SHwf 2018 Gallery
The 2018 Southern Highlands Writers’ Festival took place on Friday 20th – Sunday 21st July at the iconic Empire Cinemas and the Highlands School of Performing Arts in Bowral. The theme, a response to #MeToo, featured an all female lineup of Australia’s greatest writers, thinkers and performers including Michelle Scott Tucker, Tania Blanchard & Lauren Chater, Robyn Cadwallader, Nicola Moriarty, and Virginia Lloyd. This event also featured the launch of two book launches, Book Towns and The House on the River, and the Australian premiere of The Wife, solidifying the festival theme.
A special shout-out to our official photographer Greg Jackson for capturing the Festival so beautifully. Enjoy the photos from this year.
Friday 20 July
Opening Night event
The evening began with the Australian launch of Book Towns, by Alex Johnson, in which Bowral is a featured town. This was followed by the launch of The House on the River by Bowral-based author, Alexandra Springett. The evening concluded with an advanced screening of the film The Wife, based on Meg Wolitzer’s 2003 novel, starring Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce and Christian Slater.
Saturday 21 July
Michelle Scott Tucker
Michelle Scott Tucker shone a light on an often-overlooked aspect of Australia’s history, the fascinating farming entrepreneur, Elizabeth Macarthur. Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World is her first book.
Tania Blanchard & Lauren Chater
Tania Blanchard (The Girl from Munich) and Lauren Chater (The Lace Weaver) had their debut novels published through Simon & Schuster. The authors discussed their new works, how they were able to navigate the challenging path to publication, and how attending bestselling author Fiona McIntosh’s Commercial Fiction Masterclass irrevocably changed their lives forever.
Robyn Cadwallader
Robyn Cadwallader is the author of the internationally acclaimed novel The Anchoress. She discussed her latest work, Book of Colours, a deeply profound and moving novel about the importance of creativity and the power of connection, told through the story of the commissioning of a magnificently illuminated medieval prayer book, and about the place of women in the turbulent world of the early fourteenth century.
Nicola Moriarty
Nicola Moriarty has a serious literary pedigree as the younger sister of bestselling authors Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies) and Jaclyn Moriarty (The Ashbury/Brookfield series). In between various career changes, becoming a mother and while studying teaching at Macquarie University, she began to write. She has now published several novels, Free-Falling; Paper Chains; and The Fifth Letter, which has been optioned by Universal Cable Productions for film and television.
Virginia Lloyd
Virginia Lloyd spent much of her childhood learning and playing the piano and thought she would make a career as a pianist. When that didn’t happen, she spent a long time wondering about those years of study. Girls at the Piano explores the changing relationship between women and the piano over the course of the instrument’s history, taking us from the salons of 18th-century Europe to an amateur jazz workshop in the early 21st century.
wrap party
SPECIAL THANKS
Thank you to the wonderful team from the Empire Cinemas, Bowral: Dave, James, and Gerard. And thank you to the Highlands School of Performing Arts.
A huge thank you to our Festival Partners including: The Bookshop Bowral, The Empire Cinemas, Highland FM (107.1), King Computers, The Modern, Highlife, Escape Southern Highlands, Alexandra Springett, the University of Wollongong Australia, Gibraltar Hotel, Closeburn House, Harper Collins Publishers, Officeworks, Neverfail, Four Pillars Gin and Rob and Paula McLean. Without your generosity, kindness and support the Festival could not continue.
Finally the biggest, most heartfelt thanks to my amazing little team of volunteers, James Norton (my incredible Art Director and 2IC), Saneia Norton (my brilliant Front of House Manager), Rachel Armstrong and of course my mum Roz - you make the Festival a reality! Thank you for your time and extraordinary expertise in making the SHWF so unique, along with your grace and sensational good senses of humour!