2026 Program explores ideas, storytelling and civic debate
- Manly Writers' Festival
- Jan 28
- 3 min read
The Manly Writers’ Festival unveils its 2026 program, presenting four days of conversations, readings and performances that examine how stories shape power, identity, belonging and public life in an unsettled world.
Running from 19–22 March 2026, the independently volunteer-run festival, returning for a third successive year, will bring together almost 90 writers, journalists, historians, thinkers and musicians across venues throughout Manly, creating what organisers describe as a ‘Stories Across Manly’ experience — walkable, place-based and connected to community life.
The festival opens on Thursday evening with the inaugural Thomas Keneally Oration, delivered by Keneally himself. Across a career spanning more than six decades, Keneally has written with moral clarity about history, injustice, faith and national identity. His 2026 Oration reflects on writing as a civic act: the responsibility to bear witness, the role of memory in national storytelling, and the enduring power of literature to question and challenge.
Festival Founder and Director Bonita Mersiades said the 2026 program was shaped by a commitment to open inquiry and careful conversation.
“The Manly Writers’ Festival is independent and shaped by our community and the world around us,” says Mersiades.
“We value rigorous discussion without rancour, and we believe stories matter, especially when ideas are complex, contested or unresolved.
“This year’s program brings serious conversations together with storytelling, creating space to listen, think, engage, and entertain.”
Across the four days, the program is organised into thematic pathways, allowing audiences to navigate conversations with shared concerns while mixing genres, formats and perspectives.
The Power, Truth and Accountability pathway examines how power operates inside institutions and public life, bringing together writers and journalists to explore gender and institutional failure, media and democracy, historical truth-telling, and the moral cost of silence. Sessions range from extended roundtables to focused civic briefings, asking what accountability looks like when systems are tested and trust is strained.
In Australia in the World, former diplomats, journalists, scholars and writers examine conflict, diplomacy, capture and global disorder, reflecting on Australia’s place in an increasingly fractured international landscape. The pathway explores geopolitics through lived experience and policy insight, bringing global forces into human focus.
The Country and Who We Are pathway focuses on land, belonging, inheritance and identity, with writers exploring how place, history and migration shape Australian stories across generations. Conversations examine sovereignty, memory and responsibility, asking how stories hold — and sometimes challenge — the ways Australians understand themselves and their past.
The festival’s Living Today and Personal Reckonings pathways turn attention to contemporary life and private experience, with sessions on money, housing, masculinity, faith, sport, grief and resilience. These conversations bring the personal into dialogue with the public, exploring how individuals navigate pressure, rupture and ethical choice in everyday life.
For those interested in writing craft, Stories and Storytellers and So, You Want to Be a Writer? explore how stories are made, shaped and received across fiction, memoir, crime, history and romance, alongside practical workshops on editing, publishing, theatre and professional life.
The program also includes a free Schools Program for Years 9–10 students, focused on truth, voice and storytelling in a noisy information environment.
Special events include the late-night The Night Shift, a live exploration of human creativity in the age of artificial intelligence that combines writers and musicians in an experimental, performance-driven format, and a Sunday morning brunch conversation with Michelle Bridges examining midlife, health, and reinvention.
Now in its third year, the Manly Writers’ Festival remains volunteer-run and independently funded, supported by community partners and donors including the TAG Family Foundation, Fair Play Publishing, the Northern Beaches Council and Multicultural NSW.
Events will be held across galleries, community spaces, clubs and performance venues throughout Manly.
Tickets are on sale now with the full program and ticket information available at the website.
