Bendigo Writers Festival

08/10/2025

A short survey is now open to help review the Bendigo Writers Festival.
We’re inviting feedback from past ticket holders, authors, hosts, speakers, staff, volunteers, local businesses and community members.
We want to hear what you think about the Festival and what it means to our community.
Your input will help shape decisions about the Festival’s future - whether it continues as it is, changes into a new format, or if funding is used to support other literary events.
Survey closes Monday October 27.
To provide feedback, please visit:
https://letstalkgreaterbendigo.com.au/bendigo-writers...

A short survey is now open to help review the Bendigo Writers Festival.

We’re inviting feedback from past ticket holders, authors, hosts, speakers, staff, volunteers, local businesses and community members.

We want to hear what you think about the Festival and what it means to our community.

Your input will help shape decisions about the Festival’s future - whether it continues as it is, changes into a new format, or if funding is used to support other literary events.

Survey closes Monday October 27.

To provide feedback, please visit:
https://letstalkgreaterbendigo.com.au/bendigo-writers-festival-review

15/08/2025

14/08/2025

Many of Australia’s most iconic places wouldn’t exist without women, but chances are, you’ve never heard their names. With just 4% of statues in Australia honouring women, the monuments we build and the names we remember send a clear message: women’s contributions aren’t seen as worthy of recognition or respect.

Join Sita Sargeant, founder of the social enterprise She Shapes History and author of She Shapes History: Guided Walks and Stories About Great Australian Women, in conversation with the ABC’s Fiona Parker. This session will challenge how we think about what it means to shape history and show how sharing women’s stories from the past is central to creating a more equal future.

Ticket are just $16, get yours now on our website or via the link in our bio!

13/08/2025

Heathcote poets Amanda Collins and Dave Munro love helping others find their own voices. They have convened local open mic pizzaboxpoets for six years and have run workshops that encourage writers to extend their poetic spaces. In this performance/reading/happening, Amanda and Dave will take you into poetic spaces and open the windows to let in the breeze.

This will be the final FREE session in the 2025 Local Stories Lounge on Sunday 17 August.
It's not to late to plan your festival itinerary, see this and the entire program of sessions via our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/57

12/08/2025

In the final session of the festival, we will pay respects to literary elders very much present.

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet, essayist, critic, academic and activist. Her scholarly, creative and critical writing explores sites of personal, national and collective memory. In the first part of this session, Claire G Coleman talks to Jeanine about her impactful career.

Robert Dessaix is a writer, translator and broadcaster whose novels, memoirs, travel writing and essays have been adored by Australian and global audiences for decades. In part two of this session, Clare Wright will host Robert in this contemplative reflection on his life and writing.

Tickets for the festival closing can be purchased here: https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/58

11/08/2025

Bendigo Writers Council Inc. was established in 1992 and has continued to provide writers with the opportunity to share their writing and to learn from others.

In this FREE session, join Penny Davies and Beverley Amy as they will discuss the value of writing groups and BWC's monthly workshops.

Learn more on our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/55

07/08/2025

After the 2025 federal election, Australia has the most progressive parliament in recent memory. Perhaps ever. What are the game-changing ideas that Australia needs now? Is there a mandate for policy decisions that might safeguard Australia’s democracy, economy, environment and polity beyond the blip of the news cycle?

In partnership with The Australia Institute, La Trobe Presents the opening gala for the 2025 festival. Get your tickets to this session here https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/13

06/08/2025

Join Aunty Munya Andrews, Clare G Coleman and Neane Carter as they discuss the beauty of being on country, the role it plays in healing, in ceremony and reinforcing family and community.

More information about this FREE session and other festival sessions on our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/47

05/08/2025

The Power of Uncomfortable Conversations: In this raw memoir, Gayle invites readers to walk alongside her through the darkest corners of family struggle.

Learn more about this FREE session and other festival sessions on our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/51

04/08/2025

Ita Mehrotra visits Bendigo from India to speak about her two non-fiction graphic narratives, both centered around representing people's movements and democratic rights through the comics format. Ita will also explore ideas of contemporary visual storytelling in India that forefronts resistance movements.

Simon McKeown will talk to Ita about how she came to create her graphic narratives and what inspires her to keep creating.

Get your tickets to this session and others in this year's program on our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/20

01/08/2025

The Spinning Heart speaks for contemporary Ireland like no other novel. Wry, vulnerable, all-too human, it captures the language and spirit of rural Ireland and with uncanny perception articulates the words and thoughts of a generation.

Join Michelle Scott-Tucker, Bonny Cassidy and Paul Daley as they discuss the evocative, witty and technically daring novel of small-town life.

To secure your tickets this City of Literature Book Club session and explore more sessions, see our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/26

31/07/2025

This Saturday session has the talented Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng hosting a fun-filled, hands-on creating and making session.

Tickets for this session and others can be found on our website https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2025-festival-program/23