Lucy Sussex discussing her book Outrageous Fortunes (co-authored with Megan Brown)

Lucy Sussex discussing her book Outrageous Fortunes (co-authored with Megan Brown)

For a taste of what’s to come, kick off your festival experience with the ABC Radio Outside Broadcast!

Every book you buy helps feed people in our community, supporting Bendigo Foodshare’s mission to fight food insecurity across Central Victora

Schools Day: Come along to see and hear how Matt Stanton creates his uniquely quirky, cackle-inducing tales.

Schools Day: Three of Australia's best known and busiest illustrators share their tips, tricks and techniques for creating illustrations.

Schools Day: Steven Herrick will read poems, tell stories and everyone will be sure to have a ton of fun.

Schools Day: Aunty Munya Andrews will introduce students to the six seasons on her country and teach tips for how best to survive in the bush.

Helly Raichura discussing her book The Food of Bharat

Schools Day: The stories and research behind Felice Arena's acclaimed historical fiction novels

Schools Day: Steven Herrick and Robbie Coburn will talk to Pip Harry about the joys and challenges of writing in verse.

Schools Day: Three of Australia's best known and busiest illustrators share their tips, tricks and techniques for creating illustrations.

Schools Day: Pip Harry will speak about the extraordinary backstory behind Drift and delve into how personal experiences can inspire and shape the stories we share with others.

Four leading thinkers and activists from all corners of Australia offer fresh possibilities for our collective future.

Chin Chin Dinner and in conversation between Chin Chin's Benjamin Cooper and Michelle Symes.

Every book you buy helps feed people in our community, supporting Bendigo Foodshare’s mission to fight food insecurity across Central Victoria

Bookish is Bendigo's local independent bookshop and will run the Bendigo Writers Festival bookshop during the festival.

Local Stories Lounge begins with a performance from local singer/songwriter Ryan McPartlane

An interactive session featuring Felice Arena's joyous books PASTA!, CHEESE! and My BIG SECRET…

Cities of Literature Book Club: Guests will explore how at the core of the collection are tenets to hold on to.

Russell Holdaway delves into themes of grief, friendship, family, and loneliness, but above all, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

Disappearances. Secrets. Escapes. Flights of fancy. Hidden histories and historical mysteries. Through fact and fiction, three authors bring us a spectacular cast of spirited women.

Come along to meet Ita Mehrotra and create comics and zines that bring together the personal and political, through image and word.

Panelists discuss why it is important to be highlighting native ingredients, the beauty and unique nature of indigenous food and the broader health benefits to country and community.

Juno Harvey has written seven cosy crime stories set in the fictional town of Mulbury, where the bodies keep piling up.

Join Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng for a fun-filled, hands-on creating and making session.

Join Jaclyn Crupi and Julie as they discuss the complex world of cookbook publishing; from who owns a recipe to what a good pitch looks like.

What do golf balls, language revitalisation and radical acts of diplomacy have in common? They have all happened – and are still happening! – on country. Unceded sovereign country.

Cities of Literature Book Club: Join Bonny Cassidy and Paul Daley as they discuss the evocative, witty and technically daring novel of small-town life.

Grace and Di will explore what it means to write about the Chinese diaspora and read from their works.

Join the creator of the best-selling book series Fluff, Funny Kid, Bored and The Odds, Matt Stanton for a hilarious writing and drawing workshop.

Richard Denniss & Satyajit Das with Sally Warhaft

Cities of Literature Book Club: Winner of France’s Marquis de Sade Prize, this wildly imaginative story of justice, passion, and murderous revenge will be the catalyst for a great conversation between host Tara Calaby and Sam Elkin.

Cities of Literature Book Club: Madison Griffiths and Sonia Orchard gather to discuss the profound legacy left behind by the young writer.

Michael Leach will read a selection of his health poems, and preface each reading with information on process and inspiration.

Ben Shewry speaks with Michelle Symes, Curator of Bendigo Writers Festival City of Gastronomy sessions.

Join Katrina Nannestad, author of The Travelling Bookshop series as she talks about how the right book might just change your life.

Mary Pomfret is a writer whose creative work and poetry has been published in newspapers, magazines, literary journals and anthologies.

Join three acclaimed writers as they confront the ongoing legacies of violence and racism through their fiction and creative biography.

Join Alla Wolf-Tasker AM, Shannon Martinez and Benjamin Cooper as they discuss how our tastes and preferences have changed over time and how that impacts the choices chefs make when designing menus and opening restaurants.

Cities of Literature Book Club: Carlos Ruiz Zafon's much-loved bestseller Shadow of the Wind is a mesmerising love story and literary thriller. Kate Mildenhall and Nathan Curnow come together to discuss this thought-provoking read.

Every book you buy helps feed people in our community, supporting Bendigo Foodshare’s mission to fight food insecurity across Central Victoria

Bookish is Bendigo's local independent bookshop and will run the Bendigo Writers Festival bookshop during the festival.

Sunday's Local Stories Lounge commences with music by Tara Muscatello, a singer, songwriter, rapper and guitarist.

Join Alice Pung and Sher Rill Ng for a fun-filled, hands-on creating and making session.

Join panellists Helly Raichura, Shannon Martinez and Jennifer Wong, alongside moderator Jaclyn Crupi as they grapple with the impact their childhood food memories have had on their lives.

Bigger Than My Body is more than a brave, honest account of every parents’ worst nightmare. It holds a message for everyone stuck in desperation and drowning in despair: Take heart. You’ll be ok. You too can process grief in your own way and learn to love life again.

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.

How do you rebuild a life after the death of a much loved one? What brings solace, peace and maybe even pleasure as the living are left to carry on? A new lover? A pub? A rabbit?

Cities of Literature Book Club: Hosted by Bernard Caleo, Sarah Firth and Rachel Ang through a discussion on graphic novels and the power of the artform to change a climate crisis.

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.

Join Lucinda Gifford for a workshop to learn how to craft crazy, cute and eye-catching characters.

Many of Australia’s most iconic places wouldn’t exist without women, but chances are, you’ve never heard their names.

Cities of Literature Book Club: Host Kelly Gardiner talks with Fiona Hardy and Jock Serong about justice, redemption and the blurred lines between right and wrong.

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

Join journalist Lucie Morris-Marr, author of Processed: How the processed meat industry is killing us with the food we love as she talks through her cancer battle and what she's learned about our love affair with processed meats.

In this session we ask the questions: how have we allowed this crisis to happen? And what will it take to fix it?

Join Chris Kennett for a fun-filled session where you’ll help Chris invent a book character and watch as that character comes to life.

In this session Penny Davies and Beverley Amy will discuss the value of writing groups, together with the advantages and opportunities offered to attendees at Bendigo Writers Council's monthly workshops.

In a seemingly fact-free world, what is the value of evidence? Is there advantage in uncertainty? How to weigh up the argument: on data or opinion? Intellect or intuition? And by what authority is vested the algorithm?

In this performance/reading/happening, Amanda and Dave will take you into poetic spaces and open the windows to let in the breeze.

Jeanine Leane, a Wiradjeri writer, poet, essayist, critic, academic and activist talks with Claire G Coleman, and Robert Dessaix, a writer, translator and broadcaster speaks with Clare Wright in this contemplative reflection on his writing.