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In This Together
When a series of brilliant books about love and loss, parents and children and relationships made and broken came across my desk, I thought that the theme of our 2025 Festival would be shaped around these connections. But as our list of Festival guests grew, something bigger and broader started to emerge, something that captures the state of being connected, the idea that we are ‘in this together’. Whether this is about being connected to other people, to the natural world or to the planet, being ‘in this together’ resonates with personal joys and global sorrows. It traces a thread through so much of the extraordinary work that writers will be bringing to the Festival this year – Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize winner Orbital, Helen Garner’s The Season and Lemn Sissay’s Let the Light Pour In are just some examples.
At a time when polarisation, mutual hostilities and political upheaval feel oppressively present, it also captures the fact that the Festival experience itself is an escape from this kind of division as writers and readers of all ages come together to talk and to listen.
Freedom of expression is a core value of the Festival and so, as ever, the program encompasses a huge range of writers and writing from Australia and around the world. You can choose to come and discover outstanding fiction or poetry or to tune in to big topics and difficult conversations. Nathan Luff has created a vibrant program of sessions for children, families and young adults, with everyone from Costa Georgiadis to Jeff Kinney and Lynette Noni taking to the stage.
At the Festival Hub Carriageworks, at Sydney’s iconic meeting place Sydney Town Hall or in the heart of Sydney at Parramatta, our writers and audiences will be in this festival together.