FROM May 3-5, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre and BooksPlus will join forces once again to host the return of the Bathurst Writers' and Readers' Festival.
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This event includes the Live & Local streamed events from the Sydney Writers' Festival as well as local panels, workshops and events.
The festival will kick off on Friday, May 3 with an opportunity for secondary school students to attend a workshop with two authors to learn more about creative writing. The workshops will run from 9am-3pm and will be hosted by Jack Heath and Erin Gough.
IN OTHER ARTS NEWS IN BATHURST:
Another highlight in the local program will be the official festival opening on Friday at 5.45pm.
Journalist and bestselling author James Knight (Henry and Banjo; Under The Same Sky) will talk about his new book Back On Track, the inspirational story of Bernie Shakeshaft's BackTrack Youthworks program, helping disadvantaged rural kids.
Knight, who has worked in network television and independent documentaries, has written 12 non-fiction books, with topics including cricket, travel and mountaineering.
We will also be launching two new books on the Saturday evening.
Trish Dearborn, who grew up in Bathurst, has been widely published in literary journals and is the author of two previous poetry collections, will be launching her new poetry anthology Autobiochemistry as well as Bathurst Poets 2019 Anthology.
Bathurst Poets, a group of local writers who have been meeting and working together for a number of years, have published their first anthology, with support from the Regional Arts Fund. All sales from the book will support the Bathurst Writers' and Readers' Festival.
This year's Great Festival Read is Hare's Fur by Trevor Shearston. The Great Festival Read is Bathurst's Biggest Book Club and everyone is encouraged to read Hare's Fur and join the discussion about the book on Sunday, May 5 at 10am. Author Trevor Shearston will also be joining the festival discussion at 10.45am.
There are two workshops that are available to the public at this year's festival.
At Slam Poetry, on Saturday at 2.30pm, Australian Poetry Slam finalists Sophie Meredith and Alice Blackwood will look at what makes a slam poem, discuss poetry writing and performance skills and ways to make a spoken word poem pop.
At the second workshop, on Sunday at 12.40pm, Fiona Green, founder of newly formed playwriting group Live Words, will offer help to prose writers who want to create characters with motivation and depth.
To take part in the workshops, there is a small fee of $10. All other public sessions at the festival are free. To book into the workshops, contact Books Plus.
For the full program, including details of the live stream from Sydney Writers' Festival, contact BMEC or Books Plus in Howick Street. Visit www.bmec.com.au