NT Writers Centre
The NT Writers’ Centre acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters on which work, create and live – the Larrakia and Arrernte people – and of all the countries that we journey through. We pay our respects to Elders – past, present and emerging.
The NT Writers Centre supports, develops and showcases vibrant writing and storytelling in the Northern Territory – celebrating the unique contribution of NT stories and storytellers to Australia’s cultural identity.
Our cornerstone event – the NT Writers Festival – is the Northern Territory’s premier literary showcase. Held alternately in Mparntwe | Alice Springs and Garrmalang | Darwin, and shaped by place, it is a festival like no other: bringing readers, writers and storytellers together in an annual celebration of ideas, words, stories, culture and languages that showcases our unique NT culture and rich First Nations heritage.
NT Writers Radio features audio from annual NT Writers Festivals
2024 NT Writers Festival (Garrmalang | Darwin
In 2024, the NT Writers Festival returned to Larrakia country, Darwin. The NTWF was centred around the theme Reverberations, discussing the effects of our past, present and future as we think about the consequences of our actions. This requires us to see the world and ourselves relationally, and encourages us to look beyond ourselves to the vast and interconnected networks in which we are embedded.
Writers festivals are, by their nature, places where words reverberate – ideas are exchanged, stories shared, perspectives aired. The words we hear at a writers festival can echo in our minds long after the sessions have finished, connecting and inspiring us.
There are 10 podcasts from the 2024 NTWF program, each a recording of a curated panel discussion.
Theme music composed by Vito Lucarelli.
2023 NT Writers Festival (Mparntwe | Alice Springs)
In a world full of distractions, how do we take the time to listen deeply – to ourselves, to others, to the natural world? How do we shift our attention to the things that matter?
In 2023, NTWF was held in Mparntwe and explored the theme of mwantye-le awaye | listen deeply. In Arrernte, mwantye-le awaye means to listen closely, to give things attention.
Deep, careful listening encourages understanding and awareness. It entails an openness or receptivity – to other people and ways of being in the world, to other species and the living land around us. It also involves listening to ourselves, as Arrernte Elder Kumalie Riley explains, giving ourselves the space to hear inner thoughts or feelings before responding or acting.
This festival we invite readers, writers and lovers of stories to come together and listen deeply – to each other, and to a diverse line-up of writers from across the country as they speak truths and share stories that help us hear the land, as well as the reverberations of the past and the possibility of a different future.
NT Writers Festival Podcasts
2 Dec 2024, 10:41pm NTWF 2024 – Aftermaths – The Ethics of True Crime How do you pick up the threads of an unsolved mystery and weave them into a compelling story? How do you navigate the trauma and emotions of those living in the aftermath of terrible crimes? What are the ethics involved in telling other peoples stories, especially when they are no longer around to speak for themselves? And to what degree do you become an advocate in cases of injustice? Join Walkley award-winning journalists, Caroline Graham, Dan Box, and Kylie Stevenson, for a deep dive into what it takes to write ethically considered true crime. This panel is facilitated by Jennifer Pinkerton.
2 Dec 2024, 10:32pm NTWF 2024 – The Juggle Is Real Sleepless nights, teething problems, school runs, nappies. Juggling the demands and responsibilities of caring for children with creative pursuits is no mean feat! So how, amidst the pressures of parenthood, does one maintain an artistic practice? How to carve out space for solitude creativity, while being available for you kids? Join five inspiring artists for a candid discussion about the joys and challenges of parenting while pursuing a career in the arts. This panel was curated by Melanie Mununggurr, is facilitated by Jess Ong, and features Ciella Williams, Emcille, Hope One, Juran Adams, and Melanie Mununggurr.
2 Dec 2024, 10:32pm NTWF 2024 – Murli la – Ngarukuruwala Women's Group In the remote Tiwi Islands, a 20-strong group of female Elders have been coming together to sing for decades, composing and performing songs that hold cultural, genealogical, geographical and spiritual knowledge passed down through thousands of years. A joint project by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and Hardie Grant, Murli-la is a beautifully designed book that shares these many lifetimes of sung knowledge. In this unforgettable book talk, members of the Ngarukuruwala Women's Group – Elaine Tiparui, Jacinta Tipungwuit and Mary Elizabeth Moreen – are joined by their musical collaborator and co-author, Genevieve Campbell, and ILF's Tictac Moore to discuss Tiwi culture and the process of creating this richly layered book.
