Discover our exciting Author Talk Program with visiting authors inspiring your reading and writing:
Enjoy the Sydney Writers Festival: Livestream & Local at Orange Regional Gallery:
Thursday 23 – Sunday 26 May
One of Australia’s most loved forum for literature, ideas and storytelling – the Sydney Writers’ Festival – will live-stream its headline events from Sydney to Orange on Thursday 23, Friday 24, Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May! Here is the full-livestream Orange program.
After the success of Live & Local in 2023, Sydney Writers’ Festival returns to Orange Regional Gallery Theatre for a THIRD BIG year, hosted by Orange City Library, in 2024 to bring the best of the Festival direct to you!! Prepare to be invigorated and engaged by conversations, debates and discussions featuring some of the world’s finest writers and thinkers. Audiences can also participate in live Q&A sessions at each event, sending questions straight to the Sydney stage.
Join us for Livestream & Local 2024, streamed live by Sydney Writers’ Festival and delivered locally to Orange. Author sessions to be livestreamed include: Julia Baird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen, Suzie Miller, Julian Borger, Philosopher A.C. Grayling, Nobel Prize winner for literature Abdulrazak Gurnah, Celeste Ng, Trent Dalton, Leigh Sales and Lisa Millar, Katy Hessel, Barrie Cassidy, Chloe Dalton, David Wengrow and Antony Lowenstein. We cannot express to you enough how incredible all these authors are!!! They are all amazing!
Please book your spot early to avoid disappointment. For the past two years the most popular session was Barrie Cassidy’s State of the Nation panel sessions about Australian Politics – it is not to be missed. This year we are thinking it will be a tie between Julia Baird who has written Bright Shining: How grace changes everything, and Trent Dalton with his latest book Lola in the Mirror and also talking about his previous work Boy Swallows Universe. Again, both brilliant Australian authors!
All live-streamed sessions will be free, and screened at the Orange Regional Gallery Theatre, 149 Byng Street, Orange. Bookings are now open online via eventbrite with details about each session including well-known hosts. There will be a break-out area next door in the West Room on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am – 4pm, where guests can enjoy refreshments.
Please do not bring coffee, drinks or food into the Gallery as there are art exhibitions on show. And we know plans can change, so if you do book a spot and can no longer attend, please contact us on 6393 8132 so the next person on the waiting list can attend. We really appreciate this courtesy – thank you.
Author Andrew Skeoch – Deep Listening to Nature Presentation at Forbes, Blayney and Orange
How can we engage our hearing to connect more deeply to nature around us?
Master nature sound recordist, Andrew Skeoch, will guide you into hearing the languages of nature; developing your auditory awareness, identifying species by ear, recognising behaviours and repertoire, and finding empathy with the voices of other beings. Deeper listening allows us to hear the integrity of entire ecosystems, the influence of evolution and earth time, and reveal what the communications of the biosphere tell us about how nature functions to achieve sustainability.
Andrew’s presentations are accompanied by vibrant recordings and spectrogram analysis that shows the beauty of birdsong. You’ll hear the environment around you in a whole new way.
Andrew Skeoch is a naturalist, sound recordist, environmental thinker and author of Deep Listening to Nature.
Over the last thirty years, he has documenting the sounds of environments around the planet, and through his label ‘Listening Earth’, published over one hundred recordings allowing listeners to immerse themselves in wild soundscapes from around the world.
His recordings have been heard in documentaries, installations and feature films such as Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack to Rabbit Proof Fence.
He has given presentations to audiences ranging from local community and school groups to university students, plus radio features, keynote addresses and a TEDx talk. He is the president of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recoding Group, and on the board of the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology.
Meet Andew at the following libraries:
Forbes Library – Tuesday 11th June at 2pm
Blayney Library – Thursday 13 June at 11am
Orange City Library – Thursday 13 June at 5.30pm – 7pm
Save the Date: Orange Readers and Writers Festival 2024
Join in the 8th Annual Orange Readers and Writers Festival on Saturday 3rd August 2024 – a day-long event including morning tea and lunch – held at the Hotel Canobolas, 248 Summer Street, Orange with a line-up of incredible authors including author, radio host and broadcaster Indira Naidoo author of The Space Between the Stars: On Love, Loss and the Magical Power of Nature to Heal.
A deeply moving and uplifting exploration of the power of nature – to heal the deepest hurts.
Meet Central West crime writer Rhys Gard, author of the successful Four Dogs Missing
Art theft, revenge and murder play out against the Mudgee wine region vineyards in this ‘edge of your seat’ thriller.
Tickets will be available for sale online via eventbrite.com.au in June 2024.
Coming Up in November
* Benjamin Stevenson
* Fleur McDonald
*****
Thank you to all our wonderful authors who visited during the 2023:
Nat Amoore – The Right Way to Rock
Lisa Ireland – The One and Only Dolly Jamieson
Christine Stewart – Collits’ Inn: Uncovering the Past
Seana Smith – The Australian Autism Handbook
Inga Simpson – Willowman
Rachael Mogan McIntosh – Pardon My French – Library UpLate event
Maggie Mackellar – graft
Dianne Yarwood – The Wakes
Harold Treasure – King’s Spur – “in conversation” with Reading and Writing Coordinator Jasmine Vidler
Claudia Harrison – Dinner First
Kate Gadsby – Convicts, Capitalists and Corruption – Research and Maps Talk to celebrate Orange Family History Group’s 40th anniversary
Colin Bower and Richard Medd – Orchids of Central Western NSW
Beckie Plant – children’s art book Amazing Like You
Sallyanne Pisk – Eating For You
Greg Mutton – 12th Realm – Sci-Fi series
Kamille Roach – former Banjo Paterson Writing Awards winner launched crime novel Pine Creek set in the Central West
Dirty Janes duo Athol Salter and Jane Crowley – launched Beeswax and Tall Tales
Judy Nunn – Black Sheep
Penelope Janu and Pamela Cook – A Country Vet Christmas
Amanda Hampson – The Tea Ladies and The Cryptic Clue
Dr Gregory Smith – Better Than Happiness: The True Antidote to Discontent
Hannah Diviney – I’ll Let Myself In
Hayley Rawsthorne shared her debut children’s book – These Little Feet – at Storytime
Stuart Lloyd – Started Out Drinking Beer – The Mental As Anything Story – “in conversation” with drummer David ‘Bird’ Twohill
David Marr – Killing For Country: A Family Story – “in conversation” with Orange City Librarian Sean Brady
Kim Kelly – Ladies Rest and Writing Room co-winner of the Finlay Lloyd 20/40 Novella Publishing Prize
Special 2023 Author Events:
Touring Kids One Library One Book author Nat Amoore with The Right Way to Rock
Touring Adults One Library One Book community read – Dianne Yarwood with The Wakes
Live-streaming annual Sydney Writers Festival in May (2nd Year)
Orange Readers and Writers Festival on the first weekend in August with guest authors – Grantlee Kieza – The Remarkable Mrs Reiby, and Knockout, Yvonne Weldon- Sixty-Seven Days, Adam Courtenay – Mr Todd’s Marvel, Michael Thompson – How to be Remembered and Kim Kelly – The Rat Catcher.