Book festivals surviving setbacks and disaster

Brisbane and Sydney Writers' Festivals are launching in May after battling man-made and natural disasters.

Despite recent flooding and heavy rains in and around their ambit as well as ongoing COVID-safety issues, both Brisbane and Sydney Writers Festivals are prevailing and will return to celebrate storytelling in all its forms.

This year the Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) is back for its 60th year anniversary, with over 200 events taking place over six days on 3 – 8 May. Addressing its theme, ‘Where our stories live’ BWF CEO Sarah Runcie said: ‘The spaces of our city plus the stories we tell create the place we live, and we hope this year’s Festival does Brisbane proud as it reflects our city’s culture, diversity and literary depth’.

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Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian. She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy