Dinner bookings are now closed, but Saturday program online bookings are open until midday, Friday September 3, unless sold out. We have a big crowd already and it’s shaping up to be a great festival.
For more information on the festival and to book tickets, click on the link in the menu bar above.

Lunchtime Talk – Hazel Edwards will give a lunchtime talk in the library at Mt Helen. Hazel will talk about her famous Hippopotamus turning 30 as well as collaborating on her new book f2m – the boy within , the story of an adolescent’s quest for identity as she transitions from female to male.
Where: Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre, University of Ballarat Library, Mt Helen Campus
When: Wednesday August 25th, 12-1pm
BYO Lunch and Cake for the Hippopotamus!

The Ballarat Youth Zine Project – workshops in Ballarat for 14 – 17 year-olds.

3 weekly x two-hour workshops
write, draw, copy, stick stuff together
make your own zine and have it distributed

The workshops will be run by Adam Ford. Adam is a zine-maker, writer, blogger and artist. He was born in Ballarat and moved to Melbourne in 1991. He’s taught workshops and short courses for universities, secondary schools, libraries and city councils across Australia, and performed his own work all over Australia (and once or twice in New York City), including …

Text Camp 2010 is an ambitious evolution of Next Wave’s inaugural and highly successful Text Camp program from the last Festival in 2008.
Text Camp 2010 is a three-stage workshop, mentorship, and digital and printed publication project, which will involve three groups of young and emerging writers and editors, aged 30 and under, being mentored in either critical or creative writing, or arts publishing and editing. Each stream will contain a maximum of five people, with different mentors for each stream.
The three streams being offered in Text Camp 2010 are:
• Creative …

Ballarat Writers is pleased to announce the return of the Ballarat Writers’ Festival, bigger (and yet smaller) and better (and yet even better!). Children’s and young adult writers and readers are invited to come and enjoy our action-packed program, opening with a launch on Friday September 3 and continuing all day Saturday September 4 with workshops, panels and opprtunities to get your work in front of publishers.
More details coming soon. Put the date in your diary!

Note – 17 September 2009: Workshops filling fast. Only a few places left. Book now to avoid disappointment.
Everyone has a story to tell and an audience waiting to hear it. But what are the techniques to make your story so engaging that readers won’t want to put it down? Join two professional writers who will guide you through the maze of finding the right material and the best way to write it.
What goes in? 1-3pm Saturday October 3
The most compelling life stories are the ones where incidents and scenes all …

7.30pm, Reading Room, Portico, 203 Dana Street, Ballarat – Entry $5
Come along and enjoy some fabulous poetry, and maybe a couple of warming beverages from the Portico bar.
Our guest will be Jackie Hosking, a wonderful and inspiring children’s poet, who will read from her published works. Jackie also edits ‘PASS IT ON’, a weekly, on-line, interactive, networking newsletter for those involved with or interested in the children’s writing industry.
Jackie began taking her writing seriously …

Several Ballarat Writers are hoping to set up a workshopping group and are looking for members to join. If you are interested, send an expression of interest through the contact form on the contact page of this website. Please say whether you write poetry or prose or both and indicate which days/evenings you would be available.