Sydney Writers' Festival

The festival began in January 1997,[2][3] with most events initially held at the State Library of New South Wales. The first independent Sydney Writers' Festival ran from 12–17 May 1998, with 169 participants appearing in venues in, and around, the centre of Sydney.

Since then, the Festival has rapidly expanded. The Festival moved from Walsh Bay to Carriageworks in May 2018 (Walsh Bay is undergoing a major refurbishment). Events were also held at venues stretching across Sydney, from the City Recital Hall and Sydney Town Hall in the city centre, into suburban Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

Held mid-to-late May each year, the Festival now involves over 400 participants and presents over 300 events in renovated piers at Walsh Bay. Other festival locations include Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, and Sydney Opera House. Events are also regularly held in regional and suburban locations including Parramatta, Ashfield, Auburn, Blacktown, Bankstown, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Penrith, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong.

Approximately one-third of all Sydney Writers' Festival events are free of charge. Festival attendances have reached over 90,000 each year since 2007.

Sydney Writers' Festival Limited is a not-for-profit company with an independent board of directors. The inaugural Chair of the Festival was Geraldine Doogue, who held the position for three years. Sandra Yates AO became Chair in late 2000, retiring on 31 December 2011. Deena Shiff was the Chair 1 January 2012 through to February 2018. Mark Scott was appointed chair in February 2018. The Festival Director in 1998 was John Nieuwenhuizen, with Meredith Curnow the Program Director. Meredith Curnow became Festival Director for the period 1999–2002. Caro Llewellyn was Artistic Director and Chief executive from 2003 to 2006. Wendy Were was Artistic Director and CEO for the three festivals, from 2007 to 2009. Chip Rolley became the Festival's Artistic Director in the middle of 2009, programming the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Festivals. Jemma Birrell was the Festival's Artistic Director for the four Festivals 2013–2016. In 2016, Michaela McGuire was appointed as the Festival's new Artistic Director. Ben Strout was the Festival's Executive Director from 2009 to 2014. Jo Dyer was the Executive Director from 2015; and was promoted to CEO in November 2016, when she also joined the Festival board of directors. Chrissy Sharp was appointed as the new CEO of Sydney Writers' Festival in 2018.[4] The 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

Past guests have included:

• 1999 – Alan Duff,[6] and Peter Porter[7]
• 2002 – Jodi Picoult,[8] Lloyd Jones, Giles Milton and Neil Hanson[9]
• 2003 – Antony Beevor, Jonathan Franzen, Catherine Millet, Janette Turner Hospital, Nicholas Shakespeare, and CK Stead[10]
• 2004 – Alan Bennett, Alain de Botton, Hilary Mantel, Tim Krabbe, Susanna Moore, Jane Campion, Louis de Bernières, Salam Pax, John W. Dean, Harvey Pekar, Alexei Sayle, ZZ Packer, and David Sedaris[11]
• 2005 – Lewis Lapham, Alan Hollinghurst, Deirdre Bair, Professor Harold Bloom, Tariq Ali, David Suzuki, Jared Diamond, Suad Amiry, Michael Winter, Colin McAdam and Miriam Toews[12]
• 2006 – Naomi Wolf, Anna Politkovskaya, Michael Burleigh, Andy Borowitz, Susan Orlean, Aleksandar Hemon, Hendrik Hertzberg, Mark Danner, Haifa Zangana, John Banville, Edmund White, and Maya Angelou[13]
• 2007 – Andrew O'Hagan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bei Dao, Will Hutton, Antony Beevor, William Dalyrmple, Lionel Shriver, Richard Ford, Andrei Makine, Rachel Seiffert, Mohsin Hamid and Steven Hall[14]
• 2008 – Jon Lee Anderson, Andrew J. Bacevich, Michael Pollan, John Gray, and Jeanette Winterson[15]
• 2009 – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alex Ross, and Kazuo Ishiguro[16]
• 2010 – John Carey, Colm Tóibín, Lionel Shriver, Yiyun Li, John Ralston Saul, Bill McKibben, and Raj Patel[17]
• 2011 – Ingrid Betancourt, Howard Jacobson, A. A. Gill, Anthony Bourdain, Téa Obreht, Izzeldin Abuelaish, Kei Miller, Kader Abdolah, Michael Cunningham, David Mitchell, AC Grayling, Michael Connelly, Gail Dines, and Daniel Altman
• 2012 – Hisham Matar, Jeffrey Eugenides, Dava Sobel[18]
• 2013 – Molly Ringwald, Ruby Wax, Claire Messud[19]
• 2014 – Irvine Welsh, Vince Gilligan, Alice Walker
• 2015 – Michael Connelly, Anthony Horowitz, Douglas Coupland, Norman Doidge, Alan Cumming, Atul Gawande, David Walliams, Michael Frayn, James Patterson (out of season event)
• 2016 – Gloria Steinem, Jonathan Franzen, Marlon James, Julian Barnes, William Boyd, Jeanette Winterson, Kate Tempest, Yanis Varoufakis, Hanya Yanagihara, Paul Muldoon, Yeonmi Park
• 2017 – Anne Enright, Henry Marsh, Ian Rankin, George Saunders, A. N. Wilson[20]
• 2018 – André Aciman, Min Jin Lee, Alexis Okeowo, Masha Gessen, Jennifer Egan, Tayari Jones

