The Byron Bay Writers Festival is a literary event taking place annually in Byron Bay, New South Wales

Byron Bay, New South Wales

Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town, is the easternmost point of mainland Australia. At the 2006 Census, the town had a...

. The festival commenced in 1997, and is run over a weekend. As of 2010 it included presentations by over 100 participants. The festival has included interviews with a number of notable writers including Brett Easton Ellis, Matthew Reilly

Matthew Reilly

Matthew John Reilly is an Australian action thriller writer. His novels are noted for their fast pace, twisting plots and intense action.- Biography :...

 and Kathy Lette

Kathy Lette

Kathy Lette is an Australian author who has written a number of bestselling books.Born in Sydney's southern suburbs, she first attracted attention in 1979 as the coauthor of Puberty Blues, a strongly autobiographical, proto-feminist teen novel about two 13-year-old southern suburbs girls...

.

In 2005 the festival had an audience of between 7,000 and 8,000, an increase of 25 per cent over the previous year. Notable participants included Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...

 drummer and songwriter Rob Hirst

Rob Hirst

-External links:*******...

, writers Delia Falconer

Delia Falconer

Delia Falconer is the author of a novel, The Service of Clouds and a novella, The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers. She has been described by Australian critic Peter Craven, in Best Australian Stories 1999, as “the young Australian writer who has arguably done most to put her signature on the literature...

 and Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville is one of Australia's best-known authors. She's published nine novels, a collection of short stories, and four books about the writing process....

, and novelist Robert Drewe

Robert Drewe

Robert Duncan Drewe is an Australian journalist, novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Drewe was born in Melbourne, but moved with his family to Perth, Western Australia at the age of six. He was educated at Hale School, and in his final year was appointed School Captain...

 who lives in the area.

The tenth festival was held in 2006, and attracted an audience of 9,000 across 90 sessions. Presenters included sports journalist Gideon Haigh

Gideon Haigh

Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport and business. He was born in London of a Yorkshire father and an Australian mother, and was raised in Geelong, Victoria.- Career :Haigh has been writing about sport and business for over...

, actor and writer William McInnes

William McInnes

William McInnes is an Australian film and television actor and writer.-Television:After a recurring role on A Country Practice in 1990, McInnes appeared in series such as Bligh, Ocean Girl, and Snowy before making his name as Senior Constable Nick Schultz on Blue Heelers in 1994...

, and Robert Drewe.

The 2010 appearance by Brett Easton Ellis received mixed coverage following his remarks, both at the festival and through Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, about Australian singer Delta Goodrem

Delta Goodrem

Delta Lea Goodrem is an Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. Signed to Sony at the age of 15, Goodrem rose to prominence in 2002, starring in the Australian soap opera Neighbours as Nina Tucker. Goodrem has achieved eight number-one singles and three number-one albums in her home...

, commenting "I didn't know who she was but God she's really hot".

The Byron Bay Writers Festival is organised through the Northern Rivers Writers' Centre.