Byron Bay Writers' Festival

Introducing two of our international guests

As always we have a number of special international guests mixing with the best of Australian writing both fresh and established. Katherine Boo, in her first visit to Australia, is a staff writer for The New Yorker and has spent the last 20 years reporting on how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get out of poverty. Her reporting has been honoured by a MacArthur Fellowship and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. She has recently published her first book Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in one of the world’s most lively but treacherous cities – Mumbai.  The book is the result of over four years research and hundreds of interviews and The Australian’s Jose Borghino writes,  “It proclaims an astonishing ambition and a prodigious talent to match….she delivers a non-fiction novel that combines all the emotional power of a story well told with the added intoxication that readers know all this is really happening.”

Also trained in journalism is Mohammed Hanif who after graduating from the East Pakistan Air Force Academy as a pilot, decided to pursue a career in journalism. For many years he worked in London before returning home to Karachi, Pakistan where he is a special correspondent to the BBC.  His first novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Commonwealth Book Prize for Best First Book. He has also written for the stage and screen including the feature film The Long Night (2002). His most recent book published in 2011 is Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, a story of second chances, thwarted ambitions and love in unlikely places, set in the febrile streets of downtown Karachi.

And there's more

Announcing more Australian guests Alex Miller is twice winner of Australia’s premier literary prize, The Miles Franklin Literary Award, first in 1993 for The Ancestor Game and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. He also won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for The Ancestor Game. In 2007 Landscape of Farewell was published to wide critical acclaim and in 2008 won the Chinese Annual Foreign Novels 21st Century Award for Best Novel and the Manning Clark Medal for an outstanding contribution to Australian cultural life. Lovesong won the People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s Awards, The Age Book of the Year Award and The Age Fiction Prize for 2011. Alex is published internationally and widely in translation. His tenth and latest novel is Autumn Laing.

Fiona O'Loughlin is one of the funniest working mothers in Australia today: a stand-up comedian based in Alice Springs, she has also had successful shows at the Edinburgh and Adelaide fringe festivals, the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Me of the Never Never is her first book.

Gail Jones teaches at the University of Western Sydney. Her books have won numerous literary awards in Australia. She is the author of two collections of short stories and five novels including Sixty Lights which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Dreams of Speaking which was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the Orange Prize, and Sorry which was longlisted for the Orange Prize.

Come and join in the conversation as ideas collide and morph across politics, history, the arts, sport, sex and science, and get ready for your mind to soar. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s festival.

More Writers Announced

The Byron Bay Writers' Festival is delighted to announce the addition of award winning writer Elliot Perlman to the list of first release writers attending this year’s festival. Perlman’s first novel Three Dollars won The Age book of the year in 1998 and later his co-adaption of his book to film with director Robert Connolly won the Australian Film Critics Award for Best Adapted screenplay in 2005.

Read more: More Writers Announced