As the South Coast Writers Festival fast approaches, it’s time to celebrate the incredible line-up of acclaimed authors in the program that will run from 18-20 August.
Here are just a few authors that are joining us who have been recognised for their exceptional contributions to the literary landscape over the past two years.
1. Meredith Jaffé
Meredith is the author of four novels for adults: The Tricky Art of Forgiveness, The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison, The Making of Christina and The Fence. Her best-selling novel, The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison, was voted in the 2022 and 2023 Better Reading Top 100 and Booktopia’s 2021 Favourite Australian Book Award Top 50.
She’s the former festival director of StoryFest and regularly facilitates at author events. Previously, she wrote the weekly literary column for the online women’s magazine, The Hoopla. Her writing has also appeared in The Guardian Australia, The Huffington Post and Mamamia.
Meredith will be appearing at “18000 Dollars per annum: what’s going wrong (or right) in publishing?” on Saturday, 19 August.
2. Kate Holden
Kate wrote the Walkley Book Award-winning The Winter Road: A killing at Croppa Creek (Black Inc., 2021). It won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary awards for Non-fiction, and for Community and Regional History, and the Sisters in Crime Davitt true crime award. Her bestselling In My Skin: A memoir, was published by Text Publishing in 2005. The Romantic: Italian Nights and Days, a second memoir, was published in 2010. Kate has published essays, short stories and literary criticism in major journals, plus a column in The Age, appearing most recently in The Saturday Paper. She lives in the Illawarra.
Kate will be appearing at “Opening Night: The Books We Love” and “18000 Dollars per annum: what’s going wrong (or right) in publishing?”
3. Mykaela Saunders
Dr Mykaela Saunders is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, teacher and researcher, and the editor of This All Come Back Now, the world’s first anthology of blackfella speculative fiction (UQP, 2022), which won an Aurealis Award.
Mykaela won the 2022 David Unaipon Award for her short story collection Always Will Be (UQP, 2024). Her novel Last Rites of Spring was shortlisted for the Unaipon Award in 2020, and received a Next Chapter Fellowship in 2021.
Mykaela has won prizes for short fiction, poetry, life writing and research, including the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize. She holds the 2023 Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Research. Of Dharug descent, Mykaela belongs to the Tweed Goori community.
Mykaela will be appearing at “Speculative Fiction” and “Writing the Everywhen”.
The 2023 South Coast Writers Festival will host these exceptional authors and more. Come along to hear their stories first-hand and gain valuable insights into the world of literature. From bestselling authors to Australians of the Year, and writers who have won Prime Ministers and Walkley Awards for literature, our program showcases many Australian writing talents.
Tickets available on the SCWC website. Check it out at southcoastwriters.org