2 Dec 2024, 10:25pm NTWF 2024 – Living With The Past In a world where there are fewer shared rituals of mourning and we are frequently exposed to images of destruction online, how do we begin to properly grieve? How does personal loss become intertwined with public or communal loss? And how does the past continue to make itself felt in the present? This panel features Charlotte Wood, Debra Dank, Izzy Roberts-Orr, and Jacinta Halloran, and is facilitated by Rita Horanyi.
2 Dec 2024, 10:20pm NTWF 2024 – After The Storm Cyclone Tracey was a cataclysmic event that destroyed 80 percent of Darwin and killed 66 people. The disaster changed the city irrevocably and, nearly 50 years on, its reverberations continue to be felt. In Tracy – 50 Years, 50 Stories, historians Derek Pugh OAM and Richard Creswick meticulously gather together 50 stories from those who were in Darwin when the cyclone hit. Featuring previously unheard testimonies, this compelling new oral history offers insights into the experiences of ordinary people under harrowing circumstances. Derek and Richard are joined Curator of Territory History at MAGNT, Jared Archibald, for a wide-ranging discussion about remembering Cyclone Tracy and its lingering impacts. This panel is facilitated by Kylie Stevenson.
2 Dec 2024, 10:12pm NTWF 2024 – Queering The Narrative How are contemporary queer writers finding new ways to voice their experiences? How do they build on the rich history of queer writing before them, and how do they subvert different styles and genres? What still needs to be done to ensure better representation of the diversity of LGBTQIA+ experience in literature and publishing? Join three writers from the LGBTQIA+ community working across a range of forms for a broad-ranging discussion about how queer narratives are changing, and how they work to shift dominant cultural perspectives. This panel features Benjamin Law, Clare Bizley, and Sam Elkin, and is facilitated by Cj Fraser-Bell.
2 Dec 2024, 10:03pm NTWF – The Future of Storytelling With the rise of AI, the popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, and the overwhelming amount of online content being produced, what constitutes 'literature' is changing. How are new technologies reshaping storytelling? What new forms are emerging? Join four panellists working in a broad range of genres and forms as they discuss what they think the future has in store for storytelling, canvassing everything from AI to animation. This panel features Barry Jonsberg, Caroline Graham, Kate Mildenhall, and Timothy Parish, and is facilitated by Laura Lewis.
2 Dec 2024, 9:54pm NTWF 2024 – The Shadows of History Join Burruberongal novelist of the Darug Aboriginal Nation, Julie Janson, and historian of the colonial frontier, Robyn Smith, for a discussion about uncovering forgotten events, and the long shadows cast by history. Julie Janson's latest novel, Compassion, is the dramatised life story of one of her ancestors, who was put on trial for stealing livestock. It is a rollicking and violent tale of anti-colonial revenge that depicts the dangerous lives Aboriginal women were forced to lead in 1800s Australia. Robyn Smith's recently published history, License to Kill: Massacre Men of Australia's North, is a long overdue reckoning with the widespread violence of the NT frontier. It chronicles events that were wilfully forgotten, and reveals how they were part of a broader pattern of violence and dispossession that was repeated across the continent. Together, these authors discuss how the past has been memorialised and (mis)remembered, and the urgent need for truthtelling if our country is to move forward from its troubled history. This panel is facilitated by Meredith Lake. Content warning: this conversation refers to historical events that some may find distressing, especially those who identify as First Nations.
2 Dec 2024, 9:48pm NTWF 2024 – Taking a Joke Taking a joke and running with it can be harder work than you think. So how do writers go about being amusing? Is it something you're born with or can it be learnt? How do you keep a room in stitches, and how do you introduce levity into heavier subjects? Join four funny storytellers as they spill the beans on what it takes to make people laugh, and why they use humour to share their message with audiences. This panel features Amy Hetherington, Barry Jonsberg, and Sean Guy, and is facilitated by Marieke Hardy.
2 Dec 2024, 12:21pm NTWF 2024 – Stone Yard Devotional – Charlotte Wood The author of seven novels and three books of nonfiction, many of which have won prestigious awards, Charlotte Wood is one of the country's most critically acclaimed writers. Her latest novel, Stone Yard Devotional, was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, making her the first Australian to be shortlisted since 2014. The novel is a moving and meditative exploration of grief, and the possibility of solace in a time of looming climate catastrophe. Masterful and restrained, Stone Yard Devotional grapples with questions of morality, forgiveness and whether we can ever fully mourn what has been lost. Tune in to hear Charlotte Wood discuss the inspiration for her most personal work yet with writer, scholar and critic, Nicholas Jose.
