What holds you back from complete ease in your writing? Do you wish to be more adventurous? More disciplined? Do you wish you could finish that book?

Join award-winning author Heather Rose in an afternoon exploring your extraordinary imagination. This workshop is for writers of all abilities.

Details

Friday 11 August
2pm – 5pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Heather Rose

Heather Rose is the Australian author of eight novels, including the Stella Prize-winning The Museum of Modern Love. Her 2022 memoir is Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here.

Finding the balance between vulnerability and broader resonance is a key task for the personal essay writer.

Explore the connections between the personal and public through writing exercises and mini-workshops with Briohny Doyle, author of Adult Fantasy.

Details

Thursday 10 August
9am – 11am
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Briohny Doyle

Briohny Doyle is the author of the 2022 Miles Franklin and Victorian Premier’s Literary Award-listed novel Echolalia. Her new novel is Why We Are Here.

Novelist Ben Hobson will walk you through the journey from ideas, to writing drafts and execution, all the way to submitting a finished manuscript.

Details

Thursday 10 August
2pm – 5pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Ben Hobson

Ben Hobson is an author and educator, whose published novels include To Become a Whale, Snake Island and The Death of John Lacey.

*** PLEASE NOTE, THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED ***

Ashley Hay has been talking to people as part of her job – as a writer, an editor, a journalist, a mentor and an event facilitator – for more than thirty years.

Join her for a conversation about how to make the most of different public conversations – on stage, or as research for fiction or non-fiction work.

From how to prepare to how to present, when to script and when to seize spontaneity, and the importance of ingredients like love and listening, this workshop is designed to encompass topics from quick tips to the means of going deeper, and taking both subject and audience with you.

Details

Thursday 10 August
9:30am – 12:30pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

*** PLEASE NOTE, THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED ***

About Ashley Hay

Ashley Hay is an award-winning novelist and essayist. A former editor of Griffith Review, she also works as a journalist, mentor and facilitator.

In a world awash with content, creatives and AI, what can you do to stand out, grow your readership and gain more visibility for your works?

Join Anna Featherstone, the author of Look–It’s Your Book!, for an inspiring and informative mix of real-world author and book marketing examples. Discover in the brainstorm how marketing your books (and yourself!) can be more manageable, effective, and fun.

Details

Thursday 10 August
1pm – 3.30pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

Supported by Bold Authors

About Anna Featherstone

Author of five non-fiction books including memoir, how-to and the ASA’s recommended reading title Look – It’s Your Book!, Anna Featherstone actively empowers authors seeking sustainable writing careers.

The YA market is flourishing in Australia but many emerging writers are unsure of how to attract the eyes of publishers.

Whether you have a developed manuscript or just a story idea, this hands-on workshop will help you navigate the road to publication.

Mark will cover topics such as how YA writing is different from other genres, what themes are relevant or acceptable, who is publishing YA in Australia, who are the gate-keepers and how much influence they exert in getting your book in front of young readers?

All these questions answered and more!

Details

Wednesday 9 August
2pm – 5pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Mark Smith

Mark Smith is an award-winning writer of novels and short fiction. His work has appeared in anthologies, journals and magazines in Australia and internationally.

Want to be able to write the kind of content that has people laughing out loud?

Stand Up Comedian and author Mandy Nolan shares comedy writing techniques, idea ignition points and secret satirical strategies that will transform modest titters into raucous belly laughs.

Details

Tuesday 8 August
1pm – 4pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Mandy Nolan

Mandy Nolan is a stand-up comedian, feminist, activist, mother of five and author who ran for the Greens in Richmond at the last Federal election, narrowly missing out on becoming the MP for that electorate. She wants to change the world by changing minds – one joke at a time.

Award-winning writer, performer and TED speaker, Miles Merrill teaches you how to tell a great story. Learn to grab your live audience by crafting a tight text.

You don’t need power point to present or notes to read. Turn your raw writing into live performance. Use one of the key tenets of poetry – less is more.

Transform your ideas into narratives with popping imagery, clenching action and a snarling satchel of metaphors. With a few – Boom! – Prrr – CRACK – Stomps thrown in.

Details

Tuesday 8 August
9:30am – 12:30pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Miles Merrill

Performing writer Miles Merrill brought poetry slams to Australia from Chicago. He is the spark for dozens of story-sharing programs across Asia-Pacific.

