The inaugural Mountain Writers Festival was a draw for booklovers and nature-lovers alike.
Held earlier this month, the festival was the flagship event for the Macedon Ranges Literary Association and carried the theme ‘Place Story Nature’.
It was the first Australian literary festival to solely focus on environmental and ecological writing, and the impact literature has on issues such as habitat, water, species and climate change.
Festival director Sonia Orchard said state government funding for the event enabled a fantastic program.
“It has enabled us to reach out to Australia’s top environmental writers, thinkers and performers, and put together the kind of lineup and festival that Macedon Ranges locals can be very proud of,” Sonia said.
The 2022 program included Peter Garrett, Costa Georgiadis, Sarah Wilson, Scott Pape, Evelyn Araluen, Aaron Fa’aoso, Joëlle Gergis, and a host of leading names in climate change, Indigenous literature, politics, arts and entertainment.
The festival also featured the first readings of a play commissioned by MRLA to commemorate the night of Ash Wednesday nearly 40 years ago, where 300 residents and their animals took shelter in the Macedon Railway Hotel as the bushfires raged outside.
Lending their talent to the performance were Shane Jacobson, Nadine Garner and Angourie Rice.
The festival ran over one weekend, November 4-6.
