Beginnings at Sydney Writers’ Festival

Arts & Entertainment Scene

Emmy White
May 15, 2023

Sydney Writers’ Festival have shared some exciting announcements in the lead up to their 2023 festival, including new events, livestreams and the return of their popular Curiosity Lectures.

This year’s festival will feature a new series of free live reading events titled Beginnings. These will focus on what is often considered the most important part of any piece of writing – the beginning.

Running between Thursday 25 and Sunday 28 May, the series includes eight themed events, with topics including new Australian fiction, true stories, and crimes and histories. Each guest will perform a live reading of the first five minutes of their work, demonstrating the power the first lines of a novel can hold.

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear readings from award-winning Australian authors like Pip Williams, author of The Bookbinder of Jericho, and Helen Garner, author of How to End a Story. The lineup also features a number of international authors, including Peter Frankopan, Eleanor Catton and Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai.

Those who can’t make it to the festival can purchase a $35 day pass, granting them access to an entire day of livestreamed content. To ensure everyone can be a part of the festival, livestream viewers can also text questions directly to the Sydney stage.

SWF has announced that their much loved Curiosity Lectures series will return in 2023, featuring guests like Toby Walsh, Clementine Ford and Raina MacIntyre. According to SWF, this year’s lectures will “tackle the niche topics you didn’t know you had to hear about.”