Heroines Festival

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The Heroines Festival is a festival of women writers who write women's stories. 

The Heroines Festival is a day of panels, readings, book launches, author signings, conversations, friendships, and more.

Our festival guests will tell women's stories, speak about the craft of finding or inventing lost histories, and how our festival guests imagine the future for women.

Novelist Jesse Blackadder will tell the tales of early female Antarctic explorers, historical-fiction novelist Robyn Cadwallader will talk about the life of an enclosed young medieval holy woman, and festival favourite Kate Forsyth will speak about the French Revolution and Chinese mythology.

Speculative novelists Claire Corbett and Cat Sparks will discuss writing dystopian futures, like those found in Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, and alternative utopian possibilities for women.

Telling the histories of women who have resisted and rebelled, festival guests will illuminate the experiences of women in Australian history: from exploring the art scene in 1920’s to mining a family history of colonisation and reclaiming Aboriginal heritage, from the experience of deafness now and in the 19th century to a physical journey to find belonging in the land.

Publisher Jo Mackay will discuss HQ’s HERSTORY campaign that highlights stories that write women back into history, with historical novelists Tea Cooper, Karen Brooks and Kerri Turner.

With this year’s emphasis on emerging and first-time novelists, the festival is also proud to feature the voices of Lauren Chater and Monica Tan; from Brisbane, Melissa Fagan and Jessica White; and local Illawarra writers, Julie Keys, Judi Morison, Helena Fox and Chloe Higgins.

Alongside a day packed with panels and conversations, and women's stories reclaimed, restored and reimagined, the festival will feature a Women’s Reading Room run in collaboration with the South Coast Writers Centre.

The festival day also includes the launch of the festival's second anthology of short fiction and poetry, about women and by women, The Heroines Anthology Volume 2.