Grab your tickets to the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival!

Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival is a storytelling spectacular presented by Arts Margaret River, featuring: Germaine Greer, Michael Leunig, Kim Scott, Anna Funder, William McInnes, Chris Hammer, Liz Byrski, Minnie Darke, Amanda Curtin, Maddie Godfrey, Lisa Harvey-Smith, James Massola, Jesse Oliver, Gregory Smith, Dave Warner and more!

A not-to-be-missed event for anyone who loves arts, culture, books and Margaret River. PLUS free events and entertainment for the whole family on the festival weekend thanks to our friends at Lotterywest.

Full program and tickets available now from www.mrrwfestival.com

For more fab festivals, check out our 2019 guide: http://bit.ly/2RJtqVW 

Find a fabulous writers' festival near you in 2019

Looking to visit a writers festival in 2019?

We've put together a shortlist of festivals around Australia that we think should be on your bucket list, from the world-famous to the local and niche.

Click here to download our shortlist.

The woman who fell in love with the author of 'Wake in Fright'

Jacqueline Kent was working as a book editor when she was assigned a set of humorous short stories by Kenneth Cook, author of the classic horror novel Wake in Fright.

Her dealings with Cook resulted in a 'volcanic' relationship and a brief marriage between two lovers of words. Jacqueline writes beautifully about her time with Ken in her new memoir, Beyond Words.

On the Good Reading Podcast, Jacqueline tells us about the enduring, horrfying influence of Wake in Fright, the many paradoxes of the man who wrote it, and the changes she's seen unfold across the Australian book industry since the '80s. 

Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYK
Listen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8
About the book: bit.ly/2UKEobS

Dave Warner and Alan Carter on why Aus & NZ crime fiction is better than Scandi noir

In a new episode of the Good Reading podcast, punk rocker Daver Warner and documentary maker Alan Carter - who are also award-winning crime writers - talk putting politics in police procedurals, share stories about the people their characters are based on, and argue that the crime fiction coming out of Australia and New Zealand is well overdue to take over the mantle of Scandi noir.

Dave also tells us how a crime he wrote about in one of his early books resulted in him being nominated as a suspect in one of Australia's longest-running cold-case murders.

Alan Carter is the author of the Cato Kwong thriller series and the standalone novel Marlborough Man. His latest book is Heaven Sent.

Dave Warner's first book, City of Light won the WA Premier's Book Award. His latest books are Before it Breaks and Clear to the Horizon. 

Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or any other app by searching for the 'Good Reading Podcast'.

Yotam Ottolenghi on on why writing 'Simple' was ‘excruciatingly difficult’

Yotam Ottolenghi is universally admired for a cooking style that is complex, layered, and brimming with freshness and colour. Unfortunately that can sometimes lead to a lot of preparation and even more washing up. In his latest book, Simple, Ottolenghi proves that cooking his way doesn’t have to be so challenging.

On the advice of his sister, Ottolenghi has created a book of recipes for the time poor or the outright lazy using a set of 10 fundamental ingredients. Gregory Dobbs asks about the perils and pleasures of cooking Ottolenghi style and how Simple can help you get there.

Would you change your own past? Jennifer Spence on The Lost Girls

If given the chance, would you adjust the past to avoid a terrible tragedy in the future? And if you went back in time 20 years and tracked down a younger version of yourself, what kind of person would you find?

These questions are central to Jennifer Spence's new novel, The Lost Girls. Stella slips back in time to 1997 and must disguise herself in the past, resist changing her family's fate, and attempt to get back to the present.

We spoke to the author about time travel, the innocence of 1997, and gleaning writing advice from a famous parable.

Subscribers can read the cover story on The Lost Girls, or you can listen to our podcast interview with the author using the links below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYK
Listen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8
About the book 

Chloe Hooper enters the mind of an arsonist

As the worst fires in California's history rage across the state, and Australia enters fire season after a particularly dry winter, Walkley Award-winning author Chloe Hooper examines 2009's devastating Black Saturday bushfires and profiles a man who deliberate lit them.

Over 40,000 hectares of bushland and private property were destroyed, and 173 people died in the fires.

Chloe's new book The Arsonist is a captivating and haunting retelling of the Black Saturday bushfires through the eyes of those who were there, as well as the subsequent investigation and trial of firebug Brendan Sokaluk.

On the Good Reading Podcast, Chloe shares her own experience of the fires that swept past her house in Northern Victoria, discusses the role and response of governments when it comes to managing fires on a rapidly warming planet, and helps to answer the burning question: what kind of person is an arsonist?

Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or any other app by searching the Good Reading Podcast.