Awesome Black
CULTURE, LITERATURE
April 27, 2026
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Sydney Writers’ Festival is one of the biggest and best literary festivals in the world (the Awesome Black team has been going for years). It brings a broad community together to celebrate books, writing and ideas – through talks, performances and the best pop-up bookstore imaginable (see above). This year’s theme – Show Me The Truth – is an invitation to engage with the many ways writers bring the truth to life.
The festival's Artistic Director Ann Mossop says, "At a time when the norms of truth-telling are slipping away and AI hallucinations have joined misinformation and divergent narratives in the public square, truth can feel fractured, slippery and polarising. But it is worth holding on to and the work of writers coming to the festival shows us the many miraculous ways this can be done."
But here’s the thing: there are more than 250 events happening at Sydney Writers' Festival this year. So we’ve compiled a list of some of the events we think you’ll love. Come grab us for a yarn if you see us around the festival!
MOB TIXMob Tix are also on offer for every event in the festival, meaning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can access $10 tickets to any anything hasn't sold out. Once you’ve added your favourite events to your cart, use the discount code MOBTIX at checkout.
Riding the airwaves between poetry and song
🗓️ Thursday 21 May, 7pm
📍 Carriageworks, Bay 19: The Booktopia Stage
Tickets available here
Safe to say there are some big Ziggy Ramo fans at Awesome Black. In this special event, two of Australia's leading contemporary songwriters, Ziggy Ramo and Leah Senior, chat about the relationship between words and music and their favourite lyricists. Both artists will also perform (!).
This event is part of Red Room Poetry’s Middle of the Air project celebrating poetry beyond the page, by uniting poetry and song in new ways and drawing on the shared history between these forms.
Writers on the meaning behind and within music — Kirli Saunders, Lay Maloney, Mak Chester Harding & Ellen Van Neervan
🗓️ Thursday 21 May, 5pm
📍 Carriageworks, Bay 19: The Booktopia Stage
🎫 Tickets available here
Music and writing have been closely linked for millennia in song and oral storytelling traditions. It's a huge part of what we do here at Awesome Black, too, so you know this event had to make our list. In exploring this connection, these writers share the soundtracks that fuel their creativity. Writer Lay Maloney (Weaving Us Together), poet and fiction writer Ellen van Neerven (Ruby’s Web) and Mark Chester Harding and Kirli Saunders of Cooee discuss how rhythm, melody and silence shape the stories they tell. From finding flow in a favourite song to writing in complete quiet, this conversation delves into the intimate relationship between sound and the creative process. This one's also going to feature a special music performance. And check out Kirli's new album as Cooee while you're at it.
Sharing First Nations’ knowledge of the universe and stars above
🗓️ Saturday 23 May, 6pm
📍 Carriageworks, Blacksmith’s Workshop
🎫 Free, no booking required
What do you see when you look at the night sky? The Seven Sisters? The Southern Cross? The Emu? Have you ever searched for answers in Sky Country? In this free fireside event, Professor of Astrophysics Ray Norris and Aboriginal farmer and multi-award-winning writer Bruce Pascoe consider astronomy, astrophysics and our place in the world. In their co-authored book Big Sky: When the Emu Left the Earth, they bring together science and philosophy to reframe astronomy through a First Nations’ knowledge and Law lens with insights into how to navigate the climate crisis. Join Ray and Bruce for a thoughtful discussion of the universe under stars. And check out the book when you get a chance!
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It’s a truth rarely acknowledged but the criminal justice system plays a large role in Aboriginal communities around Australia
🗓️ Friday 22 May, 11am
📍 Carriageworks, Bay 19: The Booktopia Stage
🎫 Tickets available here
This panel centres Ngana Barangarai / Black Wallaby, a long‑running writing initiative started by Wadi Wadi elder Aunty Barbara Nicholoson, which creates space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people inside the justice system to write, reflect and tell their own stories through creative practice.
Luke Patterson (A Savage Turn) and Melanie Saward work directly on the Black Wallaby program and both Melanie (Burn) and Gary Lonesborough (We Didn’t Think It Through) have written fiction engaging with youth justice and the complex realities facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, including family, relationships, school and community. Together, their work connects writing practice, lived experience and long‑term structural questions about the justice system. The session is moderated by revered First Nations writer Bruce Pascoe, who was a key contributor to the founding Dreaming Inside workshops in 2012. Hear Gary, Bruce, Luke and Melanie explore the challenges and responsibilities of authentic storytelling – from building trust and collaborative writing to creating narratives that honour these voices. We'll be there learning from the very best!
