Inaugural Terror Australis Festival program launched

The program for the inaugural Terror Australis Readers and Writers Festival, which runs in various locations in Tasmania’s Huon Valley from 31 October to 3 November, has been announced.

With the Agatha Christie-inspired theme of Murder She Wrote, the festival will include masterclasses, workshops, literary discussions and a Murder Mystery Party, with a 1920s Cairo theme. Featured writers include Tara Moss, Kerry Greenwood, Lindy Cameron, Angela Savage, Angela Meyer, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Meg Keneally, L J M Owen, Jack Heath and David Owen.

A two-day eating, cooking and crafting event program, the Trail of Writers’ Tears, offers self-drive trips to wineries, cheeseries and galleries as well as ticketed events.

Festival director L J M Owen, who moved to Tasmania from Canberra two years ago, said: ‘When I arrived, there wasn’t a literary festival in the south of the island. The Tasmanian Writers Festival had folded. More recently, the Hobart Writers Festival has been launched but, naturally, it is orientated toward Tasmanian writing … By contrast, TAF 2019 looks mostly to the world outside.’

Owen added: ‘I was also exhilarated by the sheer beauty of the Huon Valley where there has never been a writers’ festival. I set myself the challenge of bringing people from everywhere to celebrate crime fiction in all its guises in a warm, friendly and physically stunning environment. The theme Murder She Wrote indicates that women’s crime writing features prominently in the program, but male writers whose work is female friendly are also given a voice.’

For more information, visit the Terror Australis website here.

Category: Festivals Local news