A former newspaper editor has described Kate McClymont as ‘a walking almanac of Sydney crime and corruption’. Delve into a day in the unusual life of one of Australia’s most respected investigative journalists – death threats and all.

This conversation was recorded at the 2022 Newcastle Writers Festival and hosted by best-selling author Michael Robotham. 

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It was standing room only for this important event at the 2022 festival with Paul Callaghan and Uncle Paul Gordon, who believe that First Nations thinking can be a source of contentment for all. The men bring together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal world views in their powerful book, The Dreaming Path, and they expand on some of its themes in this conversation; relationships, caring for place, being present and healing from the past. The host is Joe Williams, a proud Wiradjuri/Wolgalu man and author of The Enemy Within. 

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As we prepare for our 10th festival, which will be held from 31 March to 2 April 2023, enjoy the first in a series of sessions recorded at the 2022 festival.

A blind man yearns to see the face of his wife of 30 years. A divorced mother has a secret love affair with a travelling priest. A tree lopper’s heart falls in a forest. A respected 100-year-old scientist ponders the one great earthly puzzle he was never able to solve: ‘What is love?’  Trent Dalton explores important questions about what love means.

This session was hosted by Newcastle Writers Festival director Rosemarie Milsom who stepped in at the last minute to replace someone who had to withdraw.

Thank you to the festival's core funder Create NSW for supporting the Stories to You series.

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In the final episode of this year's Stories To You series, we have collaborated with Caroline Baum, host of the Life Sentences podcast, to bring you a conversation with American biographer Professor Heather Clark about her acclaimed biography of poet Sylvia Plath. 

Caroline describes Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, which has been nominated for a 2021 Pulitzer Prize, as a "fastidious, forensic and granular account" of the artist's early life and brilliant college days in the US before her explosive encounter with British poet Ted Hughes. With unprecedented access to archives of Plath papers and other previously unavailable material, Clark provides the most comprehensive and psychologically complex portrait to date of a much misunderstood and mythologised artist.

Red Comet is published in Australia by Penguin Random House.

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Andrew Pippos, who has been shortlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award, and Newcastle writer Michael Sala, discuss their creative challenges and decisions, how they juggle the demands of writing and parenting, and what they are working on now. Hosted by Ed Wright.

This session was recorded at our inaugural Fresh Ink Emerging Writers Program on 23 April, in collaboration with Newcastle Libraries. Funding was provided by Create NSW. 

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Cassandra Atherton talks about prose poetry and microlit — reading from the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry she recently co-edited with Paul Hetherington, and Pulped Fiction, the latest collection in the Joanne Burns microlit prize series. 

Host: Beth Spencer

Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry is published by Melbourne University Press.
Pulped Fiction is published by Spineless Wonders. 
Cassandra’s latest books of prose poetry are Fugitive Letters (with Paul Hetherington) and Leftovers.
You can order copies from www.macleanbooks.com.au 

More information about Cassandra’s work at www.cassandra-atherton.com.

And for more about the Joanne Burns Microlit prize and Microflix check out Spineless Wonders at https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/

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Triple J presenter Bridget Hustwaite and journalist Gabrielle Jackson are 'endo warriors'. They share their experiences of living with endometriosis and explore the assumptions and misinformation that impact sufferers. 

How to Endo by Bridget Hustwaite and Pain and Prejudice by Gabrielle Jackson are published by Allen and Unwin. Buy both books online via the Festival's book store MacLean's Booksellers.    

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Acclaimed First Nations Canadian writer Billy-Ray Belcourt speaks to Laura Kebby, of Secret Book Stuff, about writing, poetry, identity, and the importance of representation in literature. 

Billy-Ray's memoir A History of My Brief Body is published by UQP. 

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Eminent British philosopher A. C. Grayling discusses the fields of knowledge that have opened up with new methods and tools of inquiry – including cutting-edge physics, humanity’s very ancient history before Greece and Rome, and what we now know about the mind and the brain. Hosted by Newcastle philosopher and author Russell Blackford.

The Frontiers of Knowledge: What We Now Know About Science, History, and the Mind is published by Penguin Random House Australia. Buy your copy from the Festival's bookstore, MacLean's Booksellers. 

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From essays to poetry, there’s more than one way to write a memoir. How do we find the best form to tell the stories of our own lives? With Bastian Fox Phelan, Susan Francis, and Bri Lee. Hosted by Rosemarie Milsom.

This session was recorded at our inaugural Fresh Ink Emerging Writers Program on 24 April, 2021, in collaboration with Newcastle Libraries. Funding was provided by Create NSW. 

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