TasWriters
Join TasWriters to celebrate Tasmania Reads with poetry, playwrights, and Book Chats
Writing the Wild - The Rise of Eco-Literature in Tasmania
Saturday 23 March 2024
Moderator: Cameron Hindrum (Blue Cathedral + ...)
Karen Harrland (Daughter of the Plateau / fiction),
Lyn Reeves (Ed, Under the same moon / haiku),
Simon Grove (Seasons in the South / natural history),
Hilary Burden (Undersong / nature, history, memoir)
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Launch of the Forty South Short Story Anthology 2023
Saturday 23 March 2024
Moderator: Rayne Allinson
Mallika Naguran in conversation with finalists from the competition.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat with ASA mentor and mentees
Saturday 23 March 2024
Dr Mark Macleod (Chair TasWriters Board of Management and program mentor) chats with three of the ASA 2022 Tasmanian Writers
and Illustrators Mentorship Program recipients about the experiences and outcomes of their mentorships.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat - Scriptwriting with Willoh Weiland
Saturday 23 March 2024
Scriptwriting with Willoh Weiland from MONA.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat with Lian Tanner
Saturday 23 March 2024
Multi-award winning author, in 2020 she and illustrator Jonathan Bentley won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards for Ella and the Ocean. She won the 2021 Children's crime novel Davitt Award for A Clue for Clara. Lian Tanner has been dynamited while scuba diving and arrested while busking. She once spent a week in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, hunting for a Japanese soldier left over from the Second World War.
Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat Poetry exercises with Nicola Ingram
Saturday 23 March 2024
Nicola Ingram, a proud palawa and Wiradjuri woman based in nipaluna (Hobart), received the Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writers Award(ETAWA) in 2021. She continues to develop original works. She is passionate about creative work that empowers people to share their own stories, celebrating diversity and accessibility.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat with Mallika Naguran
Saturday 23 March 2024
Author of two adaptations of classics for children: the Ramayana: The Quest to Rescue Sita and Peter Pan in the POP! Lit for Kids series.
She Never Looks Quite Back is her first collection of short stories published in 2021. She is a Singapore Literature Prize Finalist. She is
passionate about wildlife and the underwater world. She lives in Tasmania where she loses track of time while walking in forests.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat with Joshua Santospirito
Saturday 23 March 2024
Joshua is a multi-media artist, musician and graphic novelist, living in lutruwita (Tasmania). Joshua is the author of graphic novels Swallows Part One (2015) and cult favourite The Long Weekend in Alice Springs (2013) which won the Chief Minister’s non-fiction book award in the NT.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat Afterword Cafe Poet Laureate Caley Conan-Davies
Saturday 23 March 2024
Dr Tim Jarvis (owner of Fullers Bookshop) in conversation with Cally Conan-Davies, Fuller’s inaugural Afterword Café Poet Laureate.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat Cosy Crime & Cats with Tansy Rayner Roberts
Saturday 23 March 2024
What is cosy crime? According to award-winning local author and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts, who writes Tasmanian-set mystery novels under the pen-name Livia Day, "it's when you have murder AND cake." Along with these criminal comfort reads, she writes essays, sci-fi and historical fantasy. Chat with Tansy about comfort crime reads and magical teacups... and preview her brand new novel about time travel and talking cats!
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book Chat Haiku with Lorraine Haig
Saturday 23 March 2024
Lorraine Haig has published three poetry books, An Ocean of Sky in 2014, Paddling the Canoe in 2021 and Curving into Light, her first haiku collection published by Forty South.
Her haiku, tanka, haibun and rengay have appeared in journals in Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, India, and the USA. She has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
Hadley's orient Hotel
Book Chat Readings from Gwen Harwood's poems
Saturday 23 March 2024
Readings from Gwen Harwood’s poems by renowned actors Michael Edgar and Anne Riley. Michael Edgar just won the Best Male Actor for Community Theatre Award from the Theatre Council of Tasmania.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Deceptions, staged reading of a play by Stella Kent
Friday 22 March 2024
Deceptions is the story of Hobart’s Gwen Harwood who is claimed by many – including Peter
Porter and Clive James – to be Australia’s most significant poet of the twentieth century.
It is the story of a fierce, brave woman who must resort to trickery to have her poetry accepted, but
on a personal level it reveals Gwen being torn between being the perfect mid-twentieth century
mother to her children and wife to husband Bill, and finding the time (and even a space in the
kitchen) to write her poems.
