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Discover our exciting Author Talk Program with visiting authors inspiring your reading and writing:

Writing and Author Events in 2025:

 

2025 Annual Banjo Paterson Writing Awards Entries Winners

The winners in the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards are:

Shelly Kelly, from Queensland for the Short Story Kumori and the Day of a Thousand Feelings. The story gives a deep insight into a neuro divergent world with originality and powerful expression. 

The Contemporary Poetry section was won by David Judge, from Victorica, for his poem Soul Search about a range of reflections on moving away and coming back to a long departed rural home.  It addresses issues – friendship lost, the end of the boom years and economic decline, the loss of services such as banks and medical care, and lost young love. David also won in 2022 and 2024. 

For the Children’s Award we had the unusual case of the same winner for the Third and Second Prizes. Both prizes were won by James Davies, of Sydney, for his poem Glitchwood about a technology-driven fake, and the poem Dandelion in the Wind featuring an alternative view of a plant. 

The winner was Ebony Inman, from the Central West, for the short story The Coward’s Peace. A deeply moving story about war. The first scene is a dramatically described firing squad, and then a flashback that explains why a military man is tried for cowardice with evocative language and literary skill. And readers can make up their own minds if the man should’ve been tried or not.  

Congratulations to all who entered the awards. We had a record number of entries. Thank you too – to our wonderful judges who had the challenging task of selecting the winners. 

Please note the winning entries can be viewed on the Recollect website – a place to share history, heritage and stories of the Central West: www.recollect.net.au

How to be a Good Enough Kid by Alice Peel

How to be a good enough kid is the book children, parents and teachers have been waiting for….

Author Alice Peel is the co-founder of Grow Your Mind – a ground breaking wellbeing program in over 500 Australian schools that helps children develop resilience, emotional regulation, and friendship skills.

With humour, research and quirky comics and pop-out illustrations by Beck Feiner, Peel presents fascinating brain facts, inspiring stories and ‘non-painful’ tips on practising a plethora of wellbeing strategies. These include gratitude, moving your body, replacing screen time for green time, and extending kindness outside your immediate circle.

The book encourages readers to embrace imperfections, celebrate kindness, and go forth into the world ready to be a proud glimmer-seeking, awe-hunting and totally good-enough kid.

According to Beyond Blue, half of all serious mental health issues begin before a child reaches 14 years of age. Alice Peel and her Grow Your Mind co-founder Kristina Freeman, believe that teaching young children about mental wellbeing early is one key way we can play a proactive role in setting up a life of enduring good mental health.

Meet author Alice Peel at Orange City Library on Tuesday 12 August at 4.30pm for a fun children’s activity and chat about this mental health and wellbeing book.

The afternoon is being supported by Collins Booksellers, Orange and copies of How to be a good enough kid will be available for sales and signings on the day.

Please book your spot here

Save the Date for these fantastic author events coming up:

About Kelly Rimmer

Kelly Rimmer is the author of historical and contemporary fiction, including The Warsaw Orphan, The Things We Cannot Say and The Secret Daughter, with 3 million books sold. Her stories have been translated into dozens of languages and have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Since 2022, Kelly has owned and operated Collins Booksellers Orange. Her fourteenth novel, The Midnight Estate, has just been published.

Then

  • Friendships by Beckie Plant, children’s book, Saturday 20 September at 2pm, Orange City Library
  • Fiona McIntosh launches The Soldier’s Daughter with Collins Booksellers at Orange City Library on Wednesday 15 October at 5.30pm – 7pm 
  • Bestselling author Hugh Mackay launch Just Saying with Collins Booksellers at Orange City Library on Tuesday 25 November at 5.30pm – 7pm, then Cowra Library on Friday 28 November at 10am. 
  • State Library of NSW Big Book Club Chat with Collins Booksellers & Central West Libraries on favourite books and what makes a good Book Club book, followed by a Livestream conversation with three hosts of the State Library’s Friends Book Club – Roanna Gonsalves, Jonty Claypole and Sophie Gee at Orange City Library on Friday 28 November at 5.30pm – 7pm. 

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Thank you to our amazing authors who visited during 2025:

Erika Cramer – Becoming Magnetic

Bill Walsh – Big Bill Mackay

Heather Knight – Poets, Painters and Pioneers: Banjo Paterson’s Remarkable Family

Nicole Alexander – The Limestone Road

Local author Leanne Wood – Under the Cover of Closeness

Matt Murphy – Gold

Ana Scarf – Last of the Cavalrymen: Memoirs of Major General Robert Harley Wordsworth

Orange Readers and Writers Festival:

Kelly Rimmer – Commercial Fiction Writing Workshop

Festival Main Day:

Debra Oswald – One Hundred Years of Betty

Kyra Geddes – The Story Thief

Mark Dapin – Lest

Dr Stephen Gapps – Uprising

Jane Caro – Lyrebird

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Thank you to our incredible authors who visited during 2024:

Craig Semple – The Cop Who Fell to Earth

Alicia Thompson – Writing Workshop: Exercise Your Writing Muscles

Dr Anne Ring – Engaging with Ageing

DT West – A Step Towards Freedom

Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist: The Glass House

Scott Honeysett – Shattered Branches

Local author Brendan Lamerton – Bonded

Ruth and Don Pollack – “In conversation” Suggy’s Men, and Clouds and Sunshine

Andrew Skeoch – Deep Listening to Nature

Local author Seana Smith – going under

Eila Jameson-Avey – Wellworth

Local author Beckie Plant – Children’s book – Bob, Anxiety and Me

Benjamin Stevenson – Everyone this Christmas Has A Secret

Local historian Robert Bartlett – Early Inns, Hotels and Pubs of Orange (now on sale at Gladstone Hotel, Orange Visitor Information Centre, Orange Camera House)

Stella Day Out Orange – Poet and essayist Fiona Wright read from her book The World Was Whole which was shortlisted for the prestigious Stella Prize. Fiona is also the author of Small Acts of Disappearance and poetry collection Knuckled.  in conversation with Stella CEO Fiona Sweet.

Hugh Mackay – The Way We Are

Local author Leesa Ronald – Special Delivery (a fun rom-com set in Orange!)

Lyn Brown – True Confessions from the Hardback Cafe (includes anecdotes about former Angus & Roberston Bookshop, Orange)

Special 2024 author events 

Seniors Week Author Tour with Dr Anne Ring – Engaging With Ageing

Live-streaming Live & Local annual Sydney Writers Festival in May (3rd Year)

Orange Readers and Writers Festival on the first weekend in August with guest authors – ABC TV Compass presenter Indira Naidoo – Space Between the Stars (in conversation with freelance journalist Marianna Saran), Rhys Gard – Four Dogs Missing, Gabbie Stroud – the things that matter most, Ian W. Shaw – The Golden Gang: Bushranger Frank Gardiner and the biggest gold robbery in Australian History (Eugowra Gold Escort), and Rachael Mogan McIntosh – Mothering Heights. Friday Writing/Editing Workshop with local author Kim Kelly: Making Your Writing Shine.

 

Thank you to all our wonderful authors who visited during 2023:

Nat Amoore – The Right Way to Rock

Lisa Ireland – The One and Only Dolly Jamieson

Christine Stewart – Collits’ Inn: Uncovering the Past

Local author 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

Cowra author 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

Local author 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

Local author 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

Local author 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

Local author 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 Live & Local 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.  Sunday Podcast Workshop with Michael Thompson.