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Regional Australia SUPPORTS Reading with Writers Festivals

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Regional Australia SUPPORTS Reading with Writers Festivals.

Australians love to explore and celebrate literary culture outside the capital cities. In 2026, there are nearly 100 regional literary festivals.  The focus often has a rich selections of children’s and young adult literature authors, as reading is at the heart of books. In the face of schools retrenching school-librarians, reading is essential. The latest announcement of retrenchment of all school librarians in the Newcastle and Maitland NSW was sent by the Catholic diocese, coupled with the extremely low school-librarian statistics in schools across all states. Festivals are a ray of hope, as they celebrate reading and books in rural Australia.

 

Regional festivals bring cultural, educational, tourism and publishing hubs to the country. Activating community, volunteers for all ages, and engaging event directors, stimulates reading, community and literary outreach in our remotest areas. There was excitement going Out West to Storyfest at Longreach Queensland, with best selling authors such as Jacqueline Harvey, Charlotte Barkla and Susanne Gervay. Travelling to the outback, going bush, escaping a snake in the makeshift dunny, invites authors to engage with young people and story and of course, avoid the snake.

 

Festivals include Bellingen Readers & Writers, Mildura Writers Festival, Words on the Waves, Western Australia's largest regional event with their Young Readers & Writers program touring schools across this vast state. Mildura Writers Festival has a history of 31 years reaching this year in 2026. There are established regional festivals and a growing number of new ones including distance education where Nat Amoore and Susanne Gervay spoke to remote students and families at the Longreach festival.

 

There has been a shift away from the idea that serious literary culture belongs only in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin. Regional communities increasingly want their own festivals, writers, ideas and cultural identity. Write Around the  Murray (WAM) is now celebrating 20 years of this event. Authors from all over Australia come to their towns and regions. WAM in Albury-Wodonga has 65 events, 80 and more across its broader program, with an estimated 6,000 attendees. Thankyou to Albury City Council a key sponsor for the signature WAM event and the commitment of festival director and author Aimee Chan. At WAM, the authors inspire their audiences with the wonderful works of Jack Heath, Will Kostakis, Andrew Daddo, the inspiring disability advocate Carly Findlay, Debra Oswald an Australian writer for film, television, stage, radio, fiction and children's fiction and head writer of the hugely successful TV series Offspring. The three colourful authors Julianne Negri, Amy Doak, Gabrielle Tozer at WAM brightened the day, with their books and enthusiasm.

 

Supporters of festival regional events come from local businesses, Creative Australia, ABC regional stations, bookshops, universities and others. It is truly regional and enriches our communities. At all these regional festivals there are writing workshops from Screen to Crime to Romance to How to pitch to publishers. How to Pitch to Children’s Publishers by Susanne Gervay at WAM, ended with establishing the first creative network for children’s illustrators and authors in Albury Wodonga and regional areas. It was a meaningful initiative.

 

The festivals bring to the fore controversial issues from Criminal Acts: a Conversation About Crime Fiction to the powerful issue of Controlling the Narrative: All about Censorship. ‘Who could believe my joyous picture book about celebrating and loving every child would be controversial? Australia has Family Week, but not ALL families are celebrated. Guess How I Was Born? is you and me, with children of mixed marriages, adopted, step, sole parents, nuclear and extended, gay, IVF. I was withdawn as a speaker to students and parents, if I addressed Guess How I Was Born? ’ Yet my book ends with:-

                                       A baby arrives and everything changes.

                  Our world gets bigger, heart grows fuller, and life becomes more meaningful.

 

Media Contacts:-

Aimee Chan Festival Director:  [email protected]>

Ph: T 02 6023 8135; writearoundthemurray.org.au

Susanne: [email protected]; 0413 050 922

Contact details:

Media Contacts:-

Aimee Chan Festival Director WAM [email protected]>

Ph: T 02 6023 8135; writearoundthemurray.org.au

Susanne: [email protected]; 0413 050 922