Williamstown Literary Festival

The Williamstown Literary Festival (aka the Willy Lit Fest) is one of the biggest literary festivals in Victoria. It brings together readers and writers.

The festival runs for three days and will take place in the Williamstown Town Hall and the Williamstown Library.

More than 100 artists appeared at Willy Lit Fest in 2023. Among them were Chris Womersley (The Diplomat), Jacinta Parsons (A Question of Age), Tim Baker (Patting the Shark), Katherine Kovacic (Seven Sisters), Jock Serong (The Settlement), Toni Jordan (Prettier if She Smiled More), Amanda Anastasi (The Inheritors), Ros Ben-Moshe (The Laughter Effect) and Andre Dao (Anam). But there were dozens more, including popular Western suburbs writers Nick Gadd, Trent Roberts and Alison Stuart.

There were sessions discussing witchcraft in the 21st century, gardening to encourage native bees, food writing, romance, and the relevance of our national broadcaster, the ABC. The saltiest session was the early morning beach swim on Sunday, following a unique writing salon about the ocean and the Jawbone Reserve at the Williamstown Swimming and Life Saving Club.

The program also included all the much-loved features of the Willy Lit Fest: Stereo Stories, the concert where music and memoir meet; the People’s Choice Awards, where writers established and emerging get up to read their own works; and the awards ceremony for the prestigious Ada Cambridge Prizes and the Jennifer Burbidge Short Story Award.

The annual weekend festival of reading, writing and the spoken word has hosted around 700 writers over the years, representing almost all genres of literature. Each year, some 2000 session tickets are sold.

Tickets to workshops should be purchased in advance, as many sell out. Get to the Williamstown Town Hall and the Library via train. Take the Williamstown line and alight at North Williamstown Station. Walk down Ferguson Street, as the venues are just a few blocks away.