The NT Writers Festival returns to Mparntwe/Alice Springs from 1-4 June for four days of thought-provoking talks and immersive storytelling events set against the backdrop of the breathtaking MacDonnell ranges.

Explore the full program including all featured authors, buy your tickets, organise passes and browse through the free events HERE.

Founded in 1999, the festival is held annually and has hosted some of Australia’s most beloved writersand storytellers. Including Bruce Pascoe, Kim Mahood, Christos Tsiolkas, Hannah Kent, Morris Gleitzman, Trent Dalton, Rick Morton, Larissa Behrendt and Alexis Wright.

Join a brilliant line up of writers from across the country. Including Geraldine Brooks, Anita Heiss, Chris Flynn and Gabrielle Wang. As they examine the theme of ‘mwantye-le awaye | listen deeply’. The festival invites readers, writers and lovers of stories to come together and listen deeply – to each other.

Check out some of the brilliant writers below:

Photo credit: Morgan Roberts

Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of 23 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Anita is a board member of the National Justice Project and Circa Contemporary Circus. As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage and it premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival.

Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writer’s Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 HNSA Prize and the ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain) about the Great Flood of Gundagai. Anita enjoys running, eating chocolate and being a creative disruptor.

Gabrielle Wang is an author and illustrator born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. Her maternal great great grandfather came to Victoria in the 1830’s as a labourer followed by his son in 1853 who came during the Gold Rush. Her father is from Shanghai. Gabrielle’s stories are a blend of Chinese and Western culture with a touch of fantasy. She has written more than 20 books for young readers, with many of them shortlisted for awards, from the Prime Minister’s Award to children’s choice awards such as the Yabba and Koala Awards. One of Gabrielle’s most popular books A Ghost in My Suitcase won the 2009 Aurealis Award and was made into a stage play by Barking Gecko Theatre in 2018. Her latest book is Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon. Gabrielle is the current Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022 and 2023.

Photo credit: Randi Baird

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in Sydney’s wester suburbs. In 1982 she won a scholarship to the journalism master’s program at Columbia University in New York. Later she worked for the Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. In 2006 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel March. Her novels Caleb’s Crossing and People of the Book were both New York Times bestsellers, and Year of Wonders, People of The Book and The Secret Chord are international bestsellers, translated into more than 25 languages. She is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction works Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence. In 2011 she presented Australia’s prestigious Boyer Lectures, later published as The Idea of Home. In 2016 she was appointed Officer in the Order of Australia for her services to literature. Geraldine Brooks divides her time between Sydney and Massachusetts and has two sons.