter at the event, has conjured an imagined, envisioned Festival round-up, based on this year’s stellar line-up.
July 7, 2021
Ahead of his appearance at Byron Writers Festival 2021, author Kaya Wilson discusses his acclaimed memoir of gender transition and identity, As Beautiful as Any Other: A Memoir of My Body, and how his day job as a tsunami scientist crosses over with his writing.
July 7, 2021
First-time author Madeleine Ryan’s novel A Room Called Earth is a sensitive, humorous and lively exploration of neurodiversity, belonging, family and identity. Katinka Smit speaks with her.
July 1, 2021
Christopher Raja’s landmark memoir Into the Suburbs: A Migrant’s Story is an examination of race, class, migration and tragedy through a deeply personal lens. Here he offers his thoughts on the gestation and process of writing the book, prior to his appearance at Byron Writers Festival 2021.
June 1, 2020
As the Northern Rivers community joins the rest of the world in adjusting to new lives, new routines and new values in the wake of COVID-19, we hear from Byron Bay GP Dr Joel Hissink about how both his work life and home life have changed in recent months.
November 28, 2019
Sophie Cunningham's latest offering, 'City of Trees: Essays on Life, Death and the Need for a Forest', explores universal themes of dying and grief and our love and need for trees. The essays ruminate on a question that may be relevant for many of us: what does it mean to admire the beauty of nature in the face of climate catastrophe? Interview by Katinka Smit.
December 7, 2018
Bruce Pascoe's book 'Dark Emu' argues for a reconsideration of the ‘hunter-gatherer’ tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He discusses his research and writing with Katinka Smit.
November 15, 2018
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.
October 15, 2018
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.
September 15, 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.
July 11, 2018
One of the key themes running through 2018 Byron Writers Festival will be mental health, with this year’s line-up designed to draw awareness to the wide spectrum of causes, effects and conditions in this complex area of our lives. Katinka Smit casts an eye over the program and details what to expect.
May 30, 2017
Ahead of the publication of her new picture book Archie and the Bear, local children's author Zanni Louise looks at how the best children's books allow room for interpretation, ensuring that young readers become engaged, absorbed and imaginative as they follow a multi-layered story.
May 26, 2017
How does a career in journalism affect a writer when they come to create fiction? Journalist-come-novelist Russell Eldridge offers his take on the question to northerly editor Barnaby Smith.
May 19, 2017
Byron Writers Festival's new initiative, the Members' Book Club, held its inaugural event on 16 March when Marele Day's Lambs of God was the subject of discussion. Attendee Louise Heywood reports on a lively evening of literary conversation.
April 26, 2017
Osamah Sami is a multilingual Melbourne-based writer and actor born in Iran to Iraqi parents. Sami's forte is comedy, with his memoir Good Muslim Boy winning the NSW Premier's Literary Award in 2016. He is also a screenwriter and poet. He spoke to Katinka Smit at Byron Writers Festival 2016.
April 5, 2017
Northerly editor Barnaby Smith takes us through his guide to some of the more noteworthy, and perhaps overlooked, examples of musicians turning their hand to fiction.
March 29, 2017
The winner of the inaugural Nancy Fairfax Artist-in-Residence for Established Writers was Henri 'Renoir' Rennie, who stayed for a week in the studio at Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah in early February to devote himself exclusively to focused writing time. Here, Henri reflects on a transportive week, during which progress was most certainly made.