Sydney Writers' Festival

The Sydney Writers' Festival is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Sydney. The Festival's artistic director is Jemma Birrell.

History

The festival began in January 1997,^[1][2] with most events initially held at the State Library of New South Wales. The first independent Sydney Writers’ Festival ran from 12 - 17 May 1998, with 169 participants appearing in venues in and around the centre of Sydney.

The festival has since rapidly expanded. Held in middle to late May each year, the festival now involves over 400 participants and presents over 300 events in multiple venues in renovated piers in Walsh Bay, near The Rocks, Sydney. Other festival locations in the Sydney CBD include the Sydney Theatre, Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall and the Sydney Opera House. Events are now also regularly held in regional and suburban locations including Parramatta, Ashfield, Auburn, Blacktown, Bankstown, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Penrith, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong.

At least half of all Sydney Writers’ Festival events each year are presented free of charge. Festival attendances have reached over 80,000 each year since 2007.

The Sydney Writers’ Festival Limited is a not-for-profit company with an independent board of directors. The inaugural Chair of the Festival was Geraldine Doogue, who held the position for three years. Sandra Yates AO [hyperlink] became Chair in late 2000, retiring on 31 December 2011. Deena Shiff became Chair on 1 January 2012. The Festival Director in 1998 was John Nieuwenhuizen, with Meredith Curnow the Program Director. Meredith Curnow became Festival Director for the period 1999 – 2002. Caro Llewellyn was Artistic Director and Chief Executive from 2003 – 2006. Wendy Were was Artistic Director and CEO for the three festivals, from 2007 – 2009. Chip Rolley became the festival’s Artistic Director in the middle of 2009, programming the 2010, 2011 and 2012 festivals. In 2013, Jemma Birrell was appointed as the festival's new artistic director. The festival appointed an Executive Director, Ben Strout, in early 2009.

Past international guests

Past guests have included:

• 1999 – Alan Duff,^[3] and Peter Porter^[4]
• 2002 – Jodi Picoult,^[5] Lloyd Jones, Giles Milton and Neil Hanson^[6]
• 2003 – Antony Beevor, Jonathan Franzen, Catherine Millet, Janette Turner Hospital, Nicholas Shakespeare, and CK Stead^[7]
• 2004 – Alan Bennett, Alain de Botton, Hilary Mantel, Tim Krabbe, Susanna Moore, Jane Campion, Louis de Bernières, Salam Pax, John W. Dean, Harvey Pekar, Alexei Sayle, ZZ Packer, and David Sedaris^[8]
• 2005 – Lewis Lapham, Alan Hollinghurst, Deirdre Bair, Professor Harold Bloom, Tariq Ali, David Suzuki, Jared Diamond, Suad Amiry, Michael Winter, Colin McAdam and Miriam Toews^[9]
• 2006 – Naomi Wolf, Anna Politkovskaya, Michael Burleigh, Andy Borowitz, Susan Orlean, Aleksandar Hemon, Hendrik Hertzberg, Mark Danner, Haifa Zangana, John Banville, Edmund White, and Maya Angelou^[10]
• 2007 – Andrew O'Hagan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bei Dao, Will Hutton, Antony Beevor, William Dalyrmple, Lionel Shriver, Richard Ford, Andrei Makine, Rachel Seiffert, Mohsin Hamid and Steven Hall^[11]
• 2008 – Jon Lee Anderson, Andrew J. Bacevich, Michael Pollan, John Gray, and Jeanette Winterson^[12]
• 2009 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alex Ross, and Kazuo Ishiguro^[13]
• 2010 – John Carey, Colm Tóibín, Lionel Shriver, Yiyun Li, John Ralston Saul, Bill McKibben, and Raj Patel^[14]
• 2011 – Ingrid Betancourt, Howard Jacobson, A. A. Gill, Anthony Bourdain, Téa Obreht, Izzeldin Abuelaish, Kei Miller, Kader Abdolah, Michael Cunningham, David Mitchell, AC Grayling, Michael Connelly, Gail Dines, and Daniel Altman
• 2012 – Hisham Matar, Jeffrey Eugenides, Dava Sobel^[15]
• 2013 – Molly Ringwald, Ruby Wax, Claire Messud^[16]

Past local guests

• 1997 – Robert Dessaix,^[1] Andrew McGahan, Matthew Condon, Bernard Cohen, Christos Tsiolkas, and Gillian Mears^[2]
• 2001 – Lee Tulloch^[17]
• 2002 – Geoffrey Atherden and Bernard Cohen^[6]
• 2003 – Sonya Hartnett, David Malouf, Danny Katz, and Louis Nowra^[7]
• 2005 – Bob Carr and John Kinsella^[9]
• 2006 – Alex Miller, Robert Drewe, Kate Grenville, Les Murray, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Peter Singer, Tim Flannery and Gail Jones^[10]
• 2007 – Raimond Gaita^[11]
• 2008 – Mem Fox, Peter van Onselen, Michelle de Kretser, Gail Jones, and Drusilla Modjeska^[12]
• 2010 – Peter Carey, Les Murray, Alex Miller, Ross Garnaut, and Clive Hamilton^[14]
• 2011 – Suelette Dreyfus, Annette Shun Wah, and David Hicks
• 2012 – Kathy Lette^[18]
• 2013 – Claudia Karvan, Brendan Cowell^[16]

Closing address

• 2011 James Gleick 'Perish the thought'
• 2012 Dava Sobel
• 2013 Claire Messud^[16]

Organisational structure

The Festival is organised by the artistic driector, with the support of the Executive Director, who both report to the Board of Sydney Writers' Festival. The current directors of the Festival are:

• Deena Shiff (Chair)
• Peter FitzSimons
• Guy Hedley
• Elizabeth Johnstone
• David Marr
• Tim Peach
• Michael Sexton SC
• Professor Peter Shergold AC
• Annette Shun Wah

See also

• List of festivals in Australia
• New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
• Man Booker International Prize – 2011

References

External links

• Official Sydney Writers' Festival Site
• Sydney Writers Walk
• Sydney Writers' Festival – Katoomba Program