• 1997 – Robert Dessaix,[2] Andrew McGahan, Matthew Condon, Bernard Cohen, Christos Tsiolkas, Gillian Mears[3]
• 2001 – Lee Tulloch[21]
• 2002 – Geoffrey Atherden, Bernard Cohen[9]
• 2003 – Sonya Hartnett, David Malouf, Danny Katz, Louis Nowra[10]
• 2005 – Bob Carr and John Kinsella[12]
• 2006 – Alex Miller, Robert Drewe, Kate Grenville, Les Murray, Tegan Bennett Daylight, Peter Singer, Tim Flannery, Gail Jones[13]
• 2007 – Raimond Gaita[14]
• 2008 – Mem Fox, Peter van Onselen, Michelle de Kretser, Gail Jones, Drusilla Modjeska[15]
• 2009 – Elizabeth Farrelly
• 2010 – Peter Carey, Les Murray, Alex Miller, Ross Garnaut, Clive Hamilton[17]
• 2011 – Suelette Dreyfus, Annette Shun Wah, David Hicks
• 2012 – Kathy Lette[22]
• 2013 – Brendan Cowell,[19] Elizabeth Farrelly, Claudia Karvan,
• 2014 – Christos Tsiolkas, Michelle de Kretser, Robert Dessaix
• 2015 – Richard Flanagan, Annabel Crabb, Leigh Sales, Helen Garner, David Malouf, Les Murray, Andy Griffiths, Julia Gillard
• 2016 – Elizabeth Harrower, Anna Funder, Magda Szubanski, Stan Grant, Kerry O'Brien, Bob Brown, Charlotte Wood
• 2017 – Julia Baird, Jimmy Barnes, Peter Corris, Clementine Ford, Liane Moriarty[20]
• 2018 – Michelle de Kretser, Jane Harper, Helen Garner, Christos Tsiolkas, Julia Gillard[23]

• 2011 James Gleick 'Perish the thought'
• 2012 Dava Sobel
• 2013 Claire Messud[19]
• 2014 Emma Donoghue
• 2015 Helen Macdonald
• 2016 Hanya Yanagihara
• 2017 Susan Faludi[24]
• 2018 Jennifer Egan

The Festival is organised by the artistic director Michaela McGuire, with the support of the CEO Chrissy Sharp, who both report to the Board of Sydney Writers' Festival. In 2018 the directors of the Festival are:[25]

• Mark Scott (Chair)
• Nikki Christer
• Annabel Crabb
• Jo Dyer
• Amelia Lester
• Lena Nahlous
• Kathy Shand
• Emile Sherman
• Su-Ming Wong

• List of festivals in Australia
• New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
• Man Booker International Prize – 2011
• Sydney Writers Walk

• Official Sydney Writers' Festival Site
• Sydney Writers' Festival – Katoomba Program