Liane Morris
- Apr 2

Feast Your Mind on the Literary Smorgasbord of Newcastle Writers Festival

Once upon a time, Newcastle did not have its own writers' festival. If you were interested in literature and wished to hear authors, publishers, or journalists speak about their works or current affairs affecting the industry, you had no choice but to travel to the Sydney Writers' Festival.

In 2012, award-winning journalist, and mother of three, Rosemarie Milsom, found herself doing just that with a toddler in tow. This experience turned out to be the spark that inspired the Newcastle Writers Festival, which has now been running for 11 years with Rosemarie at the helm, steering the festival from launch through the troubled waters of COVID-19 to this year’s bountiful program.

Rosemarie knew from age 14 that she wanted to be a journalist. She had moved to Newcastle from Sydney when she was 17, attending Merewether High School, where she flourished in English. She studied an arts degree and Dip Ed at the University of Newcastle, before landing her journalism cadetship at the Newcastle Herald. Rosemarie also had her first child, a son, while at university. She was a young mother and a journalism cadet at the same time during the 1990s.

“When I first fell pregnant at university, everyone thought that my life was over, but I was deeply determined to prove them all wrong,” said Rosemarie.

“The 1990s was a very different time. Management in workplaces was very maledominated, and there was no flexibility. Family and journalism didn’t go together. No one at work really knew that I was a mother.”

Rosemarie spent five years at the Newcastle Herald before moving back to Sydney, where she first worked as a staff writer for the Sun-Herald magazine Sunday Life before becoming a section editor at the masthead. She would go on to win multiple awards and continue to work for Fairfax in Sydney and Newcastle until 2015. She has since also worked as a presenter on ABC Radio Newcastle, was selected for the Australia Council’s Arts Leaders Program in 2019, was appointed to the NSW Government’s Literature Board in 2021, and for the past two years has chaired the External Advisory Board for the University of Newcastle’s School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences.

But it was while she was on maternity leave back in 2012 that the family returned to Newcastle and decided to stay. As a regular host at the Sydney Writers' Festival, Rosemarie then had to travel from Newcastle to attend, and she did so with her son in a pram.

“I began to wonder why we had to travel to Sydney to engage in the world of writing and publishing, and it was this experience that led to the initial idea of creating a writers' festival in Newcastle,” said Rosemarie.

“I set about testing that and spoke to a friend who is a successful businessman. He felt the idea had merit.

“Newcastle was a very different city then, much less culturally aware. I sought strategic partners and had support from the University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor, Professor Caroline McMillen, was awarded a $10,000 grant from the City of Newcastle and, in what turned out to be a complete game changer, secured a three year seed-funding agreement with Newcastle Now, also known as the Business Improvement Association.”

This initial three-year agreement included critical staff resources and enabled Rosemarie to get the first Newcastle Writers' Festival up and running within nine months. Except for the COVID blip, the festival has gone from strength

to strength, injecting a conservative estimate of $5 million into the local economy.

“I’d been a books editor on the Sun-Herald, so I had years of strong industry connections. As a section editor I curated the stories and tone, the programming and balance of my section. I simply had to apply the same skills to the festival programming. My journalism skills have been a critical asset in my work on the festival.”

The Newcastle Writers Festival was the first Australian literary festival to cancel due to COVID in 2020, and the experience greatly impacted Rosemarie and the small team.

“In terms of risk management, COVID was an unknown and unprecedented factor that illustrated to me how global issues can have a profound regional impact. It taught me that we’re not disconnected from global issues, which now also include climate change, politics, and conflict. The impact continues to resonate. At the Adelaide Writers' Week, just recently, a keynote speaker withdrew due to COVID illness, so the stress of uncertainty never really goes away.”

With a decade behind her, Rosemarie’s focus is on organisational buoyancy as she continues to look to the future and the strategic planning behind the organisation. A Reconciliation Action Plan is being developed, and a new partnership with the University of Newcastle has enabled capacity growth. A new team has been appointed, including Amy Lovat, author and co-founder of bookstore Secret Book Stuff, as program manager.

The 2024 festival is the largest since the COVID disruption and will be held from 5 to 7 April in Newcastle’s Civic precinct, Cessnock, and, for the first time, Port Stephens. It will feature 150 writers across 95 free and ticketed events.

“I think a lot of people misunderstand what a writers' festival is all about”, said Rosemarie.

“It’s an event for people who love books and reading. Whether that be the latest novels, newspapers, audiobooks or podcasts. It’s a broad church, and what’s unique about writers' festival audiences is that they are people who love to have their ideas challenged, who want to be inspired, and who care about the state of the world. It’s a wonderful antidote to the yelling often found on social media.”

One of the joys of attending the festival is discovering writers that people may not be familiar with. And while there are many award-winners and best-sellers in this year's program, such as Clementine Ford, Chris Hammer, Wendy Harmer, Sally Hepworth, David Marr, and Leigh Sales, Rosemarie has highlighted some hidden gems for our readers. Kirsten Bradley and her partner Nick Ritner teach the sustainable practice of permaculture at their southern Tasmanian property, Milkwood. Kristen will discuss her book, The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook, which includes practical skills for growing your own food—even if you're confined to an inner-city unit.

She will also appear in a session about how to create a better world. See Kirsten at Sustainable Living for a Kinder Future and How to Create a Better World, both on 6 April.

James Colley is head writer for Gruen and Question Everything. His debut novel, The Next Big Thing, is a heartwarming, hilarious, quintessentially Australian novel about young love, small towns and underdogs overcoming the odds. James is appearing alongside Nadine J Cohen and Jane Harrison to chat about drawing on dark humour and comedy and the value of laughing in the face of misery at Laugh, or You’ll Cry on 7 April.

Charlotte Ree found herself divorced at the age of 28, living alone in Sydney, and teaching herself to cook for comfort. The book publicist also got writing; the result is Heartbake, a memoir in recipes. Charlotte is appearing at a special ‘supper club’ event, The Love Language of Food, on 6 April, where she'll chat with Bridie Jabour while the audience enjoys a three-course Italian banquet based on recipes from the book.

Jeanne Ryckmans in Life, Interrupted on 7 April joins two other writers to discuss how the life you thought you had can be upended. Literary agent and writer Jeanne Ryckmans shares her personal account of a relationship that becomes destructive and ultimately violent in Trust. What is surprising about her slim and utterly compelling book is how darkly funny it is.

For more information about the Newcastle Writers Festival program, visit newcastlewritersfestival.org.au.