October 11-12, 2025
Uniting Church Hall, 66 Highett St, Mansfield
Join us in the heart of Victoria’s High Country for a weekend celebrating stories, ideas, and the people who tell them. Across two days you’ll hear from award-winning voices in four lively Saturday panels, an unmissable Saturday evening event, a hands-on writing workshop and two more thought-provoking panels on Sunday.
Our 2025 theme—Place and Belonging—invites conversations about the landscapes that shape us, the communities we call home, and the forces that challenge them.
Whether you’re a passionate reader, a curious writer, or simply love a good conversation, the Mansfield Readers & Writers Festival offers a chance to connect, reflect, and be inspired.
Follow the link for more about the amazing authors appearing at our festival. Download the program here. Tickets are now available. You can get a weekend pass, or select individual events. Membership rates apply.
Saturday, October 11th
(Coincidentally, this is also Love Your Bookshop Day.)
9:30am Welcome
Introduction to the festival.
10:00am Scene or Seen at the Crime: Place or People?
Margaret Hickey, Mark Smith, Sulari Gentill in conversation with Andrea Barton.
Bestselling authors, Marg Hickey (An Ill Wind), Sulari Gentill (Five Found Dead) and Mark Smith (Three Boys Gone) will be led by Andrea Barton (The Godfather of Dance) in a discussion about writing thriller and crime novels. Does the place or the people drive their narrative? From writing a killer opening scene to the connection between setting and characters … find out from the best.
11:30am A Place of Loss, Longing and Light
Dani Netherclift, Tony Birch, Maggie Mackellar in conversation with Jayne Tuttle.
Tony Birch (Women & Children), Maggie Mackellar (Graft) and Dani Netherclift (Vessel)’s books explore the depths of grief, joy and all that’s in-between. How to not succumb to the sadness and deep emotional challenges of their stories? How does a writer dig right into the sinews of human experience without coming apart themselves? How to make stories rooted in personal experience strike universal themes? How to balance light and shade? Jayne Tuttle (Paris or Die) will reach in and pull apart what makes these staggering storytellers’ work move and thrill us.
2:00pm The Australian Reader: Who Are We?
Tony Birch, Sulari Gentill, Jock Serong, Karen Viggers in conversation with Margaret Hickey.
Tony Birch (The White Girl), Sulari Gentill (The Mystery Writer), Jock Serong (Cherrywood) and Karen Viggers (Sidelines) have all written award winning, bestselling novels. In this panel, crime writer Margaret Hickey (The Creeper) asks what they read, who they write for and how the Australian reader has evolved. In a world where Tik Tok and Instagram can sell or sink a novel, do writers have to be cognizant of the changing concerns and interests of their readers? What role do festivals and awards play in determining who gets read, and is there a place these days for writers who want to ignore all noise and just crack on?
3:30pm The Creativity of Memory: The Blurred Lines of Truth
Maggie Mackellar, Ya Reeves, Jayne Tuttle in conversation with Kate Mildenhall.
Maggie Mackellar (Graft), Ya Reeves (Over This Backbone) and Jayne Tuttle (The Sea in the Metro) have all written compelling and revealing memoirs and autofiction, but how do authors decide what to reveal and when to hold back? What is their obligation to readers? What do they get to keep to themselves? How do they deal with subjective memories and the other people who they deliberately or inadvertently write about? Moderator Kate Mildenhall (The Motherfault) will deep dive with these three writers on the balancing act and creative challenges of writing intimate memories.
6:00pm The Hypothetical
Hosted by Sandy (A.J.) Mackinnon with Jacinta Parsons, David Lindenmayer, Tony Birch, Robert Skinner, Kate Mildenhall, Jock Serong.
Based on Geoffrey Robertson’s famed television show of the same name, this literary soiree has local author and identity Sandy (A.J.) Mackinnon (The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow) present a list of possible scenarios to a panel of six unsuspecting writers, who must respond on the spot to increasingly convoluted, humorous twists and turns of a hypothetical journey of Sandy’s making. Included in the ticket price is a glass of local wine, a gin and tonic or something non-alcoholic to enjoy while you sit back and watch the story unfold!
Sunday, October 12th
9:30am Welcome
Introduction to the day.
10:00am Brumbies, Burning and the Big Blue
Ya Reeves, David Lindenmayer, Mark Smith in conversation with Jock Serong.
Jock Serong (Preservation) in conversation with three passionate Australian nature writers, Professor David Lindenmayer (The Forest Wars), Ya Reeves (Over This Backbone) and Mark Smith (Three Boys Gone), on the elements that fire their imaginations: the stuff of dreams and nightmares, and the imagery that’s irresistible when they sit down to write.
11:30am Sugar & Spice & All Things Nice…
Ya Reeves, Jayne Tuttle, Kate Mildenhall and Robert Skinner in conversation with Jacinta Parsons.
Join author and much loved radio personality Jacinta Parsons (A Wisdom of Age) as she chats with Ya Reeves (Over This Backbone), Kate Mildenhall (The Hiding Place), Jayne Tuttle (Paris or Die) and a very brave Robert Skinner (I’d Rather Not) about what a ‘sense of self’ entails for women in life and as authors, where youth and ageing seem to be a constant part of the narrative, and what role does sex play in writing literally and figuratively?
10:00am Wild Words: Writing about Nature & Place Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop with Karen Viggers at Mansfield Library, Collopy St, Mansfield.
Sea, sky, mountain, forest. Any of these can be a source of inspiration. Even your own backyard or garden. In this 2-hour workshop, you will use your senses, memory, stories and thoughts to reconnect with your favourite wild places. You will discuss tips and triggers for writing about nature, then respond to prompts to dive deep into places that speak to you, wherever those might be.
Please bring a notebook and pen plus a small item and a photo that reminds you of a special place or moment in nature that you have experienced (this can be two separate places).
Karen is the author of five internationally bestselling novels: The Stranding, The Lightkeeper’s Wife, The Grass Castle, The Orchardist’s Daughter and Sidelines.
1:00pm Close of Festival
The close of our festival will also celebrate the launch of our Scrub Anthology, featuring the longlisted authors from the High Country Words Writing Competition.
