BROKEN Hill Library will be streaming over 20 headline sessions from the Sydney Writer’s Festival next week through the festival’s Live and Local program.
From May 22 to 25, talks from authors like Diary of a Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney, 2024 Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey, crime novelist Ian Rankin and more will be livestreamed to the library, where they can be watched for free.
Artistic director of the festival Ann Mossop said the Live and Local program allows regional communities who don’t often have access to writers festivals a chance to engage with the talks and one another.
“One of the charms of a festival is not just that you’re getting to connect with somebody whose work you love or discovering a new writer,” she said.
“It’s also the fact that you’re with other people, there’s a really social part of it.
“Reading and writing are both quite solitary activities and there’s something really fantastic about the in-person connection of a festival experience.”
Ms Mossop said that the Live and Local program will see the festival stream to over 140 partners across Australia.
“It’s a really extensive program, from Broken Hill to the far reaches of Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland,” she said.
“We share some of the most important programming from the festival with those audiences and different organisations, very many libraries, also some community centres and art centres, and they welcome their local community in to watch the livestream together.”
A schedule of the livestreamed talks can be found at the libary.