Gwen’s story of a talented woman helplessly trapped by the mores of the time is set against the Orr
affair, one of the first sexual harassment cases in Australian history, which tears apart the
University of Tasmania.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Storygig in the Square!
Between Saturday 27 May 2023 and Sunday 28 May 2023
9am to 3pm in Franklin Square - Authors reading and activities FREE ATTENDANCE - please register to help us track numbers
Franklin Square
My Story - Young storytellers 11+
Sunday 28 May 2023
3:30 pm- 4:15pm
An open Mic event for composers of poetry and prose
Hadley’s Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
My Story - Young Storytellers under 11
Sunday 28 May 2023
3pm-3:45pm
An open Mic event for composers of poetry and prose
Hadley’s Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
Storytelling with puppets
Sunday 28 May 2023
2:30pm - 3:15pm featuring Sam Routledge from Terrapin
Hadley's Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
‘Who’s speaking? Questions of Narrative in Poetry’
Sunday 28 May 2023
2pm-2:45pm Sarah Day & Mark Macleod in conversation with Dr Will Simon
Hadley's Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
I Know How You Feel - Empathy in Books for Young People
Sunday 28 May 2023
1:30pm - 2:15pm with Lucy. Christopher, Avery McDougall and Danielle Wood
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Leigh Hobbs in Conversation
Sunday 28 May 2023
1pm - 1:45pm with Mark Macleod
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Censorship - Here We Go Again
Sunday 28 May 2023
12:00pm - 12:45pm What makes a story unsuitable for young people? Who decides?
featuring Mark Macleod, Sue McKerracher, Jan Richards and Rayne Allinson
Hadley's Orient Hotel
The Soul in the Story:
Sunday 28 May 2023
11am - 11:45am Art and Literature by Artificial Intelligence with Lyndon Riggall and Christina Booth
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Storytelling Through Indian Dance
Sunday 28 May 2023
10:45am - 11:45am A one hour Indian dance experience with Pratik from Rhythmz Bollywood in New Town. Love Bollywood and want to have a go? No special gear or experience needed!
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Storytelling in music
Sunday 28 May 2023
10am - 10:45am A music and storytelling session with Uncle Dougie Mansell
Hadley's Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
"Stories from India to Change The World"
Saturday 27 May 2023
3:30pm - 4:15pm Prof Coomi Vevaina (Livestreamed from Mumbai) in conversation with Mark Macleod
Hadley's Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
Is Dungeons and Dragons 'B.A.D.D'?
Saturday 27 May 2023
2:30pm - 3:15pm Featuring Matt Cleaver and Cassandra Wunsch. In 1983, 'Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons' was formed in Richmond, Virginia to denounce the evils of D&D. Join Matt and Cassandra to slay some dragons, roll up some back story and find out what the fuss is really all about.
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Creating Characters Weird and Wonderful
Saturday 27 May 2023
2pm - 2:45pm Leigh Hobbs and Coral Tulloch talking about their work
Hadley's Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
Libraries: You Can't Keep Everything!
Saturday 27 May 2023
1:30pm - 2:15pm Do libraries have an obligation to hang onto all their books? Why do we hate to see them
culling their collections? Judith Ridge and Elizabeth Roberts.
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
A Conversation with Jeannie Baker
Saturday 27 May 2023
1pm - 1:45pm Jeannie Baker and Prof Robyn Ewing In conversation
*This conversation is streamed online with opportunities for audience questions.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS (CANCELLED)
Saturday 27 May 2023
Unfortunately Daniel has tested positive for covid and so has had to withdraw from the festival. All tickets to this event will be refunded.
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Learn How to Tell Stories to Children - and Why!
Saturday 27 May 2023
12pm - 12:45pm Featuring Anna-Maree Scott-McGuinness from Libraries Tasmania.
Learn about the skill and the importance of reading to children.
Hadley's Orient Hotel
Poo, Spew and Other Gross Things Animals Do!
Saturday 27 May 2023
11am - 11:45am The science is in – animals are gross, and detection dog handler and owl spew aficionado Nic Gill is here to tell you all about it.
