It may be raining. There may be a pandemic. But this time, the show will go on.
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Newcastle Writers Festival director and founder Rosemarie Milsom is predicting a record turnout for the festival which is only three weeks away.
Running April 1-3 at venues in Newcastle's Civic precinct, the festival is returning from two years of pandemic hell when it moved dates and still had to cancel live audience events.
"I think it's going to be record ticket sales," Milsom said this week. "We 've had record volunteers in record time. That's a really good indication of enthusiasm. These are people dealing what the public. We are all obviously concerned if COVID will affect numbers. And we've had over 170 people.
"That made me think, we're good to go."
The festival had a special launch event on Thursday night in Newcastle with popular gardening and media personality Costa Georgiadis and author and chef Paul West.
The full program and ticketing goes live online today, Wednesday, March 9, on the festival's new updated website (newcastlewritersfestival.org.au) at 9am.
Special events
Sunday, March 27, 2-3.30pm, Domaine de Binet, 469 Lovedale Road, Lovedale You've Got To Be Kidding: An Afternoon With Todd Alexander. Host Paul Bevan
Wednesday, March 30, 7-9pm, Stag & Hunter Hotel, Mayfield. Festival fundraiser: Our Literary Trivia Night is back. Host Nick Milligan
Friday, April 1, 10-11.30am, Boatrowers Hotel, Stockton. Stockton Monuments and Memoryscapes: A Walking Tour. With Vanessa Berry, Bastian Fox Phelan, Keri Glastonbury, Duncan McDuie-Ra and Kate Senior.
Friday, April 1, 7.30-9pm, Concert Hall, Newcastle City Hall. Opening Night Gala: What the World Needs Now. Trent Dalton, Clementine Ford, Hannah Kent, Thomas Mayor, Nardi Simpson, Jessie Stephens. Host Dan Cox.
Saturday, April 2, 5-6pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall, Newcastle Conservatorium. 2021 Margaret Henry Memorial Lecture, presented by Graeme Innes.
NWF 2022 Program
Saturday, April 2 program
10am, Mulubinba Room, City Hall. The Silence Between Us. With Cecile Barral and Oceane Campbell. Host Magdalena Ball.
10am, Cummings Room, City Hall. Corruption, Skulduggery and Murder. With Kate McClymont. Host Michael Robotham.
10.15am, Concert Hall, City Hall. Lay of the Land. With Kate Holden and Simon Winchester (live from US via videolink). With Geordie Williamson.
10am, Hunter Room, City Hall. Another Day in the Colony. With Chelsea Watego. Host Narelda Jacobs.
10am, Theatrette, Newcastle Museum. Hey Rock 'n' Roll. With Rick Pointon. Host Scott Bevan.
11.30am, Mulubinda Room. Shared Lives. With Vanessa Berry and Anwen Crawford. Host Keri Glastonbury.
11.30am, Cummings Room. In Praise of Trees. With Claire Dunn, Ashley Hay and Inga Simpson. Host Jane McCredie.
11.45am Concert Hall. Love Stories. Trent Dalton explores important questions about what love means. Host Geordie Williamson.
11.30am, Hunter Room. Time is Like a River. With Mark Dunn, Grace Karskens and Julie McIntyre. Host Nancy Cushing.
11.15am Theatrette. Things People Say in Bookshops. With Clayton Zane Comber, Amanda Shirley and Jane Turner. Host Laura Kebby.
1pm, Mulubinba Room. Notes From a Transition. With Yves Rees. Host Krissy Kneen.
1pm, Cummings Room. I'm With Her. With Evelyn Araluen, Jasmine Seymour, Nardi Simpson and Chelsea Watego. Host Narelda Jacobs.
1.15pm, Concert Hall. A Novel Life. With Tom Keneally. Host Jock Serong.
1pm, Hunter Room. More Than a Statistic. With Jane Caro and Laura Elizabeth Woollett. Host Nicole Abadee.
1.15pm, Theatrette. The Magic Valley. With Cameron Archer. Host Patrice Newell.
1.30pm, Watt Space Gallery. Book launch. Kathryn Fry's second book, The Earth Will Outshine Us. Launched by Jean Kent.
2.30pm, Mulubinba Room. Millennial Panic. With Lech Blaine, Brandon Jack and Jessie Stephens. Host Dan Cox.
2.30pm, Cummings Room. The Dreaming Path. With Paul Callaghan and Uncle Paul George. Host Joe Williams.
2.45pm, Concert Hall. The Plague and Me. With Professor Peter Doherty. Host Matthew Bevan.
2.30pm, Hunter Room. Sharing Your Truth. With Amani Haydar, Kathryn Heyman and Kaya Wilson. Host Monica Dux.
2.30pm, Theatrette. Writing the City. With Dan Beazley, Alissa McCulloch and Kristy Coady. Host Laura Kebby.
3pm, Watt Space Gallery. Book launch. Magdalena Ball's new poetry collection, Density of Compact Bone. Launched by Gillian Swain.
3.30pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Devotion. With Hannah Kent. Host Ashley Hay.
4pm, Mulubinba Room. Through the Lens of Yesterday. With Emily Brugman, Mirandi Riwoe and Jock Serong. Host Suzanne Leal.
4pm, Cummings Room. The Great Divide. With Gabrielle Chan, Kate Holden and Patrice Newell. Host Jane McCredie.
4.15pm, Concert Hall. Gender Politics. With Kate Ellis, Mehreen Faruqi and Amy Remeikis. Host Natasha Cica.
