NT Writers Festival

Vulnerable and fierce, hilarious and heartbreaking, Queerstories celebrates the culture and creativity of the LGBTQI+ community one true story at a time; unexpected tales of pride, prejudice, resilience and resistance. An institution around the country, Queerstories has played to crowds big and small for the last ten years, from Mudgee to Murwillumbah, Albury to Adelaide, Brisbane and beyond, with an award-winning podcast featuring...

What myths about the past prevail? How does the past inform our present? And how do writers contextualise their work in time? In Sharlene Allsopp's essay Glitter and Guts the author butts up against the erasure of Aboriginal ANZACs, while Winnie Dunn's story Sissies and Bros time-travels to an adolescent's shift at a pizza shop, firmly planting the story in place and time with cultural references and language. Join these Griffith ...

Gina Chick knows how to be at home in the wild. The winner of the first Alone Australia describes how an unconventional childhood led to an extraordinary life in her memoir, We Are the Stars. A somatic dancer, bushcraft teacher, and nature lover who talks to lakes and platypuses, Gina Chick treats us to tales of rebellion, grief, transformation, and how she listens to the land. 

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Australian literature is being faced with interventions that challenge old ways of doing. Indigenous authors write back to mainstream publishing and archives, and create new forms inspired by old traditions. In a time when universities and arts organisations are being increasingly censored, speaking out against genocide is crucial. Join Sara Saleh, Sharlene Allsopp, Theresa Penangke Alice, and Marie Elena Ellis speak about d...

Here in the NT, we are deeply dependent on groundwater to live. What is our relationship to water like? How are fossil fuel interests influencing the government's decisions on water protection? And what are traditional owners saying about these threats to our existence? Join storyteller and water justice campaigner, Maureen Nampijinpa O'Keefe, journalist and author of Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil, and art book...

Writing can help us move through grief, pain and trauma - and can be a way to make sense of the past. Gina Chick's memoir We Are the Stars is a bold story of connection to nature and grief at the death of a child; Bebe Oliver's If This Is the End is a powerful poetry collection about queer identity and recovering from endings; and Emma Trenorden writes a deeply thoughtful, poetic response to the Black Summer fires in High Fire Dan...

What does it mean to reclaim a language? In the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages, determined leaders are revitalising and cultivating languages in their communities. Join Barada, Yiman, Gangulu and Gureng Gureng linguist Gari Tudor-Smith, co-author of Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New, contributor to Words to Sing the World Alive, Cheryl Leavy, and Samantha Penangka Armstrong, a "Language Nest" co-ordinator...

Immerse yourself into the festival altyerre-theme with a deep exploration of Angkwerre-iweme | healing in the winds of change. This is an Arrernte word and practice that describes the traditional healing method to clear and cleanse. This concept is threaded through the festival, and offers healing, justice, strength and renewal.

The altyerre was chosen in a collaborative process by Arrernte Elders and First Nations P...

How do you pick up the threads of an unsolved mystery and weave them into a compelling story? How do you navigate the trauma and emotions of those living in the aftermath of terrible crimes? What are the ethics involved in telling other peoples stories, especially when they are no longer around to speak for themselves? And to what degree do you become an advocate in cases of injustice?

Join Walkley award-winning journalists, Caroli...

Sleepless nights, teething problems, school runs, nappies. Juggling the demands and responsibilities of caring for children with creative pursuits is no mean feat! So how, amidst the pressures of parenthood, does one maintain an artistic practice? How to carve out space for solitude creativity, while being available for you kids? Join five inspiring artists for a candid discussion about the joys and challenges of parenting while pu...

In the remote Tiwi Islands, a 20-strong group of female Elders have been coming together to sing for decades, composing and performing songs that hold cultural, genealogical, geographical and spiritual knowledge passed down through thousands of years. 

A joint project by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and Hardie Grant, Murli-la is a beautifully designed book that shares these many lifetimes of sung knowledge.

In this unfo...

In a world where there are fewer shared rituals of mourning and we are frequently exposed to images of destruction online, how do we begin to properly grieve? How does personal loss become intertwined with public or communal loss? And how does the past continue to make itself felt in the present?

This panel features Charlotte Wood, Debra Dank, Izzy Roberts-Orr, and Jacinta Halloran, and is facilitated by Rita Horanyi.

See omn...

Cyclone Tracey was a cataclysmic event that destroyed 80 percent of Darwin and killed 66 people. The disaster changed the city irrevocably and, nearly 50 years on, its reverberations continue to be felt.

In Tracy - 50 Years, 50 Stories, historians Derek Pugh OAM and Richard Creswick meticulously gather together 50 stories from those who were in Darwin when the cyclone hit. Featuring previously unheard testimonies, this compelling n...

How are contemporary queer writers finding new ways to voice their experiences? How do they build on the rich history of queer writing before them, and how do they subvert different styles and genres? What still needs to be done to ensure better representation of the diversity of LGBTQIA+ experience in literature and publishing?

Join three writers from the LGBTQIA+ community working across a range of forms for a broad-ranging discu...

With the rise of AI, the popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, and the overwhelming amount of online content being produced, what constitutes 'literature' is changing. How are new technologies reshaping storytelling? What new forms are emerging?

Join four panellists working in a broad range of genres and forms as they discuss what they think the future has in store for storytelling, canvassing everything from AI to animation. 

Thi...

Join Burruberongal novelist of the Darug Aboriginal Nation, Julie Janson, and historian of the colonial frontier, Robyn Smith, for a discussion about uncovering forgotten events, and the long shadows cast by history.

Julie Janson's latest novel, Compassion, is the dramatised life story of one of her ancestors, who was put on trial for stealing livestock. It is a rollicking and violent tale of anti-colonial revenge that depicts the ...

Taking a joke and running with it can be harder work than you think. So how do writers go about being amusing? Is it something you're born with or can it be learnt? How do you keep a room in stitches, and how do you introduce levity into heavier subjects?

Join four funny storytellers as they spill the beans on what it takes to make people laugh, and why they use humour to share their message with audiences.

This panel features Amy ...