Murrumburrah Harden Writers' Festival
Description
Ink & Echoes: Storytelling in the Shadow and Light
Welcome to our inaugural Writers’ Festival in our twin towns of Harden Murrumburrah. Our program this year encompasses four genres – grief, fantasy, crime and true-life reporting. We have four fantastic authors to explore these themes through informal conversations.
Detailed descriptions of our four authors can be found below.
The festival will be held in our historic Murrumburrah Court House. It is in a quiet area and there is plenty of parking around the building. We plan to start at 9.30 so please arrive between 9-9.15am. We can comfortably accommodate 60 attendees so purchase your tickets early. There are a variety of food outlets available for coffee break and lunch. Further information will be emailed to attendees prior to our event.
Lineup
Macy Henderson
The Echo (Grief) – explores what remains in the wake of loss, processing personal and collective mourning though narrative. Macy Henderson is a mental health advocate and community worker from regional NSW. Drawing on both professional and lived experience, she is passionate about grief support, suicide prevention and creating honest conversations around mental health. Her memoir, What the Grief? – A Memoir of Love, Loss and Learning to Live with Grief, shares her deeply personal journey of love, loss and learning to live alongside grief.
Lineup
Juliet Lautenbach
The Shadow & The Light (Fantasy) – Uses myth, magical realism, and world-building to process real-world emotions and envisage new possibilities beyond our boundaries. Juliet Lautenbach is an Australian science fiction fantasy author living near Canberra. She has a passion for social history and the Roman world. Juliet has jumped between teaching (mostly Latin) and the Australian Public Service (mostly industry policy) while raising children, cats, dogs, horses, and more than a few chickens and sheep. Juliet’s pseudonym is Anna Lauten. She is the author of the Draconiad, a five-book series. The Silver Sword was published in July 2024; Dragon Gold Dec 2024; Dragon Electrum July 2025; Silver Sentience Feb 2026 and Silver Wizard: A Time Travel Epic to be published in September 2026.
Chris Hammer
The Shadow (Crime) – Examines the breakdown of order, human motivation, moral grey areas, and the search for justice or closure. Chris Hammer is a best-selling, award-winning Australian crime fiction author. His latest book is Full Circle – a stand-alone thriller set in the cut-throat world of financial markets and the uber rich. His nine crime novels have been praised for their sense of place, their intricate plots, their colourful characters and their emotional depth. Three of his books Scrublands, Silver and Treasure & Dirt have been adapted for television, with a new series of Scrublands now in post-production. Chris was a journalist for some 30 years before becoming a full-time writer.
Gabrielle Chan
The Ink (True Life Reporting) – Uncovers real-world facts, bearing witness to raw human experience and grounding the festival in documented truth. Gabrielle Chan is a journalist and author covering rural affairs and politics. She was the inaugural Editor of Guardian Australia’s Rural Network and has worked for News Ltd and the ABC, with essays in Meanjin and Griffith Review. Gabrielle’s books include Rusted Off: Why Country Australia is Fed Up (2018), which was shortlisted for both the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Walkley book prize. Gabrielle’s latest book, Why You Should Give a F**k About Farming (2021), examines how farmers find themselves at the intersection of the world’s existential threats including climate change, geopolitical tensions, soil loss, water shortages and food security and why every eater has a stake in their future.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