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Telling Stories Through Graphic Novels
Saturday 27 May 2023
10:30am - 11:30am a workshop featuring Alyssa Bermudez and Carolyn Daly
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Telling Stories with Words and Pictures (SCBWI)
Saturday 27 May 2023
10am-10:45am Featuring top Tasmanian authors Christina Booth, Tony Flowers, Kate Gordon and Lian Tanner.
Supported by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (Tasmania Branch).
Hadley's Orient Hotel, John Webb Room
Open Mic Evening (CANCELLED)
Tuesday 9 May 2023
27th May, 5pm - 6pm
Hadley's Orient Hotel, Leadlight Room
Writing for a World on Edge (More Than Human Poetry Project)
Sunday 10 October 2021
Poems will be read, processes and hopes will be discussed, and the experience of writing amid the Anthropocene will be shared.
Lead Light Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Hobart Writers Festival 2021 Silver Ticket - Sunday
Sunday 10 October 2021
With a SilverTicket you can attend a maximum of 5 sessions on a single day saving of 20% of the equivalent individual ticket price. Silver tickets also secure seating in the front third of the room.
Silver Tickets are limited to 2 per purchaser.
*This ticket does not include entry to the events 'A Soldier’s Quartet by Colin Baldwin', 'Oberhausen Diary launch' or 'ETAWA', which are free events but must be registered for due to COVID restrictions.
Hadley’s Orient Hotel
Hobart Writers Festival 2021 Golden Ticket - 2 Days
Saturday 9 October 2021
Saturday 9th AND Sunday 10th (daytime sessions)
Attend a maximum of 10 sessions over the two days at a saving of a little over 20% of the equivalent individual ticket price. Golden tickets also secure seating in the front third of the room.
Golden Tickets are limited to 2 per purchaser.
*This ticket does not include entry to the events 'A Soldier’s Quartet by Colin Baldwin', 'Oberhausen Diary launch' or 'ETAWA', which are free events but must be registered for due to COVID restrictions.
Hadley’s Orient Hotel
Writing for Young Adults
Sunday 10 October 2021
Join Danielle Binks, Lian Tanner and Shirley Patton for a conversation about writing for young adults.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Writing Residencies
Sunday 10 October 2021
Kate Gordon, Danielle Wood, Jen Thompson and Annalise Rees, on writing residencies.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Diversity in Publishing
Sunday 10 October 2021
Grace Williams and Mark Macleod on diversity in publishing.
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
History, Nature and Hermits
Sunday 10 October 2021
Join Geoff Harwood, Katherine Johnson and Pete Hay for a fascinating discussion of 'history, nature and hermits', themed around the extraordinary story of western Tasmania's 'Last Hermit', Jackey Stevens.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Book launch: Dear Mama, The diary of a German POW, 1914-1915
Sunday 10 October 2021
Launch by Friends of North Bruny Quarantine Station of translations from the diary of POW Fritz Stegherr, on Bruny Island, 1914-1915.
Maritime Museum of Tasmania
Writing, Health and Advocacy
Sunday 10 October 2021
Grace Williams, Sarah Walker and Deborah Thompson on advocacy and change-making.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Forty South Van Diemen History Prize
Sunday 10 October 2021
Best of the 2021 Van Diemen History Prize.
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Music in Literature
Sunday 10 October 2021
Laurie Gilbert with music by Jaala Still and Ange Boxall.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Tongerlongeter, a conversation
Sunday 10 October 2021
Join historians Dr. Henry Reynolds and Dr Nick Clements in conversation with commemoration advocates Rissah Vox and Wendall Graham Pitchford discussing Tongerlongeter.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
LUME: Danielle Wood and Kate Gordon at the Maritime Museum
Sunday 10 October 2021
Kate Gordon and Danielle Wood respond to the Maritime Museum of Tasmania's collection through fiction and non-fiction.
Maritime Museum of Tasmania
Short story writing on an island theme
Sunday 10 October 2021
Launching the Forty South Short Story Anthology 2021.
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Ursula Dubosarsky - Children's Laureate
Sunday 10 October 2021
Hear from 2020-21 Children's Laureate Ursula Dubosarsky being interviewed by Mark Macleod.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Making the Book - 5mile and Franklin Direct: Book to Market
Sunday 10 October 2021
An introduction to different approaches to publishing, from a publisher and a printer.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Rebellious Facts and Comforting Fictions
Sunday 10 October 2021
Henry Reynolds, Jen Thompson, Ian Broinowski, Katherine Johnson discussing "how can the writers of historical narratives be truth-tellers and serve cultural change?"