6 Oct 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – A Minor Chorus – Billy-Ray Belcourt A writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation, Billy-Ray Belcourt is a rising literary star. His debut book of poetry, This Wound is a World, won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize. His second collection of poems, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, and his collection of essays and vignettes, A History of My Brief Body, were both bestsellers. Joining us livestreamed from Vancouver, Billy-Ray discusses his brilliant debut novel, A Minor Chorus. An incisive and moving exploration of what it means to be queer and Indigenous today. A Minor Chorus weaves conversations, interviews and stories of grief and survival in a North Alberta community with lyrical existential reflections. A Minor Chorus explores how the self is entangled with the social, the sayable with what remains unsaid, and how we can breach the prisons we live inside. Billy-Ray is in conversation with Alyawarr scholar, Kathryn Gilbey.
29 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Morning Meditations – Uti Kulintjaku Clear your mind and learn about the Pitjantjatjara concept of listening in this special presentation by Alison Milyika (Tjulapi) Carroll and Margaret Smith from the NPY Women's Council Uti Kulintjaku Collective. Be guided through a Pitjantjatjara meditation, and learn about the work of the collective and about the words ‘kulintjaku/kulintja/kulini’, which combine concepts of both listening and understanding. In Pitjantjatjara, uti kulintjaku means ‘clear thinking with an intention to understand'. The Uti Kulintjaku initiative brings together ngangkari, senior Indigenous women, and western health professionals to explore mental health concepts from both Aboriginal and western perspectives. Interpreter Kathy Tozer translated from Pitjantjatjara for this session supported by NPY Women's Council. This podcast contains the Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) of the nangkari (traditional healers) and senior women from Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands.Dealing with any part of this traditional knowledge for any purpose not authorised by the custodians may be a breach of their ICIP.
22 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Horse by Geraldine Brooks Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist, Geraldine Brooks, joins us via livestream from Sydney to discuss her sweeping historical novel, Horse. Weaving together the tale of a painting discarded in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the true story of America’s greatest racehorse, Horse is a multi-layered novel that reckons with the corrosive legacy of slavery and racism in America. Revered for her ability to vividly evoke the textures of different historical eras, Geraldine appears in conversation with Alex Barwick. This event was presented in partnership with Sydney Writers' Festival.
15 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Solidarity and Survival In this powerful panel, three queer First Nations writers with ancestral connections to different continents – Ellen van Neerven (Mununjali Yugambeh), Victoria Alondra (Mestizx), and Billy-Ray Belcourt (Driftpile Cree) – discuss how they survive and resist oppressive social structures, finding love, joy and solidarity in community, culture and country, as well as through writing and art. This conversation is facilitated by Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic, Jeanine Leane. Billy-Ray Belcourt joins the conversation via videolink from Vancouver. CW: This discussion briefly references suicidal ideation.
8 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Voices Of Nature How can we hear what the non-human world has to tell us? How can writers and storytellers translate this ‘voice’ into art, opening us up to new ways of listening and being attentive? And how might activists conceive of the voices of nature in order to defend the rights of the environment? This discussion features Yankunytjatjara poet Ali Cobby Eckermann, author Chris Flynn and journalist Maria Taylor. Facilitated by Kate Rendell. This panel was supported by Magabala Books. CW: This episode discusses the experience of a survivor of the Stolen Generations and instances of colonial violence.
1 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Unsettling Narratives of the Past Three practitioners of historical fiction – Anita Heiss AM, Geraldine Brooks and Christopher Raja – discuss how their writing challenges dominant narratives of the past. Anita Heiss’ award-winning novel, BilaYarrudhalangdhuanggray, is an epic tale of love, loss, belonging, and the struggle for freedom, told through the eyes of a young Wiradyuri woman named Wagadhaany. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks’ latest novel, Horse, is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America. Christopher Raja’s forthcoming novel explores the experiences of Afghan cameleers in Australia, finding their way in a strange new place. Facilitated by Eleanor Hogan, with Geraldine joining from Sydney by videolink. This panel was sponsored by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
25 Aug 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – The Voice To Parliament Handbook In this timely panel, author and Uluru Statement from the Heart campaigner, Thomas Mayo, is joined by esteemed journalist, Kerry O’Brien, to discuss their new book, TheVoicetoParliamentHandbook. Designed to answer common queries about how The Voice might operate, The Voice toParliamentHandbook is an accessible and engaging guide to this important topic. Facilitated by Wardaman woman and Executive Manager of Policy and Governance at the Central Land Council, Josie Douglas, this lively discussion is your chance to hear from advocates of The Voice and to learn more. This event was presented in partnership with NT Press Club.
