True Story 2024: The State of Us

True Story is back!

True Story Festival is a showcase of some of the best creative non-fiction writing in Australia today. This year’s theme, The State of Us, recognises what a complex and at times bruising year we’ve had. Artistic Director Caroline Baum has curated a series of conversations that prompts us to examine what we have in common rather than what divides us.

Friday 15th November: Workshops and Film Screening
Saturday 16th November: Welcome to Country, Keynote Address with Rick Morton and Sessions with Bruce Pascoe 
Sunday 17th November: Sessions with Rosie Batty and Gina Chick

Super early bird tickets now on sale. Full program announcement 1st October.

FIRST GUESTS ANNOUNCED

Rick Morton has been a journalist and writer for over fifteen years. His first book, One Hundred Years of Dirt, was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the 2019 National Biography Award, longlisted for the 2018 Walkley Book of the Year, and longlisted for both Biography of the Year and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards. In 2019, Rick left The Australian where he worked as the social affairs writer with a particular focus on social policy and is now a senior reporter for The Saturday Paper. Mean Streak (2024) is his latest work.

Bruce Pascoe is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man, a board member of First Languages Australia and of Twofold Aboriginal Corporation. He published and edited the Australian Short Stories magazine between 1982-1999. Dark Emu, the history of Aboriginal agriculture, was published in 2014, shortlisted in the Victorian and Queensland Literature awards, and won the NSW Premier’s Book of the Year in 2016. Bruce received the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in 2018 and the Australian Humanist Award in 2021. His latest books, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra and Imperial Harvest, were both published in 2024.

Rosie Batty has been a passionate campaigner on the issue of family violence since her 11-year-old son, Luke, was killed by his father at cricket practice in February 2014. She won the Pride of Australia Award in 2014, and was named Australian of the Year in January 2015. Rosie’s two memoirs, A Mother’s Story (2015) and Hope (2024), detail the lead-up to her son’s murder, what happened to Rosie the day after the worst day of her life, and how she reclaimed hope when all hope was lost.

Gina Chick is a rewilding facilitator, adventurer, writer and speaker. Writing is in Gina Chick’s genes. Her grandmother, Charmian Clift, was an author, essayist and Australia’s first female columnist in the early 60s. Gina was one of ten participants of the first series of Alone Australia, made by iTV and screened on SBS in 2023. After 67 days of unforgettable moments of searing vulnerability, Gina was the last person standing, and the second woman to win an Alone solo challenge. Her upcoming memoir, We Are the Stars, will be published October 2024.