The Sydney Writers' Festival (SWF) is an annual literary festival held in Sydney in May, with the inaugural festival taking place in 1997. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

History The festival began in January 1997, with most events initially held at the State Library of New South Wales. The first independent Sydney Writers' Festival ran from 12 to 17 May 1998, with 169 participants appearing in venues in, and around, the centre of Sydney.

Since then, the Festival has rapidly expanded. Events have also been held at venues stretching across Sydney, including Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, and Sydney Opera House. Events are also regularly held in regional and suburban locations including Parramatta, Ashfield, Auburn, Blacktown, Bankstown, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Penrith, Blue Mountains and Wollongong.

The Festival moved from Walsh Bay to Carriageworks in May 2018 (as Walsh Bay was undergoing a major refurbishment).

The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.Sydney Writers’ Festival cancelled for 2020 Mumbrella 17 March 2020

Event Now held mid-to-late May each year, the Festival involves over 400 participants and presents over 300 events. Approximately one-third of all Sydney Writers' Festival events are free of charge. Festival attendances have reached over 90,000 each year since 2007.

Russ the Story Bus is managed by the Sydney Writers Festival, and is part of the event every year.

Committee

Chairs of SWF Past and present chairs of the festival include: 1997–2000: Geraldine Doogue Late 2000–Dec 2011: Sandra Yates Jan 2012–Jan 2018: Deena Shiff Feb 2018– : Mark Scott

Artistic directors Artistic directors for festival years include: 1998: John Nieuwenhuizen, with Meredith Curnow the Program Director. Meredith Curnow became Festival Director for the period *1999–2002: Meredith Curnow 2003–2006: Caro Llewellyn (AD & CEO) 2007-2009: Wendy Were (AD & CEO) 2010–2012: Chip Rolley 2013–2016: Jemma Birrell 2017–2020: Michaela McGuire (appointed November 2016) 2021–2022 : Michael Williams, interim director (since August 2020) 2022–2026 : Ann Mossop 2026– : Tamara Zimet

Executive directors 2009–2014: Ben Strout 2015: Jo Dyer ED from 2015; promoted to CEO in November 2016, when she also joined the Festival board of directors. 2018–2021: Chrissy Sharp, CEO 2021– Brooke Webb

Past international guests Past guests have included: 1999 – Alan Duff, and Peter Porter 2002 – Jodi Picoult, Lloyd Jones, Giles Milton and Neil Hanson 2003 – Antony Beevor, Jonathan Franzen, Catherine Millet, Janette Turner Hospital, Nicholas Shakespeare, and CK Stead 2004 – Alan Bennett, Alain de Botton, Hilary Mantel, Tim Krabbe, Susanna Moore, Jane Campion, Louis de Bernières, Salam Pax, John W. Dean, Harvey Pekar, Alexei Sayle, ZZ Packer, and David Sedaris 2005 – Lewis Lapham, Alan Hollinghurst, Deirdre Bair, Professor Harold Bloom, Tariq Ali, David Suzuki, Jared Diamond, Suad Amiry, Michael Winter, Colin McAdam and Miriam Toews 2006 – Naomi Wolf, Anna Politkovskaya, Michael Burleigh, Andy Borowitz, Susan Orlean, Aleksandar Hemon, Hendrik Hertzberg, Mark Danner, Haifa Zangana, John Banville, Edmund White, and Maya Angelou 2007 – Andrew O'Hagan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bei Dao, Will Hutton, Antony Beevor, William Dalyrmple, Lionel Shriver, Richard Ford, Andrei Makine, Rachel Seiffert, Mohsin Hamid and Steven Hall 2008 – Jon Lee Anderson, Andrew J. Bacevich, Michael Pollan, John Gray, and Jeanette Winterson 2009 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alex Ross, and Kazuo Ishiguro 2010 – John Carey, Colm Tóibín, Lionel Shriver, Yiyun Li, John Ralston Saul, Bill McKibben, and Raj Patel 2011 – Ingrid Betancourt, Howard Jacobson, A. A. Gill, Anthony Bourdain, Téa Obreht, Izzeldin Abuelaish, Kei Miller, Kader Abdolah, Michael Cunningham, David Mitchell, AC Grayling, Michael Connelly, Gail Dines, and Daniel Altman 2012 – Hisham Matar, Jeffrey Eugenides, Dava Sobel 2013 – Molly Ringwald, Ruby Wax, Claire Messud 2014 – Irvine Welsh, Vince Gilligan, Alice Walker 2015 – Michael Connelly, Anthony Horowitz, Douglas Coupland, Norman Doidge, Alan Cumming, Atul Gawande, David Walliams, Michael Frayn, James Patterson (out of season event) 2016 – Gloria Steinem, Jonathan Franzen, Marlon James, Julian Barnes, William Boyd, Jeanette Winterson, Kae Tempest, Yanis Varoufakis, Hanya Yanagihara, Paul Muldoon, Yeonmi Park 2017 – Anne Enright, Henry Marsh, Ian Rankin, George Saunders, A. N. Wilson 2018 – André Aciman, Min Jin Lee, Alexis Okeowo, Masha Gessen, Jennifer Egan, Tayari Jones 2019 – Fatima Bhutto, Rachel Kushner, Susan Orlean, George Saunders, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Meg Wolitzer, Akala, Andrew Sean Greer, Alexander Chee

