A great festival, take their word for it

A world-class line-up of authors, writers and personalities will feature at the fourth annual Word for Word National Non-Fiction Festival on November 17-19 at the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre.

Internationally acclaimed Australian author Peter Carey will open the festival, with many other high-profile personalities and authors gathering for this year’s event.

Limited tickets are still available to see Jelena Dokic, Peter FitzSimons, Julian Burnside QC, Tracey Spicer, John Safran, Frank Moorhouse, Tim Flannery, Alice Pung, Benjamin Law and Susan Carland among many others.

With 80 presenters appearing at 44 events over the festival weekend, there is definitely something for everyone.

Topical panel discussions including politics, death and dying, history, climate change, feminism and faith are proving enormously popular, leading organisers to urge people not to leave their bookings to the last minute.

“Word for Word is bringing the international literary world to Geelong,” Word for Word Festival advisory committee chair Cr Margot Smith said.

“The festival has been building momentum since it began in 2014 and has really hit its stride this year and established Geelong as a significant place in the literary world.”

Word for Word is the only writers’ festival dedicated to celebrating non-fiction writing in all facets and forms. This year the festival invites audiences to “go beneath the surface” to explore the intersection between fiction and non-fiction.

“This year we have a number of fiction writers that walk the fine line between fiction and non-fiction,” Cr Smith said.

In 2016, more than 4,000 people visited the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre over the festival weekend and current bookings indicate an even bigger turn-out for the 2017 event.

For a full program and to book tickets, head to wordforwordfestival.com.au.