Event: Australia - Brisbane

Brisbane Writers Festival

When:	17 - 21 Sep 2008 (annual)
Where:	Brisbane

The Brisbane Writers Festival is a spirited annual event which promotes Australian and international writers and writing through readings, lectures and workshops. With events at venues across the city, it is ideal for budding authors.

More than 25,000 book lovers take advantage of the city's balmy spring weather to indulge their interest at the dedicated festival precinct on the banks of the Brisbane River. The event prides itself on producing a programme that embraces as many forms of writing as possible, bringing together an eclectic range of writers and addressing issues that stir the hearts and minds of participants and audiences alike.

Recent authors and personalities to have visited have included, from the UK, Jasper Fforde, creator of an alternative literary universe with ace operative Thursday Next as his hero, and Alexander McCall Smith, whose character Mme Ramotswe, Botswana's first lady detective, has taken the world by storm. The seedier side of crime has been represented by Scottish writer Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus, while home-grown authors have included Orange Award winner Kate Grenville, Alex Miller and Richard Flanagan. In addition there are always a plethora of poets, playwrights, biographers and all-round bibliophiles.