The much-anticipated  Manly Writers’ Festival 2025  returns for its second year, promising three days of engaging discussions, powerful storytelling, and creative inspiration from  Friday, March 28, to Sunday, March 30 .   With over  125 writers, journalists, academics, and creators  across more than  50 events , this year’s festival expands on its debut success, offering a vibrant program designed to spark curiosity and inspire change.   From social media and AI to memoirs, politics, sports, and historical fiction, the festival caters to diverse interests and passions.   Festival Founder and Director Bonita Mersiades said, “We are thrilled to bring together such an incredible array of talent for this year’s festival. We hope that the festival helps connect people and ignites meaningful conversations through reading, writing and ideas.”   Highlights of the Program Include:   Opening Night Book Launch : Join award-winning writer  Blanche d’Alpuget  as she unveils her latest novel,  The Bunny Club , in a special event at  Manly Spirits Distillery , complete with themed cocktails and an antipasto platter. Author Talks : One-on-one author talks with authors Heather Morris , Peter FitzSimons , Jane Caro , Debra Oswald and Lech Blaine . Trailblazing Discussions : Notable names like  Damian Collins OBE  and  Julie Inman-Grant  will explore pressing issues like AI, social media, and online safety, providing invaluable insights for parents and educators. Fundraising Trivia Night : A charity literary trivia evening at  Manly Surf Life Saving Club  will support the Northern Beaches Community Cancer Charity ( NBCCC ). Conversation Circle : Geraldine Doogue will host a discussion on Navigating the Shifting Global Order with Geoff Raby, Dennis Glover, Don Watson and Collins. Sunday Sessions at Manly Golf Club : Dive into the rich cultural tapestry of Australian music and sport, capped off by an evocative  Chairman’s Lounge  experience with celebrated journalist  Joe Aston .   Additionally, the festival includes a  Schools Program , which empowers young minds with news literacy skills that help them separate fact from fiction. The program is guided by Gavin Fang and Tracey Kirkland from the ABC, Kim Smee from the Manly Observer, and Jill Valentine , author and communications executive.   Attendees will also be able to discover the latest in contemporary fiction, biography, and true crime and fictional crime from emerging, local, and celebrated authors.   The festival is proudly supported by the TAG Family Foundation, Northern Beaches Council, Fair Play Publishing, Hennessy Coffee, and Aide de MD and has Gleebooks as its official bookseller.   View the program, authors, and hosts online; or download the program here.

Our two-and-a-big day gathering of storytelling, writing, and ideas in beautiful Manly runs from Thursday 14 March to Saturday 16 March 2024.   More than 70 writers, academics, journalists, publishers, thinkers and creators will appear across more than 35 events in our venues in Manly and Brookvale.      Australians love a good yarn and to have a chat. It follows that we also love our literary events, of which there are many, and none more so than the biggest and most celebrated of the lot – the Sydney Writers’ Festival held in May each year.   So why Manly?   Some writers – some of whom put in literally decades of research into their book – do not always get an opportunity to talk about their work at literary festivals. That is especially the case from the bigger and more established writers’ festivals. There are also many writers on the Northern Beaches who similarly don’t get an opportunity to talk about their work. They include both fiction and non-fiction writers.   In addition, while many associate Manly with - and residents love the area because of -  the beach and the “best commute in the world” (aka the Manly Ferry), Manly and the Northern Beaches has a creative life which is evidenced by the writers, musicians, galleries, theatres, and entertainment around.   So instead we asked: why not Manly?   Our hope is to make the Manly Writers’ Festival an annual gathering as a beacon for literary activities for the entire community.   We want to bring readers, writers, and thinkers together. We want to host discussions that energise, inform, and inspire; they may be issues you disagree with, but nonethless we see informed, respectful, and vigorous interchange as key to the type of community and society we want to nurture and cherish.   We trust you find the program for the inaugural Manly Writers’ Festival has something of interest for you, and that you look forward to being energised, informed and inspired.   Some of the Northern Beaches’ and Australia’s finest thinkers, writers, and journalists are coming to Manly…and they want to have a chat.   We hope you will join them!

