Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival: 19th annual event brings record number of attendees to Geraldton Library

A record-breaking number of attendees showed up to this year’s Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival, with more than 1300 tickets sold at the 19th annual event. Hundreds of people from across the region participated in an array of programs at Geraldton Regional Library and surrounding towns last weekend. The 2024 short story prize winner went to Sarah Jane Greenlees for her piece The Storyteller. Runner-up was Marc Christoffersen’s Gracie. Manager for libraries, gallery and public art Trudi Cornish said Cray Tales, a historical account of the WA lobster fishing industry presented by Annie de Monchaux and Natasha Harradine, was a sell-out program this year. “There was a local history element of the festival as well as the more literary side of it as well,” she said. The stand-out of the festivities this year for Ms Cornish was the number of family friendly activities keeping the kids entertained. “On the Sunday, we had a kids Sunday fun day, where we had a storyteller and arts and crafts at the back of the library. It was a little bit warm, but there were so many families that came down and their kids got involved, and it was lovely,” she said. “We’re on such a high from it still, actually. Everyone’s had some amazing feedback and there was a really satisfied audience.” Ms Cornish said a number of topics were unpacked this year, from serious issues to light-hearted subjects, with the help of a stellar line-up of guests. “We really work quite hard to bring special guests who are across a wide range of genres, and would appeal to a wide range of ages and so forth,” she said. Crime writer and author of TV series Scrublands, Chris Hammer was this year’s big-ticket guest. Ms Cornish said his workshop at the Northampton RSL was completely booked out. “People really enjoyed having access to these authors to get them to sign their books and everything,” she said. This year, 14 guest artists visited Geraldton to share their stories of success over more than 20 workshops.