Lead Light Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Writing the Remote
Sunday 10 October 2021
Writing about and inspired by remote areas, with Melissa Manning, Mary-Lou Stephens and Robyn Mundy.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Karen Brooks and Danielle Wood
Sunday 10 October 2021
Join Karen Brooks, author of The Good Wife of Bath: a (mostly) true story, and Danielle Wood in conversation.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
The Weedy Seadragon - Anne Morgan
Sunday 10 October 2021
Anne Morgan on Leafy Seadragons with readings from her book The Way of the Weedy Seadragon.
Maritime Museum of Tasmania
A Picture Saves a Thousand Words
Saturday 9 October 2021
Joshua Santospirito, Alyssa Bermudez and Jane Naqvi discuss the creation of graphic novels, and working as or alongside an illustrator to make a story come to life.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Hobart Writers Festival 2021 Silver Ticket - Saturday
Saturday 9 October 2021
With a SilverTicket you can attend a maximum of 5 sessions over a single day at a saving of 20% of the equivalent individual ticket price. Silver tickets also secure seating in the front third of the room.
Silver Tickets are limited to 2 per purchaser.
*This ticket does not include entry to the events 'A Soldier’s Quartet by Colin Baldwin', 'Oberhausen Diary launch' or 'ETAWA', which are free events but must be registered for due to COVID restrictions.
Hadley’s Orient Hotel
A Soldier’s Quartet by Colin Baldwin launch with Rosie Dub
Saturday 9 October 2021
This is a free event to launch A Soldier’s Quartet by Colin Baldwin. A story of perseverance and happenstance that transcends time and reaches across continents.
Please make sure you register to assist us with our covid compliance.
Lead Light Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Parting the Veil by Bethamy Nader - Book Launch
Saturday 9 October 2021
This is a free event to launch Parting the Veil by Bethany Nader. A paranormal Murder-Mystery set in Tasmania.
Please register your intent to attend to help us with our covid compliance.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Writing Out Adversity
Saturday 9 October 2021
Bushfires, tree-pulling and the pandemic. Mary-Lou Stephens and James Parker on writing and adversity.
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Arts for social change and transformation
Saturday 9 October 2021
Grace Williams on Arts for social change and transformation.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Embracing the Biome - The More Than Human Poetry Project
Saturday 9 October 2021
23 Tasmanian poets offer their take on the idea that poetry can contribute to a deeper cultural valuing of the world.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Mythical & Magical … Writing extraordinary fictional worlds
Saturday 9 October 2021
Rosie Dub, Shirley Patton and Heather Rose on the delights and risks of using the metaphysical, mythological and legendary in fiction.
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Danielle Binks in conversation with Briony Kidd
Saturday 9 October 2021
Danielle Binks*, author of The Monster of Her Age, in conversation.
*Due to Covid-19 restrictions on travel to Tasmania, this presenter will be live-streamed.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Hannah Moloney - "The Good Life" permaculture
Saturday 9 October 2021
Hannah Moloney, on gardening, change making and radical hope.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Robbie Arnott and Amanda Lohrey in conversation
Saturday 9 October 2021
Two of Tasmania's most exciting writers in one room. The 2021 Miles Franklin Award winner Amanda Lohrey, in conversation with Robbie Arnott, who was shortlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Award.
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Postcards from an Island Dweller - Terry Whitebeach
Saturday 9 October 2021
Let your mind be un-locked-down - Encounters with humans and other species, with Terry Whitebeach.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Ruhi Lee 'Good Indian Daughter', Q&A and Interview
Saturday 9 October 2021
Ruhi Lee, author of Good Indian Daughter, interview with Mark Macleod.
John Webb Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
ETAWA and Hidden Stories
Saturday 9 October 2021
Participants of ETAWA (the Emerging Tasmanian Aboriginal Writers Award) and the Hidden Stories workshops, discuss with judges, mentors and other writers their shared experiences of these projects.
Morning Tea Included
Leadlight Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
Island of Curiosities - Environmental Children's Literature
Saturday 9 October 2021
Featuring Anne Morgan, Christina Booth, Fiona Levings, Coral Tulloch. Some of Tasmania's most successful children’s book creators talk about how being Tasmanian has shaped their careers as writers and/or illustrators of books for children.
George Cartwright Room, Hadley's Orient Hotel
