Sydney Writers' Festival is an annual literary festival held in the Australian city of Sydney. The Festival's artistic director is Michaela McGuire.
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 12-17 May 1998, with 169 participants appearing in venues in, and around, the centre of Sydney.
Since then, the festival has rapidly expanded. Held mid-to-late May each year, the festival now involves over 400 participants and presents over 300 events in renovated piers in Walsh Bay, Sydney. Other festival locations include Sydney 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, the Blue Mountains, and Wollongong.
Approximately one third of all Sydney Writers' Festival events are free of charge. Festival attendances have reached over 80,000 each year since 2007.
Sydney Writers' Festival Limited is a not-for-profit company with an independent board of directors. The inaugural Chair of the Festival was Geraldine Doogue, who held the position for three years. Sandra Yates AO became Chair in late 2000, retiring on 31 December 2011. Deena Shiff became Chair on 1 January 2012. The Festival Director in 1998 was John Nieuwenhuizen, with Meredith Curnow the Program Director. Meredith Curnow became Festival Director for the period 1999-2002. Caro Llewellyn was Artistic Director and Chief Executive from 2003-2006. Wendy Were was Artistic Director and CEO for the three festivals, from 2007-2009. Chip Rolley became the festival's Artistic Director in the middle of 2009, programming the 2010, 2011 and 2012 festivals. Jemma Birrell was the festival's Artistic Director for the four festivals 2013-2016. In 2016, Michaela McGuire was appointed as the festival's new Artistic Director. Ben Strout was the festival's Executive Director from 2009-2014. The festival appointed Jo Dyer as Executive Director in 2015; she was promoted to CEO in November 2016 and also joined the board of directors.
Past guests have included:
1999 – Alan Duff, and Peter Porter2002 – Jodi Picoult, Lloyd Jones, Giles Milton and Neil Hanson2003 – Antony Beevor, Jonathan Franzen, Catherine Millet, Janette Turner Hospital, Nicholas Shakespeare, and CK Stead2004 – 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 Sedaris2005 – Lewis Lapham, Alan Hollinghurst, Deirdre Bair, Professor Harold Bloom, Tariq Ali, David Suzuki, Jared Diamond, Suad Amiry, Michael Winter, Colin McAdam and Miriam Toews2006 – Naomi Wolf, Anna Politkovskaya, Michael Burleigh, Andy Borowitz, Susan Orlean, Aleksandar Hemon, Hendrik Hertzberg, Mark Danner, Haifa Zangana, John Banville, Edmund White, and Maya Angelou2007 – 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 Hall2008 – Jon Lee Anderson, Andrew J. Bacevich, Michael Pollan, John Gray, and Jeanette Winterson2009 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alex Ross, and Kazuo Ishiguro2010 – John Carey, Colm Tóibín, Lionel Shriver, Yiyun Li, John Ralston Saul, Bill McKibben, and Raj Patel2011 – 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 Altman2012 – Hisham Matar, Jeffrey Eugenides, Dava Sobel2013 – Molly Ringwald, Ruby Wax, Claire Messud2014 – Irvine Welsh, Vince Gilligan, Alice Walker2015 – 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, Kate Tempest, Yanis Varoufakis, Hanya Yanagihara, Paul Muldoon, Yeonmi Park1997 – Robert Dessaix, Andrew McGahan, Matthew Condon, Bernard Cohen, Christos Tsiolkas, Gillian Mears2001 – Lee Tulloch2002 – Geoffrey Atherden, Bernard Cohen2003 – Sonya Hartnett, David Malouf, Danny Katz, Louis Nowra2005 – Bob Carr and John Kinsella2006 – Alex Miller, Robert Drewe, Kate Grenville, Les Murray, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Peter Singer, Tim Flannery, Gail Jones2007 – Raimond Gaita2008 – Mem Fox, Peter van Onselen, Michelle de Kretser, Gail Jones, Drusilla Modjeska2010 – Peter Carey, Les Murray, Alex Miller, Ross Garnaut, Clive Hamilton2011 – Suelette Dreyfus, Annette Shun Wah, David Hicks2012 – Kathy Lette2013 – Claudia Karvan, Brendan Cowell2014 – Christos Tsiolkas, Michelle de Kretser, Robert Dessaix2015 – Richard Flanagan, Annabel Crabb, Leigh Sales, Helen Garner, David Malouf, Les Murray, Andy Griffiths, Julia Gillard2016 – Elizabeth Harrower, Anna Funder, Magda Szubanski, Stan Grant, Kerry O'Brien, Bob Brown, Charlotte Wood2011 James Gleick 'Perish the thought'2012 Dava Sobel2013 Claire Messud2014 Emma Donoghue2015 Helen Macdonald2016 Hanya YanagiharaThe Festival is organised by the artistic director, with the support of the CEO, who both report to the Board of Sydney Writers' Festival. The current directors of the Festival are:
Deena Shiff (Chair)Nikki ChristerJo DyerAmelia LesterDavid MarrLena NahlousMark ScottKathy ShandEmile ShermanSu-Ming Wong
