SHwf 2023 Gallery
The 2023 festival took place on Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd July at the iconic Empire Cinemas in Bowral. It featured some of Australia’s greatest writers and thinkers including Mark Callaghan, Posie Graeme-Evans, Matthew Gibbs, Reg Livermore, Ned Manning, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Heather Mitchell, Rachael Mogan McIntosh, Indira Naidoo, Kylie Needham, Oppenheimer, Tracey Spicer AM, Wendy Whiteley & Ashleigh Wilson.
A special shout-out to our official photographer Greg Jackson for capturing the Festival so beautifully. Enjoy the photos from this year.
Friday 21 July
Rachael Mogan McIntosh
Filled with hilarious local characters, quirky small-town life and cultural differences aplenty, Rachael discussed her new memoir Pardon My French.
Posie Graeme-Evans & Kylie Needham
Posie Graeme-Evans and Kylie Needham discussed their highly successful careers writing for television and novels.
From Book to Feature Film: Oppenheimer
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. We explored the adaptation of the book into film concluding with a screening of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer (complete choc tops and popcorn).
Saturday 22 July
Indira Naidoo
Broadcaster Indira nourished us through her book The Space Between the Stars.
Tracey Spicer AM
Journalist Tracey Spicer exposed the next frontier of feminism with her book Man-Made.
Ned Manning
Actor, playwright and now author, Ned Manning talked about his new book Painting the Light.
Heather Mitchell Am
Heather Mitchell is one of Australia’s most acclaimed actors. Via a pre-recorded interview she discussed her recently published memoir, Everything and Nothing.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
In this session, we explored how various writers have penned the Mi spy films based on the television series created by Bruce Geller. The session concluded with the screening of the film complete with complimentary choc tops and popcorn.
SUNDAY 23 July
Mark Callaghan & Reg Livermore
Mark Callaghan and Reg Livermore discussed their extraordinary careers and the art of songwriting with manager of Highland FM, Adam Stokeld.
Matthew GibbS Discusses shakespeare’s First Folio
In this specially produced session for the SHWF, Matthew Gibbs’ acting and personal anecdotes proved how his ‘Bard habits’ guided him through his twenty-year finance career. From proxy voting to profit-taking Matthew learned from the best!
Wendy Whiteley & Ashleigh Wilson
Wendy and Ashleigh discussed their new book, A Year with Wendy Whiteley.
SPECIAL THANKS
Thank you to the the wonderful team from the Empire Cinemas, Bowral: Dave, James, and Gerard, we couldn't have done it without you.
A huge thank you to our Festival Partners including: The Bookshop Bowral, Creative & Co, The Empire Cinemas; Highland FM (107.1), Highlife, JND, King Computers, Southern Highland News and SNDC. 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), Len Bolzan, Rachel Armstrong, Maree Reid, Deb Blackah, Suzannah Cowley, Hanneke Stemman 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!