With two weeks to go, we’re delighted to share with you the Manly Writers’ Festival App . To download it to your smartphone or other device, head to here , find the instruction toward the lower left of your screen to ‘Get Mobile App’, and once downloaded to your device, choose to add the App to your home screen. ( These instructions may differ slightly depending on how you’re reading this) . The App includes information on the program, where each session will be held, the authors, writers, and hosts, and other bits-and-pieces of information. If something changes with the program or the line-up of storytelling talent at the inaugural festival, we’ll let you know through the App also. We hope you are as excited as we are to experience the extraordinary power of storytelling at the Manly Writers’ Festival! 📚 Check out the program , meet the authors in a relaxed, accessible, friendly, and intimate environment, and help us begin a new chapter in Manly’s cultural life. A reminder that tickets for the general sessions are $20, while Special Events range from $30-$75. Tickets are available exclusively via this website. You can buy tickets  here. Any profits from ticket sales will be shared between the festival’s two charity partners, the Literacy for Life Foundation , an Aboriginal-led adult literacy charity, and the Northern Beaches Community Cancer Charity  which helps people living with cancer on the Northern Beaches.

A Booker Prize winner and one of Australia’s leading investigative journalists will be headline guests at the inaugural Manly Writers’ Festival to be held in March next year. Author and playwright Thomas Keneally, AO  is an Australian living treasure who has written novels, non-fiction, essays and plays in a writing career spanning 60 years. He has won multiple awards including the prestigious Booker Prize for Schindler’s Ark  and is a four-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award. His most recent works include a novel, Fanatic Hart , and a memoir titled A Bloody Good Rant: My Passions, Memories and Demons , both published last year. Keneally will be the special guest at An Evening with Thomas Keneally as part of the festival. Journalist and author Nick McKenzie  is a multiple Walkley-award winning journalist who works for Nine Entertainment and has also presented major investigations for Nine’s 60 Minutes and the ABC’s Four Corners and 7.30 Report. McKenzie’s expertise spans defence, national security, corporate malfeasance, foreign affairs, and organised crime and corruption. His work has sparked many national and state inquiries, Royal Commissions and Parliamentary inquiries leading to significant legislative change. Earlier this year, he published Crossing the Line – the Inside Story of Murder, Lies and a Fallen Hero , a book on the investigation into the war crimes of Ben Roberts-Smith. Keneally and McKenzie are among the authors, journalists and writers who will take part in the first-of-its-kind festival for Manly, which will also include children’s and schools’ programs. The theme of the festival is Connecting through Storytelling  and aims to bring together readers, writers, and thinkers for discussion on big and small issues. The festival’s founder and Northern Beaches writer and publisher, Bonita Mersiades, says the event aims to celebrate Manly’s cultural side. “Manly is a destination point in Sydney that is best known for the beach and the ferry, but there is an active cultural component here with many high-profile and hidden gem authors and writers,” said Ms Mersiades. “We especially want to give writers who are not-so-well known an opportunity to talk about their work, as well as discuss big and small issues of interest to the community.” As well as Keneally’s body of work and McKenzie’s Crossing the Line , the festival will canvass books on issues as diverse as trust, kindness, grief, crime, history, politics, and sport. The children’s program will include a reading from a book about courage and responsibility, while the schools’ program will include a workshop on tools to help the creative writing process. The festival will also include one-on-one conversations and panel discussions. Other authors and speakers will be announced over coming months with the full program including venues to be published in early 2024. All profits from the sale of tickets to the Manly Writers’ Festival will be shared between the Aboriginal-led Literacy for Life Foundation  and local community cancer charity, Northern Beaches Community Cancer Charity . Interested readers are encouraged to keep up to date by registering at www.manlywritersfestival.com.au  or by following the Manly Writers’ Festival on Twitter (@ManlyWriters), Instagram and Facebook (@manlywritersfestival). The festival is proudly supported by the Northern Beaches Council and local Northern Beaches publishing house, Fair Play Publishing, of which Mersiades is publisher.