Now in its 17th year, the 2014 festival, which runs from May 19 to May 25, will showcase more than 40 international writers and 300 Australians, including Eleanor Catton, Emma Donoghue, Alice Walker, Irvine Welsh, Andrew Solomon, Alexis Wright, Collette Dinnigan, Michael Leunig, Michael Kirby and Tim Cope.
In her second year as artistic director of Sydney Writers’ Festival, Jemma Birrell, said at the program launch that the festival challenges, provokes and questions our concepts of culture, history and identity.
“Over 400 writers will bring their insight and knowledge, their creativity and contemplation, to help us see life from a different perspective,” she said.
“Pushing all kinds of boundaries, the writers will make you laugh, bring you to tears and lead you to places you’ve never been. They’ll educate and enlighten, exposing the truth, the lies and all the grey bits in between”.
More than half of the events are free and for the first time Bondi and Bowral are hosting Sydney Writers’ Festival events.
The audience at an event in Walsh Bay.
Other events will be held in Ashfield, Auburn, Bankstown, Belrose, Blacktown, Camden, Campbelltown, Castle Hill, Casula, Chatswood, Katoomba, Hornsby, Hurstville, Kogarah, Parramatta, Penrith, Randwick, Ryde and Wollongong.
Details: www.swf.org.au