Past local guests 1997 – Robert Dessaix, Andrew McGahan, Matthew Condon, Bernard Cohen, Christos Tsiolkas, Gillian Mears 2001 – Lee Tulloch 2002 – Geoffrey Atherden, Bernard Cohen 2003 – Sonya Hartnett, David Malouf, Danny Katz, Louis Nowra 2005 – Bob Carr and John Kinsella 2006 – Alex Miller, Robert Drewe, Kate Grenville, Les Murray, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Peter Singer, Tim Flannery, Gail Jones 2007 – Raimond Gaita 2008 – Mem Fox, Peter van Onselen, Michelle de Kretser, Gail Jones, Drusilla Modjeska 2009 – Elizabeth Farrelly 2010 – Peter Carey, Les Murray, Alex Miller, Ross Garnaut, Clive Hamilton 2011 – Suelette Dreyfus, Annette Shun Wah, David Hicks 2012 – Kathy Lette 2013 – Brendan Cowell, Elizabeth Farrelly, Claudia Karvan, 2014 – Christos Tsiolkas, Michelle de Kretser, Robert Dessaix 2015 – Richard Flanagan, Annabel Crabb, Leigh Sales, Helen Garner, David Malouf, Les Murray, Andy Griffiths, Julia Gillard 2016 – Elizabeth Harrower, Anna Funder, Magda Szubanski, Stan Grant, Kerry O'Brien, Bob Brown, Charlotte Wood 2017 – Julia Baird, Jimmy Barnes, Peter Corris, Clementine Ford, Liane Moriarty 2018 – Michelle de Kretser, Jane Harper, Helen Garner, Christos Tsiolkas, Julia Gillard 2019 2021- Melissa Lucashenko, Tara June Winch, Evelyn Araluen (Opening Night) 2022 2023 - Alexis Wright, Patrick Abboud, Thomas Hedley, Kate McClymont, Ghassan Hage

Closing address 2011 James Gleick 'Perish the thought' 2012 Dava Sobel 2013 Claire Messud 2014 Emma Donoghue 2015 Helen Macdonald 2016 Hanya Yanagihara 2017 Susan Faludi 2018 Jennifer Egan 2019 Fatima Bhutto 2020 2021 2022 2023 Richard Flanagan

Organisational structure The festival is led by CEO Brooke Webb and programmed by the Artistic Director, Ann Mossop. Sydney Writers' Festival Limited is a not-for-profit company with an independent board of directors.

See also List of festivals in Australia New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Man Booker International Prize – 2011 Sydney Writers Walk

References

External links Official Sydney Writers' Festival Site Sydney Writers' Festival – Katoomba Program