4pm, Hunter Room. Mother Tongue. With Sharon Edgar-jones, Ray Kelly and Jasmine Seymour. Host John Maynard.
3.45pm, Theatrette. Glimpses of Utopia. With Jess Scully. Host Sunil Badami.
5pm, Watt Space Gallery. Book launch. The Boxer Round 2 - old photos make me cry, a collection of poetry by the late Greg Drinkwater, curated by his nephew, artist James Drinkwater. Readings by Johnny Carr.
5pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. 2022 Margaret Henry Memorial Lecture. Presented by Graeme Innes, Raising the Bar for Australians with Disabilities.
5pm, Newcastle Comedy Club. Cuplet at NWF. With Ella O'Keefe, Prithvi Varatharajan, Ellen van Neerven, Jessica Wilkinson and Ouyang Yu.
6.30pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Open Book. With Helen Garner. Host Caroline Baum.
8pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. How We Love. With Clementine Ford. Host Yves Rees.
Sunday, April 3
10am, Mulubinba Room. Demystifying Experimental Poetry. With Toby Fitch, Rory Green, Ella O'Keefe adn Ouyang Yu. Host Chris Mansell.
10am, Cummings Room. Stories to Change the World. With Kate Mildenhall, Inga Simpson and Jacquie Svenson. Host Magdalena Ball.
9.45am, Concert Hall. A Search for the Soul of the Nation. With Julianne Schultz. Host Natasha Cica.
10am, Hunter Room. Owning Our Past. With Tony Birch and Mirandi Riwoe. Host Roanna Gonsalves.
10am, Theatrette. Book launch. Holy Crap: What Are They Doing Now? Stories by writers from regional NSW Universities of the Third Age. Launched by Anne Wakatama.
10am, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Keeping the Faith. With Monica Lux and Sarah Krasnostein. Host Amy Sambrooke.
11.30am, Mulubinba Room. When Poems Meet Nonfiction. With Tony Birch, Benjamin Dodds, Prithvi Varatharajan and Jessica Wilkinson. Host Evelyn Araluen.
11.30am, Cummings Room. Fear and Loathing. With Anna Downes, Michael Robotham and Laura Elizabeth Woollett. Host Nicole Abadee.
11.15am, Concert Hall. The Light Within. With Julia Baird. Host Jane Hutcheon.
11.30am, Hunter Room. Wild Abandon. With Emily Bitto. Host Kate Mildenhall.
11.30am, Theatrette. Radical Slowness. With Claire Dunn, Anna May Kirk and Izabela Pluta. Host Gerry Bobsien.
11.30am, Watt Space Gallery. Book launch. Morgan Bell's innovative visual poetry collection, Pretend I Don't Exist. Launched by Gillian Swain.
11.30am, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Who Gets To Be Smart? With Bri Lee. Host Jane Caro.
12pm, The Press Book House. Book launch. Meryl Denton-Rose's debut novel A Patient Obsession. Launched by Karen Eastwood.
1.30pm, Mulubinba Room. Family Ties. With Emma Batchelor, Krissy Kneen and Mimi Kwa. Host Susan Wyndham.
1.30pm, Cummings Room. Learning Curves. With Tegan Bennett Daylight and Catherine Keenan. Host Ashley Hay.
1.15pm, Concert Hall. Welcome to the Disinformation Age. With Van Badham and Ed Coper. Host Geordie Williamson.
1.30pm, Hunter Room. Man Up. With Lech Blaine, Brendan Cowell and Brandon Jack. Host Nick Milligan.
1.30pm, Theatrette. The Politics and Poetics of Travel. With Judith Nangala Crispin, Benjamin Dodds and Paul Hetherington. Host Cassandra Atherton.
1.30pm, Watt Space Gallery. Book launch. This Gift, This Poem, an anthology of poems of solace and hope by some of Australia's leading poets. Judith Beveridge, Carolyn Rickett and Jen Webb in conversation with Jean Kent.
1.30pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Don't Be Too Polite Girls. With Wendy McCarthy. Host Anne Summers.
1.30pm, The Press Book House. Book launch. Celebrate Ben Randall's new book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, the incredible true story of May and Pang, two teenage girls kidnapped from their homes in Vietnam and forced into motherhood in China. Launched by Alex Morris.
3pm, Mulubinba Room. Location, Location, Location. With Lee Christine, Kelli Hawkins and Wendy James. Host Suzanne Leal.
3pm, Cummings Room. Writing as Assistance. With Amani Haydar, Ellen van Neerven and Saba Vasefi. Host Ronna Gonsalves.
2.45pm, Concert Hall. When Your Are Mine. With Michael Robotham. Host Sunil Badami.
3pm, Hunter Room. Toxic Truths. Emily Bitto and Diana Reid. Host Amy Sambrooke.
3pm, Theatrette. Water Into Words. With Scott Bevan. Host David Hinds.
3.30pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. Australia, If You're Listening - Live. With Matt Bevan.
3pm, Newcastle Comedy Club. Cuplet at NWF. With Tony Birch, Rory Green, Kit Kelen and Jan Webb.
3.30pm, Piazza Mercato. Semi-Gloss. With Justine Cullen. Host Mimi Kwa.
5pm, Harold Lobb Concert Hall. This One Wild and Precious Life. With Sarah Wilson. Host Beejay Silcox.
7pm, Newcastle Comedy Club. Cuplet at NWF. With Evelyn Araluen, Benjamin Dodds, Toby Fitch, Chris Mansell and Richard Tipping.