Swimming Salon
Description
Willy Lit Fest’s evergreen Swimming Salon returns in 2026 with readings from Romy Ash, Thuy On and Luke Johnson on the themes of swimming, the beach, and bodies of water. The Salon will be followed by a wintry morning dip in the ocean - an optional addition for our bravest attendees!
Lineup
Romy Ash
Romy Ash is the author of Floundering, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, Commonwealth Book Prize and Prime Minister’s literary awards; and a children’s picture book called As Bright as a Rainbow. She was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists of the Year Award for 2013. She has been published in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, The Griffith Review, Meanjin, Best Australian Short Stories and Best Australian Essays, among others. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne with her family.
Thuy On
Thuy On is an arts journalist, critic, editor and poet. She has three collections of poetry published by UWAP: Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). Her fourth collection, Insolence, will be published in early 2027.
Luke Johnson
Luke is a writer from Ocean Grove, on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. He is married with two daughters. He is a physiotherapist by trade, combining this with his love of reading and writing. A fan of literary fiction, crime fiction, and strong Australian-facing narratives and overtones, his debut, King Tide, was released in August 2025 through Affirm Press / Simon & Schuster.
Emily Westmoreland
Emily Westmoreland runs Dinner Party Press. She was the Program Director for Willy Lit Fest 2023-2025 and co-founded the Desperate Literature Prize for Short Fiction. In 2023, she was the Penguin Random House Young Bookseller of the Year.
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