Historical fiction offers so much more than nostalgia. When our past is viewed through the eyes of a contemporary author, we can shift our understanding of history and develop new perspectives on our present.
Following the sensational success of The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams is back with The German Ward, which carries her fascination with love, language and history into the First World War, imagining a forbidden romance between an English nurse and a German prisoner of war. Award-winning author Mirandi Riwoe's latest novel, A Short History of Longans, moves backwards and forwards through time, tracing one Irish-Chinese family from a climate-ravaged Queensland in 2049 to a shipwreck in colonial New South Wales in 1849.Also traveling through time, Jock Serong's Cherrywood takes us between Edinburgh in 1916 and Melbourne in 1993, delivering a darkly delicious, playful and rich novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention.
Pip Williams is the author of The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho, both of which recognised in ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century. Her upcoming novel, The German Ward, continues her exploration of love, art, and history, bringing to life a vivid World War I story of forbidden.
Jock Serong is the author of seven award-winning novels and most recently a biography of Fletcher Jones, A Suitable Man. He is the founding editor of Great Ocean Quarterly and writes regularly for major media including the Guardian, Surfing World and The Monthly, as well as for screen.
Mirandi Riwoe is the author of A Short History of Longans. Her novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain, won the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and Sunbirds was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award, while The Burnished Sun is a collection of her short stories and novellas.
Zohra Aly has a Masters in Creative Writing and her essays and short fiction have been published in Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books and Island, as well as various anthologies. She is currently working on a collection of essays.
-
Tickets to main program events are included in weekend and day passes. Single tickets may be available from September 8, subject to availability.
-
This venue is wheelchair accessible, and AUSLAN interpreters are available upon request. Please email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any accessibility requests or wish to book an AUSLAN interpreter. More info about accessibility can be found on our Accessibility page.