This anthology celebrates 10 years of the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, with contributions from twenty-four leading Australian writers who have also appeared at the Festival. Writers include Kate Grenville, Peter Goldsworthy, Christopher Kremmer, Anita Heiss, Roger McDonald, Nick Earls and Thea Astley, and topics addressed range from the deeply personal to the powerfully political. At a time when discussion can be read as sedition and free expression is increasingly muted, writers' festivals are important forums for independent intelligent discussion, something the Byron Bay Writers Festival has provided from its inception.
Writers address the things that matter to them, as writers and as Australians, and contributions range from essays to short stories and a poem. Like the Festival itself, the anthology is by turns (and sometimes all at once) passionate, considered, witty and intellectual and provides a fascinating overview of Australian writers today.
