True Story Festival

Welcome to True Story 2023, a showcase of some of the best creative non-fiction in Australia today.

Fiction gets a lot of attention at other festivals - but True Story Festival's focus is on real life, true stories because they have a direct, relatable relevance, and their unique perspectives may help us navigate this increasingly complex world.  It’s not just the planet that is overheating, sometimes it’s the temperature of debate. 

This year at True Story (Stranger Than Fiction) you’ll find memoirs ranging from the humorous to the spiritual, together with voices sharing ideas about community resilience, cultural identity, local media and regional food, Dharawal language and First Nations knowledge sharing, and the courage it takes to become one of our finest investigative journalists.

SCHEDULE

SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER

11.30AM-1.30PM
THINK GLOBAL, WRITE LOCAL
WORKSHOP with Alan Sunderland

Join respected journalist, author of The Ten Rules of Reporting and former ABC Editorial Director Alan Sunderland to learn key principles of telling local stories for local readers.

This invaluable workshop will appeal to all those interested in writing narrative factual content, including podcasters and issue-driven activists as well as those with a special interest in being part of the regional journalism renaissance that is providing a platform for new voices. Combining practical, professional skills with a grounding in ethical guidelines, this is an unmissable opportunity for anyone who wants to play a part in communications and local and regional media, no matter how modest or small the enterprise.

2:15 - DOORS OPEN

2.30-2.40PM WELCOME TO COUNTRY
Jodi Edwards

2.40-3.40PM KEYNOTE ADDRESS: AFTERBURN

Bronwyn Adcock

Bronwyn Adcock won the Walkley Book Award for Currowan, her extraordinary moment-by-moment account of the mega fire that ripped through the south coast. The Currowan fire – ignited by a lightning strike in a remote forest and growing to engulf the New South Wales South Coast - was one of the most terrifying episodes of Australia’s Black Summer. 

She delivers an exclusive, specially commissioned keynote address about the tensions that have arisen as affected south coast communities face the grim realities of climate change and strive together for recovery and resilience. As we again face the imminent threat of an El Nino summer, what lessons can be wrought from the tragedy of the fires? 

4-5PM DHARAWAL LANGUAGE
Jodi Edwards with David Roach

Following her hugely popular introduction to the Dharawal language at last year’s festival, join Yuin woman with Dharawal kinship Dr Jodi Edwards as she teaches us words for food from her most recent book, an illustrated collection of recipes, Dharawal Bush Tucker: Bawa Dhanjma.

5.15-6.15PM LAUGHING AND CRYING
Wendy Harmer with Caroline Baum

Best known as a stand-up comedian and radio broadcaster, in Lies My Mirror Told Me, Wendy Harmer has written a startlingly candid memoir about her disfigurement at birth and a childhood that made no allowance for self-pity, as well as her rise to the top of the international comedy scene and being the most highly paid woman on radio. Behind the scenes, things were not always as jaunty as they seemed. Unique, brave, uninhibited and fearless, Wendy Harmer has a story to tell unlike any other. 

Stay for dinner with our neighbours COLEDALE RSL!

SUNDAY 19 NOVEMBER 

9:45AM - DOORS OPEN

10-11AM TRUTH TELLER
Chris Masters with Margaret Throsby

A titan of investigative journalism, multi award-winning journalist and author Chris Masters talks to one of Australia’s most loved interviewers, Margaret Throsby, about his childhood on the far south coast, his remarkable career investigating the powerful and the corrupt and the personal toll of uncovering the truth. This promises to be an eye-opening event. 

11.15AM-12.15PM BELONGING AND OTHER CHALLENGES
Eda Gunaydin with Sarah Ayoub

Turkish Australian writer Eda Gunaydin won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for her fiery debut collection of essays, Root and Branch, in which she combines personal memoir with her thoughts on class, capital, inherited trauma and what it means to belong. A modern-day millennial, Eda combines raw honesty with fierce analysis and humour in her writing – the result is bracing, confronting, and offers a powerful insight into often uncomfortable topics. 

12.15-1PM LUNCH SESSION: HUNGER GAMES
Fiona Weir Walmsley with Nick Rheinberger

In a mouthwatering session, Gerringong cheesemaker and farmer Fiona Weir Walmsley shares the story of running Buena Vista Farm with ABC Illawarra broadcaster Nick Rheinberger. She tells him about learning to ferment foods, grow coffee, run a cooking school and what prompted her to write From Scratch, a user-friendly, money-wise, un-preachy collection of simple recipes including pantry staples and basics.

To go with this session, you can order a specially prepared lunchbox from our friends at Earthwalker Cafe in a collaboration with Buena Vista Farm. Lunchbox includes Ancient grain pilaf w/ organic kale, nuts, currant and saltbush, Mat rush crumbed and bulgar falafel, Davidson plum roasted pumpkin, Zesty finger lime hummus, Kelp salted flatbread and Buena Vista beetroot relish. It can be ordered with the addition of Buena Vista cheese, or gluten-free.

1-2PM CONSTELLATIONS AND CONSOLATIONS
Indira Naidoo with Caroline Baum

When much-loved edible gardener and broadcaster Indira Naidoo lost her sister, her grief led her to find consolation and a new appreciation of life in the most unexpected places. The result was her bestselling memoir, The Space Between the Stars. Today, she shares some of the personal insights she gained from looking more closely at the world around her. 

2.15-3PM SHOW ME THE MONEY
Jack Manning Bancroft with Jeremy Lasek

In the newly released Hoodie Economics, inspirational CEO and founder of AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience), local social entrepreneur and Bunjalung man Jack Manning Bancroft embraces Indigenous thinking to offer transformational solutions to our current crises. If you want to be part of the solution, come and listen to a mind-expanding thinker who offers refreshingly optimistic alternatives of how we can be more inclusive, share knowledge and do things better.

3.15-4.15PM FUNNY STORIES OF FAILURE
Jackie Dent and Siobhan McHugh with Malika Reese

Wrapping up the festival, two very game authors tell tales of unexpected moments of hilarity, humiliation and horror in the line of duty. Join podcast guru, Walkley award-winner and local author Siobhan McHugh (The Power of Podcasting, The Snowy: A History) and author Jackie Dent (The Great Dead Body Teachers) as they share their true stories with Malika Reese. 

Join us for festival drinks at our neighbours COLEDALE RSL!

TRUE STORY IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ILLAWARRA FLAME AND SOUTH COAST WRITERS CENTRE

WITH FUNDING FROM CULTURE BANK AND SUPPORT FROM COLEDALE RSL AND COLLINS THIRROUL