SWF 2023 program announced
The program for the 2023 Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF), which runs 22–28 May, has been announced.
Themed ‘Stories for the Future’, this year’s SWF is the first to be programmed by new artistic director Ann Mossop and features 226 events, including 80 free events, with nearly 300 guests appearing at venues including Carriageworks, Sydney Town Hall and spaces across Greater Sydney.
SWF 2023 is headlined by Booker Prize winners Bernardine Evaristo, Eleanor Catton, Richard Flanagan and the most recent winner, Shehan Karunatilaka. Other headliners include Julia Gillard interviewed by Indira Naidoo, and Sam Neill in conversation with Bryan Brown, as well as a pre–festival week talk by Tim Winton.
International guests include American writer Colson Whitehead; 2020–2022 USA Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People Jason Reynolds; Vietnamese author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai; Trinidad-born UK musician and 2022 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry winner Anthony Joseph; English screenwriter, producer, and novelist Tom Rob Smith; London restauranteur Asma Khan; British historian Peter Frankopan; and US author Jenny Odell. Internationally based Australian writers flying in for the festival include Geraldine Brooks, Tracey Lien and Bo Seo.
Among the local authors appearing at this year’s SWF are Alexis Wright, Pip Williams, Holly Ringland, Jane Harper, Grace Tame, Stan Grant, Benjamin Law and Madison Godfrey. A new SWF food program, Food for Thought, features chefs and food writers such as Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer, Adam Liaw, Annabel Crabb, Nat’s What I Reckon, Alice Zaslavsky, Ronni Khan, and Damien Coulthard and Rebecca Sullivan.
This year’s YA and children’s program, the first from Nathan Luff, comprises All Day YA on Saturday, 27 May and Family Day on Sunday, 28 May. Guests include local YA authors Lynette Noni, Alice Boyle, Nina Kenwood and Leanne Yong, as well as children’s authors and illustrators such as Nazeem Hussain, Katrina Nannestad, Jane Godwin, James Foley and Andrew Daddo.
To view the full SWF 2023 program, visit the festival website.
Category: Local news
