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From Miles Franklin Award winners to debut sensations, join five acclaimed authors for a discussion about what it takes to make it as a writer. How do you balance ambition with artistry? Do awards matter when it comes to industry recognition and sales? And how do you find community when you have a job that is, by its nature, such a solitary pursuit?Between them Steve Toltz, Joseph Earp, John Morrissey, Zeynab Gamieldien and Toni Jordan have a slew of awards, for work covering literary fiction, crime fiction, speculative fiction, journalism, humour, memoir and more. Don’t miss this intergenerational conversation about craft, career and story, and the essential ingredients of a writer’s life.
KEY INFO
Date: Saturday, 31 October 2026
Time: 5:00-6:00pm
Venue: Grand Dining Room, The Carrington Hotel
Tickets & More Info: https://www.bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au/events/a-writers-life
Joseph Earp is a writer, painter, philosopher and journalist. His debut novel Painting Portraits of Everyone I've Ever Dated was released by Pantera Press. He is the recipient of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists prize, and a two-time nominee for the Peter Carey Short Story Award.
John Morrissey is a Melbourne writer of Kalkadoon descent. His debut, Firelight, won an Aurealis Award and a Queensland Literary Award, and in 2024 he was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist. Bird Deity is his latest novel.
Steve Toltz is the author of A Fraction of the Whole, which was published in 2008. His second novel Quicksand was winner of the 2017 Russell Prize for Humour. His third novel, Here Goes Nothing, was published in May of 2022. His fourth novel, A Rising of the Lights, was published in April 2026.
Toni Jordan is the author of the international bestseller Addition, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and has been adapted into a feature film which premiered in cinemas in 2026. Tenderfoot, her eighth novel, has been longlisted for the 2026 Miles Franklin Award, and shortlisted for the 2026 Indie Book Award for Fiction, the 2026 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the 2026 ABA Adult Fiction Book of the Year.
Zeynab Gamieldien's first novel, The Scope of Permissibility, won the inaugural 2022 Westwords/Ultimo Prize and her second novel, Learned Behaviours, was published in 2025. In 2026, Zeynab was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists.
This event is part of the 2026 Blue Mountains Writers Festival, head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information.
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Event venue
The Carrington Hotel, 15 Katoomba St, Katoomba NSW 2780, Australia, Katoomba
Tickets
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