Everybody has a story. You might have a deep need to heal and ‘set the story straight’ or simply want to make a record of your life for family and friends. But finding the best way to tell your story can be the hardest part of writing it, and ‘the truth’ of your life challenging and elusive.

Many questions present themselves. Is the story you want to tell really the story you need to tell? What is the difference between the ‘truth’ and the ‘facts’? Is memory reliable? How can you reconstruct events and conversations which often took place many years ago? And how do you write honestly about your life without hurting those closest to you?

Based around practical writing exercises and constructive feedback in a supportive environment, this workshop will help you bring to life on the page the people, places and important events in your story. Importantly, we will also address the issues that confront you in writing truthfully about the real people in your life.

Details

Tuesday 8 August
10am – 4pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$180 / $140 Members & Students

About Alan Close

Alan Close has been writing for more than 40 years. His most recent book is Before You Met Me: A Memoir Of One Man’s Troubled Search For Love.

*** PLEASE NOTE, THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED ***

From homelessness to vast wealth; from floods to fires and drought: the Byron Shire and surrounds are places where residents live visibly at both extremes of the socioeconomic spectrum; as well as with the impacts of weather and climate extremes.

This workshop will focus on the amount of change the Northern Rivers has seen, is seeing and will see in the coming years. Participants will be encouraged to delve into stories of what that means for the character of a community/communities where competing interests and needs, as well as extreme weather events, bring out the best and worst of humanity.

Details

Monday 7 August
2pm – 5pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Sonya Voumard

Writer and journalist Dr Sonya Voumard’s work has been listed for major awards. Her new memoir-in-progress, Tremor, is about living with a movement disorder.

Craft a radio script that sounds like your authentic voice. Compose a ‘piece to camera’ and deliver it with confidence. Plot questions for an interview that keep you anchored in the narrative and leave space for spontaneity. Learn how to present and represent your subjects with respect.

Details

Monday 7 August
10:00am – 1pm
Byron Bay Community Centre
$100 / $80 Members & Students

About Nell Schofield

Nell is a broadcaster and activist who co-hosts the podcast This Week In Cyberspace. She is a surfing yogini who also likes to boogie.

SECOND WORKSHOP  OFFERED!

We’ve all read for comfort, solace, searched for books to guide us through the darkest and most trying of times. But can we perhaps write the story we are searching for ourselves to light the way ahead?

Writing has long been recognised as a way of processing profound moments, deep trauma and grief. Does it have the power to heal? After eight years living with stage 4 cancer, Tim Baker would like to believe it does. Personal writing has formed an important part of his own, holistic self-care long before he imagined there might be a book in it. Can we become authors of our own life story and write our way out of the existential corners we might sometimes feel hemmed in by? Find out in this single day workshop with author Tim Baker.

Workshop Details

When: Saturday 24 June, 10am – 4pm
Where: In person at the Byron Writers Festival office
Cost:  $140 Member/Student or $180 General

Who is it for?

For writers of any level, with writing experience or proficiency no prerequisite. An appetite for emotional candour and honesty while respecting a safe, supportive environment for all is the only requirement.

Workshop outline

In this workshop you will learn simple free writing exercises to get out of the way of your own writing, tap into your unconscious and allow what needs to arise to percolate to the surface.

• You’ll learn to distinguish between healthy venting and purging and unhelpful wallowing.
• We’ll explore the differences between personal writing for healing and writing that is ready for and warrants a reader.
• We’ll examine the language of trauma and grief and how writing might usefully re-frame events and experiences to provide a way forward through the darkness.
• By sharing our personal stories we’ll come to recognise that everyone is dealing with something, and we are not alone in our suffering.
• Tapping into trauma can be triggering and participants are urged to examine the level to which they are comfortable in taking their writing.
• There is no suggestion here that writing for catharsis can or should take the place of qualified mental health care or counselling.
• Participants will leave with the tools to pursue their own writing as catharsis, whether as therapy, for publication or simply to better understand the circumstances they find themselves in.

About Tim Baker

Tim Baker is an award-winning author, journalist and storyteller specialising in surfing history and culture, working across a wide variety of media, from books and magazines to video, theatre and digital. Tim is the best-selling author of numerous books on surfing, including The Rip Curl Story, Occy, High Surf, Bustin’ Down The Door, Surf For Your Life, Century of Surf and Surfari. His latest book Patting The Shark documents his journey managing a stage 4, prostate cancer diagnosis.