Byron Writers Festival 2017 was a huge success, with more than 130 writers, thinkers and commentators from across Australia and around the world converging on the beautiful Festival grounds to discuss, debate, enlighten and soak up the glorious Byron sunshine.
Missed it this year? Need a memory jog? Catch our session highlights from the 2017 Byron Writers Festival.
Our official wrap-up gallery tells the story of the 2017 Byron Writers Festival in pictures
Region shines with Australia's finest writers at the 21st Byron Writers Festival
What is the function of a name? Imagine our different conception of the world if our language described what it means ‘to tree’… Just one of the propositions at the Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors session.
Roger Cohen, Madeline Gleeson and Jock Serong on ‘talking about stories which matter’, giving a voice to asylum seekers, and questioning Australia’s ethical involvement in offshore detention.
The hot topic of this session with Clementine Ford, Susan Carland and Alice Pung was the backlash against Yassmin Abdel-Magied, following her controversial ANZAC Day Twitter post this year.
Imagine growing up with parents who were affected by appalling trauma.
Jock Serong and Michael Sala explore the nature of violence in their books and within their own lives in a discussion with Anneli Knight.
Aspirations, worst jobs, career disasters, and the ultimate question: 'do you feel successful?'. Tracy Spicer, Meshel Laurie and Peter Helliar lay it on the line. Note: this story has a strong language warning.
There could hardly be a more appropriate place to discuss what it means to writing about the landscape than Byron Bay, but it is the connections to country that count.
What's this appetite for faith? Comedian and converted buddhist Meshel Laurie, Islamic convert Susan Carland and retired Catholic priest Tony Doherty explore what drives our spiritual hunger.
There were no holds barred when David Marr and Erik Jensen discussed 'the White Queen' Pauline Hanson and the rise of the One Nation party in Australia.
How China’s ‘throwaway’ kids and the appalling orphanage conditions they were forced to live in were overshadowed by its economic prosperity.
What is the value of history in a world so concerned with the future? For the three authors in the Journey to the Past session at Byron Writers Festival 2017, history is invaluable. Each of them chose to research very different moments in history.
Do our current politicians fear change, or are they too tied up in party politics to carry out their ambitions?
Byron Community Centre and Byron Writers Festival have collaborated to create No Fixed Abode, a book that give a face to homelessness in Byron Shire.
How can we plan our world so that we can get what we want but also leave a positive environmental and moral legacy?
Modern populists like Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump push ‘our country first’ policies, but are they populists?
When a panel of science and philosophy superstars come together to chew over a few 'what is the nature of...?' questions, expect to be drawn into their geekdom.
