Tickets are on sale for the Northern Territory Writers Festival, which returns to Darwin in 2024 with an exciting line up of talks, performances, immersive events and workshops.
This year’s big celebration of words from 27-30 June will be held at the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT (MAGNT) in Darwin on lush Larrakia land and gathers storytellers of all kinds to explore the theme of reverberations.
With a brilliant line-up of over 100 artists, this year’s festival is a literary gathering guaranteed to expand minds, nourish the soul, entertain and engage.
The NT Writers Festival is a four-day festival that emphasises the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity, bringing people together to share story, language and culture.
It is unique in that it alternates between the Top End and the Red Centre every second year, allowing writers and book lovers across the Territory to engage and connect.
This year’s festival invites exceptional writers from around the country, including Charlotte Wood, Benjamin Law and Tyson Yunkaporta, to join local poets, storytellers, historians and wordsmiths.
Several talks and workshops will explore memory, both personal and collective, and the legacies of the past. A special feature event at Fannie Bay Gaol brings historians and artists together to share some of the stories that comprise the history of that place.
In a separate panel discussion, local historians Richard Creswick and Derek Pugh OAM discuss their new oral history, Tracy – 50 Years, 50 Stories, with Curator of Territory History at MAGNT, Jared Archibald, ahead of the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy later this year.
Another engaging panel features Burruberongal novelist of the Darug Aboriginal Nation, Julie Janson, discussing her latest historical novel, Compassion, with historian of the colonial frontier, Dr Robyn Smith.
In a first for the festival, there will be a number of guest curators, including Djapu poet, performer and spoken word artists Melanie Mununggurr, Australian writer, radio and TV presenter Marieke Hardy and award-winning poet and spoken word performer Emilie Zoey Baker.
To buy tickets, find out more information and download your free program visit [https://www.ntwriters.com.au]
Quotes from NTMEC CEO Suzana Bishop:
“This year’s festival is a wonderful opportunity for readers, writers and lovers of stories across the Territory to meet and allow the words of a diverse range of writers, poets and historians and storytellers to challenge our minds, connecting and inspiring us all
“It is important to recognise the role and contribution arts make to the broader economy in the Territory to local businesses, visitation and liveability.”
Quotes from NT Writers Festival Artistic Director Rita Horanyi:
“This year’s festival theme is a timely one, asking us to pay attention to the reverberations of the past, thereby helping us to understand the present moment. But the theme also asks us to look forward, to consider the impacts our actions have on the world and on future generations. To do that, we need to think about ourselves and the world relationally, to see how we are all interconnected.
“Writer’s festivals are places where words reverberate – ideas are exchanged, stories are shared, perspectives aired. The words we hear at a writers’ festival can echo in our minds long after the sessions have ended, connecting and inspiring us.
“It’s very exciting to have exceptional writers from around the country, such as Charlotte Wood, Benjamin Law and Tyson Yunkaporta, joining us in Darwin for this year’s NT Writers Festival.”