Palestinian writer reckons with history and inheritance
🗓️ Saturday 23 May, 5-5.55pm
📍 Carriageworks, Track 8
🎫 Tickets available here
Palestinian writer, scholar and activist Tareq Baconi's understanding of 'home' has been disrupted by settler-colonialsim. And although his experience looks different to the displacemnt mob face here in so-called Austraila, we thought this was an important talk for First Nations audiences.
Tareq's book Fire in Every Direction is a queer coming-of-age story amongst the turmoil and destruction of war and displacement. Tareq weaves together his experiences of being split between continents, identities and cultures and explains how these experiences deepened his political consciousness and understanding of the world. For Tareq, there is no separation between the personal and the political in his confrontation with love, loss and hope passed down through generations. Hear Tareq reflect on his history and the meaning of home with writer Sisonke Msimang.
A national treasure on her storied career — Melissa Lucashenko & Winnie Dunn
🗓️ Saturday 23 May, 1pm
📍 Carriageworks, Track 8
🎫 Join the waitlist
Bundjalong writers Melissa Lucashenko has been leading the way for three decades, and she's been recognised as one of the best to do it. This is an opportunity to hear how to get it done.
Melissa has won some of so-called Australia’s most prestigious awards, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the ARA Historical Novel Prize. Her newest book, Not Quite White in the Head, is the first time her Walkley Award–winning non-fiction and journalism have been published together. Offering criticism and wisdom in equal measure, the essays in this collection are deeply imbued with Melissa’s moral clarity and strong sense of justice.
Solving modern problems with ancient knowledge from Australia, Greece and Japan — with Paul Callaghan, Brigid Delaney, Hiroko Yoda, Ashley Hay
🗓️ Thursday 21 May, 4pm
📍 Carriageworks, Bay 20
🎫 Tickets available here
Paul Callaghan belongs to the Worimi people of New South Wales, and even though he's got a long career across disciplines like surveying, drafting, accounting and economics, his passion has always been around healing individuals, communities and the land.
Join Paul and other modern-day philosophers as they discuss how the answers to life's big questions are already in the work of those who came before us. Paul shares knowledge he gained from his culture and his consulting experience in Leading from the Dreaming, while journalist and screenwriter Brigid Delaney finds peace in stoicism in The Seeker and the Sage. Hiroko Yoda delves into ancient Japanese traditions in Eight Million Ways to Happiness to explain the country’s everyday spiritualism. Find a path forward with these writers and host Ashley Hay.
Stories of the beauty and burdens families share
🗓️ Sunday 24 May, 3-3.55pm
📍 Carriageworks, Track 8
🎫 Tickets available here
Blood isn’t the only thing that bonds these families. They also share intergenerational secrets held through time and across countries. 2025 Booker Prize–shortlisted author of Flashlight Susan Choi, internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist and author of Fierceland Omar Musa and award-winning playwright of Counting and Cracking and writer of Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath S. Shakthidharan consider their new books and the complicated families at their hearts.
Hear Susan, Omar and S. Shakthidharan share their perspectives on families, belonging and home from fascinatingly different backgrounds – Korean American, Bornean Australian and Sri Lankan Australian.
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Words of courage from Australia’s leading readers, writers and thinkers
🗓️ Sunday 24 May, 5.45pm
📍 Carriageworks, Bay 17
🎫 Tickets available here
In a moment of increasing tensions, rising inequality, climate crisis and loss of democratic freedoms, the solutions might come from Sydney Writers Festival. Head along to hear writers consider how we can create a braver Australia.
Writer and activist Tony Birch, novelist Shankari Chandran, artist Ben Quilty, Chief Political Analyst at The Australia Institute Amy Remeikis, researcher and writer Amy Thunig-McGregor and activist and author of Better Things Are Possible Jack Toohey will present their reflections on courage and change. With contributing host, writer Sisonke Msimang.
There are 54 free events happening across the festival, so you can experience stories and talks without spending a cent. Some of our favourite events are the free ones, including talks from the likes of Jazz Money, Luke Patterson, Narelda Jacobs, and a long list of writers/musicians/journalists.
And remember, the not-so-free events are only $10 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Don't forget to use your MOBTIX discount code!
By Awesome Black staff
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