Sorrento Writers Festival: Notable Authors on the Best Books They’ve Read in the Last Year (and What They’re Reading Now)

The inaugural Sorrento Writers Festival is a big one, with more than 140 authors, academics, publishers, journalists and other creatives descending on the Mornington Peninsula for four days beginning April 27.

There are almost 100 events to attend, including conversations with Australian luminaries of literature, film and academia, including author Tom Keneally, filmmaker Fred Schepisi, anthropologist and activist Marcia Langton and Nobel Prize winner Laureate Professor Peter Doherty.

Panels and talks feature celebrated Australian contemporary authors – Sally Rippin, Christos Tsiolkas, Jane Harper, Jock Serong and Pip Drysdale, among many others – as well some of the country’s most distinguished journalists and editors –Barrie Cassidy, Caroline Wilson, Kerry O’Brien and Eric Beecher, Kate Legge, and many more – explore themes ranging from crime fiction and “domestic noir” to how to write historical fiction and memoir to the big issues in Australian politics in 2023 to the 2024 US presidential election to discussions around the Voice to Parliament.

“In Australia, we are blessed with some brilliant literary events,” says festival director Corrie Perkin. “Into this space comes the Sorrento Writers Festival. Some of Australia’s finest thinkers and creators are coming to Sorrento, and they’re ready to chat.”

We chatted with some of them about the books they’ve loved reading over the past year, and what’s on their nightstand now.

HANNIE RAYSON

What book are you currently reading? I'm reading Simon Rowell’s Wild Card. If you are not prepared to call in sick at work, then do not start this novel anytime during a working week. There is no way I'm getting out of my nightie until this is done.

What is the best book you’ve read in the last 12 months? Geraldine Brook’s Horse. American history, race relations, art, science and horses. Everything you could want for a delicious read.

Which Sorrento Writers Festival sessions are you most looking forward to? I want to go to everything, but my absolute top three have to be Regional Australia and the Climate Change Crisis on Saturday; The Redfern Speech, 30 Years On on Saturday; and Heat, Dust, Beaches and Blow Flies: The Impact of Landscape on Australian Writing on Friday.

Hannie Rayson is one of Australia’s most important playwrights and is hosting several panels and events at the Sorrento Writers Festival, including Plotters or Pantsers? How Novel Writers Plan Their Stories – Or Fly By The Seat Of Their Pants; The Turning Point: Finding The Courage To Change Your Life; My Life As A Book: The Art of Writing Memoir; In Conversation with Jane Harper; Tribute to Clive James; and Telling Australian Stories On Screen.

ANNIE SMITHERS

What book are you currently reading? Darling by India Knight.

What is the best book you’ve read in the last 12 months? Still Life by Sarah Winman.

Annie Smithers is one of Australia’s most revered and acclaimed chefs, with her noted Trentham restaurant du Fermier. She is appearing as a panelist at two festival events including The Healing Power of Food and The Turning Point: Finding The Courage To Change Your Life.

JOCK SERONG

What book are you currently reading? I’m re-reading Robert Gott’s The Orchard Murders for our session at Sorrento – just beautifully executed historical crime.

What is the best book you’ve read in the last 12 months? My favourite read of the past 12 months has been Louisa Lim's punk history of Hong Kong, Indelible City, which paints a complex and often tragic picture of Hong Kong's life and culture under successive colonisers.

Which Sorrento Writers Festival sessions are you most looking forward to? There's a session about the Redfern speech on at 3:30 at the Bowlo that I'm really hoping to catch. The Redfern speech has fascinated me ever since I was a law student – when it happened – and it has accompanied me all the way through my adult life. Great speakers, too – this is an excellent panel to discuss its significance.

Jock Serong is an acclaimed author who has won the ARA Historical Novel Prize, the Colin Roderick Award, the Ned Kelly Award for First Fiction and international prizes in Britain and France. He is hosting and appearing on panels including Domestic Noir, Outback Crime And Things That Go Bump In the Night #1; Plotters or Pantsers? How Novel Writers Plan Their Stories – Or Fly By The Seat Of Their Pants; Writers and Their Imaginations – Where Do Your Amazing Ideas Come From?; The Sea, The Surf, The Ocean – In Our Words; Australian Fiction Through First Nations Stories.

INALA COOPER

What book are you currently reading? The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

What is the best book you’ve read in the last 12 months? Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego.

Inala Cooper is an author, human rights law academic and an advocate for Indigenous rights, access to education and social justice. She is hosting and appearing on panels including Australian Fiction Through First Nations Stories; Civility in the Age of Unreason; The Redfern Speech, 30 Years On.

GARRY DISHER

What book are you currently reading? I’m currently reading Stuart MacBride’s The Dead of Winter. He’s not as well-known as his fellow Scottish writer, Ian Rankin, but deserves to be.

The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months? Cormac McCarthy’s most recent novel, The Passenger, and its companion novel, Stella Maris. My introduction to McCarthy was reading, on spec, an op-shop copy of Child of God many years ago, and I’ve read everything before and since that novel.

Which Sorrento Writers Festival sessions are you most looking forward to? “The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith Fifty Years On” and memoir writing.

Garry Disher has published more than 50 prize-winning books across a range of genres from crime thrillers to literary novels to children's fiction. He is appearing on panels including Meet The Writers and Domestic Noir, Outback Crime And Things That Go Bump In the Night #1.

MONIQUE DIMMATTINA

What book are you currently reading? My Congenials: Miles Franklin and Friends in Letters, edited by Jill Roe. Stella Miles Franklin writes frankly about domestic and social annoyance. “Isn’t it beastly that such dull noodles have the money and have to play cards and do (stupid) things to fill their time when you think of the glorious fun we could have if we had the money. Stupid owls. It takes intelligence to spend money”.

What is the best book you’ve read in the last 12 months? All That Swagger by Miles Franklin, published in 1936. A 100-year colonial saga of the Snowy Mountain region, told with wit and humour, from a deep love of the area Miles Franklin grew up in.

Monique diMattina is a critically acclaimed composer and musician who teaches in the Melbourne Conservatorium and Monash University jazz departments. Songs from her musical, Stella, the Musical , based on the life of Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, are being performed at the festival.

The Sorrento Writers Festival runs from Thursday April 27 through Sunday April 30 at various locations in Sorrento, Portsea and Red Hill South.

sorrentowritersfestival.com.au