Entertainment
4 February, 2024
Stories will fascinate fans
ATTRACTING thousands of storytelling fanatics to Cairns, the Cairns Tropical Writers’ Festival is back with a remarkable line-up of over 100 of Australia’s best writers, dozens of workshops and book launches and even a comedy cabaret about endometriosis this March.
After an incredibly successful run in 2023, with over 4114 tickets sold and 120 speakers across the three days, the Cairns Tropical Writers’ Festival is looking to outdo itself in 2024 launching the theme “True lies” which explores fake news and misinformation across three days of storytelling bliss from March 8-10.
Crystalbrook Flynn will be the hub of the festival with most events taking place there, some workshops at the Cairns City Library and the awaited Endo Days cabaret at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre.
Festival director Jules Steer said this year a line-up of over 100 amazing writers and storytellers would honour Cairns with their presence, including a headlining poet from New York.
“We have some fantastic talent coming, we have over 100 authors and storytellers participating, we’ll have 10 local authors launching their books, about 16 workshops with everything from writing, illustrating and the business of publishing,” she said.
“The line-up includes some fantastic names like Julia Baird, the anchor for ABC Lisa Miller, Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons, we’ll have Hedley Thomas from the Teacher’s Pet podcast, Chris Hammer who’s had two of his books become Netflix movies and more.
“We’ll have some fantastic panels curated including a true crime panel, lots of First Nation authors and we have an amazing line up of local authors like Kerstin Pilz, Caroline de Costa a very well-known author, we have ARC Disability Services, they’re called the ARC creatives and six of them have written children’s books, and Debra Gavranich writer of The Girl Who Left.
“And on Friday night, March 8, on International Women’s Day we’ll have a fantastic event with Endo Days and hilarious cabaret on endometriosis at CPAC.”
Ms Steer called on the Far North’s bibliophiles and storytellers to harness the excitement of the growing festival.
“The Cairns Tropical Writers’ Festival celebrates storytelling in all its forms, we’ve got workshops and panels on how storytelling is presented in film, poetry, hip hop, slam poetry, music, comedy, there’s something for everybody,” she said.
“This is a wet season event that has great traction across Australia with storytellers from across Australia and as far as New York coming to Cairns for the festival and we want to cement our festival among the international writers festivals so come along.”
More information and ticket are available at https://ctwf.com.au/
