Pairing bestselling books with an award-winning brew? It’s a no-brainer. Kick back for Sunday arvo beers, and chat knotty topics and big ideas with your favourite authors, at Mountain Culture Brewery.

Pairing bestselling books with an award-winning brew? It’s a no-brainer. Kick back for Sunday arvo beers, and chat knotty topics and big ideas with your favourite authors, at Mountain Culture Brewery.

Take a heart-starting morning ride on the steepest railway in the world, before meandering through the ferns and eucalypts to the Scenic World Rainforest Room, where writers Viki Cramer, Dave Witty and David Lindemayer will share their knowledge of the trees that tower above.

Get ready for bed (pyjamas optional) as a collection of festival talent entertain and delight in the cosy surrounds of The Carrington, cup of hot chocolate (or whisky) in hand.

Explore the dark skies of Dharug and Gundungurra land, in this award-winning stargazing tour, led by local astrophysicist Dr Dimitri Douchin.

Get ready for bed (pyjamas optional) as a collection of festival talent entertain and delight in the cosy surrounds of The Carrington, cup of hot chocolate (or whisky) in hand.

Delve deeper into poetry, community and all the ways we rise to a moment, with Wiradjuri poet Jazz Money, in conversation with award-winning Bundjalung illustrator, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis.

Witty, warm and reflective, listen to Emily Maguire, Tony Birch and Siang Lu explore opportunity and trust, sharing personal stories of risk and connection in the Scenic World Skyway, hosted by festival director Maeve Marsden.

Join Benjamin Stevenson for a choose-your-own-adventure crime fiction comedy, suspended perilously across the Jamison Valley with sixty fellow suspects.

In a special festival broadcast live from The Carrington, join ABC Radio Sydney’s Richard Glover for all the fun and unpredictability of the infamous TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday!).

Welcome Nardi Simpson as this year’s keynote speaker for The Mick Dark Talk for the Future, an annual address on the environment that honours the legacy of Mick Dark, who in 1989 bequeathed Varuna the National Writers’ House to the writers of Australia.

A Line in the Sand brings together over 80 pieces from our leading poets and public figures in a retrospective that covers twenty years of contemporary Australian poetry.

The Writers in the Sky event is held at Scenic World, Katoomba. Included as part of a gold pass, attendees choose from one of three separate 25-minute performance events in the cableway during this time: Outspoken with Madison Godfrey, Reconnecting with Stories or The Biggest Risk You Ever Took.

In this national storytelling event led by Maeve Marsden, LGBTQI+ storytellers share a tale from their lives, shining small lights into the magnificence of the queer community.

In a special Festival broadcast live from The Carrington in Katoomba, join ABC Radio Sydney’s Richard Glover for all the fun and unpredictability of the infamous TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday!).

You can’t miss this one! Join the energy of green-fingered Costa as he shines light on our planet’s future and what we can do to feed the Earth that has sustained us for so long.

Join this national storytelling event led by Maeve Marsden, in which LGBTQI+ storytellers share a tale from their lives, shining small windows into the magnificence of the queer community.

Ready to concoct a murder mystery while perched in a cable car? Enjoy the ride with ABC Radio Sydney host James Valentine and crime writer genius Chris Hammer.

Listen to storyteller and musician Nardi Simpson, along with ABC Radio Sydney host James Valentine, while suspended in a cable car over the Jamieson Valley.

In a live therapy session, guests tell host Rebecca Huntley and Sarah Macdonald about when life got so bad it got funny.

In a special Festival broadcast live from The Carrington in Katoomba, join ABC Radio Sydney’s Richard Glover for all the fun and unpredictability of the infamous TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday!). Laugh alongside a star-studded line-up featuring Colin Buchanan, Tommy Dean, Angela Lavoipierre, singer songwriter Phil Davidson and all the hilarity of the infamous Wheel of Death. At 6pm, Richard interviews three of the festival’s beloved writers.