Join us for an inspiring evening dedicated to celebrating the literary talent within our community! Hosted by Shellharbour Libraries, this event promises an enriching experience for book lovers and supporters of local South Coast talent alike.

STAGE TO PAGE. We often hear about novels being adapted for the screen or stage, but how does this work in reverse?

Panelists Jane Harrison (The Visitors), Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) and Alana Valentine (Wayside Bride) have all given new life to their acclaimed plays through novelisation. Their books take audiences from the contemporary courtroom to colonial first contact to a side street of a red-light district in 1969.

Turn adaptation upside down with these celebrated writers, in conversation with Maeve Marsden, as they discuss transforming works for the stage into works for the page.

SAD GIRL? BAD GIRL? MAD GIRL? She may be self-absorbed, adrift or unhinged, but the ‘sad girl’ is taking the publishing industry by storm.

Debut novelists Nadine J. Cohen (Everyone and Everything), Madeleine Gray (Green Dot) and Jessie Stephens (Something Bad is Going to Happen) have all created unforgettable protagonists who are fallible, at times unlikeable and painfully relatable.

Hear from these exciting debut novelists as they discuss making and breaking this emerging genre’s rules, and how they crafted compelling portraits of present-day womanhood. In conversation with The Guardian’s Steph Harmon.

EAT YOUR WORDS. Join us in western Sydney’s newest art space, Parramatta Artists’ Studios Granville for an immersive night of eating, stories and conversation featuring some of Australia’s most exciting storytellers. This event is produced by The Finishing School in partnership with Parramatta Artists’ Studios.

BROMANTIC COMEDY. Rom-coms are literary comfort food for starry-eyed readers. But in a plot twist, the genre’s newest devotees are blokes, who are turning the notion of chick lit on its head.

James Colley’s heartwarming and quintessentially Australian The Next Big Thing maps a love triangle between a boy, a girl and a four-metre-high regional tourist attraction. Jonathan Seidler’s latest novel, All The Beautiful Things You Love, recounts a relationship through flashbacks as a recently split couple sell their stuff on Facebook Marketplace.

Hear from the hopeless bromantics who have fallen hard for romance fiction, joined on stage by self-confessed genre junkie Rudi Bremer (ABC RN’s Awaye!).

UNDER PRESSURE. Anxiety is on the rise, perhaps unsurprisingly; it’s not easy balancing everyday adolescent problems with bigger-picture environmental and societal shifts.

Graham Akhurst (Borderland), A.J. Betts (One Song) and Erin Gough (Into the Mouth of the Wolf) write thrilling, funny and heartbreaking books that reflect our modern times. Their characters deal with natural disasters, lost connection to Country and community, imposter syndrome and more. Hear them discuss writing for today’s young readers and beyond.