When an Australian author of Mem Fox’s calibre not only asks to return for the third year of your literary festival, but also lobbies — albeit unsuccessfully — the State Government on her own accord for event funding, it becomes the best kind of validation Festival of Fiction creative director Tess Woods could imagine.
“Mem said it’s one of the best-run events she has ever attended,” says Woods, who herself is a local author of The Venice Hotel and upcoming new release The Cairo Bridal Shop.
“After last year’s festival, I had no less than 30 authors write to me personally afterwards to say what a wonderful festival it was and how much they enjoyed meeting readers. The lighthearted, community nature of our festival is a winner.”
In the event’s biggest year yet, Festival of Fiction 2026 will bring together more than 80 Australian authors, 10 publishing executives, and 1200 readers and writers at Edith Cowan University Joondalup across one huge weekend in November.
Two theatres will run concurrently, with the Readers’ Theatre featuring back-to-back panels across numerous topics where many of Australia’s most favourite authors will be in conversation with new and upcoming local talents.
The Writers’ Theatre will host mini masterclasses run by bestselling authors, as well as publishing industry panels.
There will also be in-person pitching opportunities for aspiring writers to book one-on-one sessions with Australian publishers and literary agents to pitch their manuscripts.
“Our (volunteer) team takes the curation of this festival very seriously trying to find the right balance between inviting authors who will get bums on seats, as well as making sure we showcase our new and emerging local authors, along with including authors who represent marginalised groups so that writers and readers can see themselves represented on stage,” Woods explains.
“I agonised over this year’s list for months. I started planning it the week after last year’s festival. I felt heartbroken at the number of authors I had to say no to, only because we are limited by budget and space.”
This year’s author line-up heading to Perth features the aforementioned Fox, Monica McInerney, Kate Morton, Graeme Simsion, Sofie Laguna, Pip Williams, Sally Hepworth, Siang Lu, Christos Tsiolkas, Tara Moss, Toni Jordan, Kelly Rimmer, JP Pomare, Kate Forsyth and Tierney Page.
Local talent will include Dervla McTiernan, Sasha Wasley, Holden Sheppard, Rachael Johns, Michael Trant, Anthea Hodgson, Natasha Lester, Sara Foster, and Woods in her final year at the helm of the festival.
Woods started Festival of Fiction in 2024 with the aim to see the kind of literary festival in Perth that she would love to attend — showcasing popular fiction in a light and breezy fashion.
“Traditional writers’ festival will often lean more heavily towards non-fiction and literary fiction and poetry, but I wasn’t seeing many genre fiction authors platformed despite their commercial success,” Woods recounts.
“I also wanted readers to have a chance to get up close and personal with their favourite authors from the Eastern States, as well as introducing them to the wonderful local fiction authors they may not have discovered yet.
“It’s rare for Perth writers to be invited to interstate festivals because of the flight and accommodation costs, so I wanted a space that gave our popular fiction authors a chance to get in front of big crowds. And for aspiring writers, having the opportunity to meet publishers and agents in real life to pitch their manuscripts — that was definitely a driving factor. I wanted to see more WA authors being published with the ‘big five’ publishing houses.”
Equal parts exhausting and enthralling to bring this vision to life, Woods says the festival’s success has been so rewarding, filling her heart as someone who has always been passionate about building community.
Unfortunately, directing a festival of this magnitude is an awful lot of work, unsustainable as an ongoing unpaid role when juggled between working in her physiotherapy clinic and honouring her Penguin Random House contract to publish a novel every two years.
“We are incredibly lucky in that a whole new committee of volunteer Perth writers has stepped up and agreed to take the festival forward, led by wonderful Perth author and librarian Nattie Kate Mason who curated the Kalamunda Writers’ Festival in 2025,” she says.
Until then, anything that builds community is worthwhile for Woods, which is exactly what Festival of Fiction has achieved since the literary event’s inception.
“Reading and writing are both solitary endeavours, so this festival gets us all out of our houses and coming together with other book lovers, celebrating with each other our love of fictional stories,” she highlights.
“It’s also great for writers embarking on a career to learn from more experienced authors and to be able to meet and hear from publishers . . . it gives authors and readers a chance to connect with each other and that’s always really special.
“Most of all, I hope people have fun. The world can be a brutal place sometimes, so for one weekend a year we can leave the world behind and escape into a world of fiction.”
Festival of Fiction is at ECU Joondalup, November 21 to 22. Program and tickets available from 8am, July 18 at festivaloffiction.com.au.
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