Just over a week to go until gates open to Byron Writers Festival 2022! Settle in for three glorious days of goodness: feed your brain, nourish your soul and reflect on the surprising and wonderful world around you.

Not sure which sessions to see? We’ve saved the best ‘til last and highlighted some of the must-see panels and conversations from the 2022 program to help you decide.

America: The End of Empire?

Are we witnessing the end of an empire? What would the world look like with a different lead superpower? In this session, journalist and nine-time Walkley Award recipient Andrew Quilty (August in Kabul) and leading communications expert Ed Coper (Facts and Other Lies: Welcome to the Disinformation Age) tackle these and other questions about the current state of play in the USA with ABC Radio National’s Paul Barclay.
Friday 26 August, 12.30pm in the First National Byron Marquee.

Radical Art

Don’t miss Ben Quilty’s much-anticipated festival appearance on his art-making practice as he joins fellow artist and Badtjala woman Fiona Foley for the session ‘Radical Art’ with host of Radio National’s The Art Show Daniel Browning. Together they will explore the role art plays in changing the world, and ask the question ‘is it even possible to be radical in art now?’.
Friday 26 August, 3pm in the Southern Cross University Marquee.

For the Good of the World

Could the existential crises facing humanity in fact bring us together? UK philosopher AC Grayling believes the problems facing the world are not insurmountable. In this lecture he discusses the solutions to the three biggest challenges he believes we are facing today: climate change, technology and justice. The solutions he proposes are both pragmatic and inspiring.
Saturday 27 August, 1.45pm in the Southern Cross University Marquee

Love and Other Stories

Love has been the central inspiration for much art over the centuries. Three stellar Australian writers Trent Dalton (Love Stories), Hannah Kent (Devotion) and Nigel Featherstone (My Heart is a Little Wild Thing) explore how love has inspired their latest works in the session ‘Love and Other Stories’. Together with literary agent Alex Adsett, they will discuss love in all its guises.
Saturday 27 August, 3pm in the Melaleuca Marquee

A Life of Crime

What are the ingredients for a ‘bad’ character, and why are we so drawn to them as readers? Iconic Australian actor Bryan Brown (Sweet Jimmy), bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe Trent Dalton and comic writer Steve Toltz (Here Goes Nothing) share how they bring the lives of criminals to life in their writing with Matthew Condon.
Sunday 28 August, 1.45pm in the Melaleuca Marquee

Stars and Phosphorescence

Award-winning journalist Julia Baird and broadcaster Indira Naidoo discuss wonder, processing grief and the power of nature in ‘Stars and Phosphorescence’, an uplifting conversation on how to deal with life’s hardest moments and live with grace.
Sunday 28 August, 3.15pm in the Southern Cross University Marquee

Get your tickets

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