CANBERRA WRITERS FESTIVAL
Join us for a joyful collision of art-makers, big thinkers, and storytellers as we kick off the national literary calendar this spring
Verity Lane Market is proud to be hosting part of the 2026 Canberra Writers Festival program in Louie Louie and Juliet rooms.
Grab something to eat before or after, grab a drink (or two) and enjoy the fantastic events of the program!
PROGRAM
Friday 16th October - 6PM
Elaine Castillo -
Cyberspace of Castillo with Emma Pei Yin
Don’t miss the exciting voice of Elaine Castillo sharing her literary cyberworld with Emma Pei Yin. With great fanfare San Fran author Castillo is joining us with Girlie – a thirty-something Filipinx-American who levels-up from her social media job to moderating virtual reality theme parks! Can true love overcome the darkness sitting at the heart of the company’s code?
Stephen Fishbach is a Survivor legend. In 2008, he was runner-up on the U.S. TV show, and in 2015, he was voted by fans to return for an all-star season. But you might not know he’s also a prize-winning novelist, speechwriter and podcast star. He joins fellow author and contestant on Australian Survivor: Brains vs Brawn, Wai Chim to shed light on the entertainment machine of reality TV and its creative triumphs, heartbreaks and devastations.
Join Georgie Tunny, Josh Hortinela and Emma Pei Yin and celebrate quarter-life, a time of figuring out adulthood while bagging a dazzling career and finding true love…or not! Georgie brings us a tale of friendship in the cut-throat world of TV news as only she could tell it. Josh gives us a book tour from hell and homage to romantic comedy. Can the characters please admit they’re miserable and find their true selves?
In partnership with HerCanberra.
Marc Fennell and Matt Bevan are fascinated by the remarkable tales, people and objects of history. The times we’re living in have more of us than ever asking tricky questions. How can we learn from what has come before us? Can we identify the people, events and innovations that will change the course of time? Who do the objects of history belong to? Come listen to these two heroes of history trade their favourite twisty tales!
Hosted by Amy Remeikis
Feel like the party is over? You’ve tried fashion design, yoga, saving endangered species and you’re running out of options? It’s time to head to Mars! It will be a bender of an adventure and why don’t we swing by a Canberra school reunion before we leave? Novelist and screenwriter Jordan Prosser will read from, and reflect on, his savagely funny and tender work about millennial ennui. BYO space suit. Hosted by Erin Cross.