Bestselling authors and literary prize-winners lead Byron Writers Festival line-up

BOY Swallows Universe author Trent Dalton, Booker Prize-winning novelist Geetanjali Shree and Miles Franklin Award-winner Siang Lu are among the speakers confirmed for the 2026 Byron Writers Festival.

Stella Prize-winning poet Evelyn Araluen, Goorie Bundjalung and Miles Franklin Award-winner Melissa Lucashenko, and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Steve Toltz are also part of the lineup for the event, which this year introduces a new format with sessions staged across multiple venues in the heart of Byron Bay.

The shift follows last year’s late cancellation of the weekend program after heavy rain caused flooding and safety concerns at Bangalow Showground, which had hosted the festival since 2023.

This year, the festival will unfold across a walkable precinct, with sessions held at the Beach Hotel, Byron Bay Surf Club, Byron Community Centre and Haven, alongside free programming on the Byron Bay foreshore. Book signings and author appearances will take place at the official festival bookshop, The Book Room, while satellite events will be held at the Cavanbah Centre, which will also function as the main parking hub, with shuttle buses transporting patrons to the festival precinct.

Brisbane-based Dalton, who is also a two-time Walkley Award-winning journalist, will speak about his latest novel, Gravity Let Me Go, at the event, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. He will be joined by New Delhi–based International Booker Prize-winner Shree, whose novel Tomb of Sand made literary history in 2022 as the first work written in Hindi, or any Indian language, to win the International Booker Prize, and Lu, the Miles Franklin Award-winning author of Ghost Cities.

Lucashenko will discuss her new book Not Quite White in the Head, which brings together her acclaimed essays and journalism in a single collection for the first time.

Wentworth actor and writer Zoe Terakes, whose debut book Eros reimagines ancient Greek myths through a bold queer lens, and Australian economist, public policy commentator and executive director of The Australia Institute Richard Denniss, with his latest essay More Fool Me: How the Gas Industry Tricked Australia, have also been named in the initial line-up.

The full program for the festival, which runs from August 14 to 16, will be announced in the coming months, with three-day, single-day and feature event passes available.

For more information and tickets, visit byronwritersfestival.com