Cover Image: A packed house at the 2024 Festival of Fiction, where readers and writers came together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms.

What happens when popular writers run a literary festival?

You get great session titles, for starters: Everyone on this panel has killed someone. The book was better. Not all heroes wear capes. I didn’t give up my day job.

There is nothing dry or dusty about this collection. Like page turners for the speaking circuit, they intrigue and amuse, pulling you in. They certainly draw readers (and writers) keen to hear more.

After a successful debut last year, the Festival of Fiction doubled its capacity this year and still sold out well ahead of its return to Edith Cowan University’s Joondalup campus this weekend.

“We had a lot of fun coming up with panel names, and I think it’s connecting with people because if you see something that has a long title it can read like a dissertation,” says festival assistant director Sasha Wasley, whose novels include Snapshots from Home and Dear Banjo.

“We went with familiar titles that resonate with people so that even if they don’t know the authors on the panel they’re intrigued.”

The brainchild of fellow author Tess Woods, whose 2024 novel The Venice Hotel spent weeks on Australia’s top-selling fiction list, the festival was borne out of a desire to cater for readers and writers often ignored on the literary festival circuit.

Wasley says her friend was approached by the City of Joondalup about doing something book-related in the northern suburbs.

“She thought about it and went back to them and said ‘I would really love it to be about popular fiction, rather than high-brow literary fiction’,” Wasley explains. “And it really does impact numbers because commercial fiction draws the literary crowd as well as the general reader.”

A physiotherapist with a busy practice – the bestselling author did not give up her day job – Woods knew she couldn’t run the festival on her own. So she gathered like-minded souls such as Wasley, who she met eight years ago when the author approached Woods about writing a cover line for her first Australian novel.

“That’s her superpower,” Wasley says of her friend. “She’s just got this ability to ask people and they will come.”

The team, which includes travel writer Amanda Kendall (The Thoughtful Travel podcast), was supported by a committee of about 10. This year, that number also doubled.

“People were kind of banging on the door asking ‘can I join’, which is unusual because it’s all volunteer, but I think they could see how much electric it was last year,” Wasley says.

The first Festival of Fiction sold out so quickly – having Fergie, the Duchess of York, as a headline helped draw attention, though she had to postpone her appearance to a week later – the team knew they had to make it bigger for 2025. 

They went from one theatre to two, dividing the program into two sections. The 350-seat Readers’ Theatre, where readers can hear from authors as diverse as Sally Hepworth (The Family Next Door) and Holden Sheppard (The Invisible Boys), both of whom have had their work adapted for the screen.

In the 260-seat Writers’ Theatre, writers at all stages can hear from the likes of Melina Marchetta (Looking for Alibrandi) and Mem Fox (Where is the Green Sheep?) about how to achieve a long-term writing career, or get a masterclass in crime fiction from the bestselling Candice Fox.

And then there are the pitching sessions, where Perth writers get five minutes to pitch their manuscript to some of the country’s leading publishers and literary agents.
“We had pitching last year and we did a panel with agents and publishers but because of the crowd and the size of the panel, we couldn’t open up for questions,” Wasley says.

“We could see there was a real hunger for these kinds of sessions, so now people can just go to hear authors speak or they can do a day of master classes, or switch between the two.”

Clearly, it resonated. The 50 weekend passes, which were only released to the authors’ networks on social media, were snapped up within three minutes. And tickets to all sessions – more than 1400 in total – were sold a month before the doors open.

Wasley thinks the focus on commercial, or popular, fiction is a big part of the festival’s early success.

“The rise of Book Tok, the surge in popularity of commercial fiction and the jettison of shame – the idea that you have to hide what you’re reading if it’s romance or sci-fi – are really powerful components,” she says.

“People who might not go to other literary festivals because it’s not what they read or it doesn’t interest them, are drawn to this. You don’t have to be a reader of high literature; you can read accessible work and commercially popular work and that is cool, too.”

Aside from doubling the amount of authors involved this time, the organisers were also keen to increase exposure for Western Australian authors.

“We have the interstate authors who have already made it, as well as some big local players like Rachael Johns, to draw the crowds, but then we get to present some of the newer authors, or those who have been around a while but deserve a bigger audience,” Wasley says.

The team also mixed up the panels so that readers who might come along to hear the likes of bestselling fantasy and sci-fi author Jay Kristoff (Nevernight) or crime writer Michael Robotham (The White Crow) speak will discover someone lesser known to add to their bookshelves.

With the festival clearly striking the right note with readers and writers, Wasley says the team is hoping to attract some government funding so they can keep pace with demand.

While there are no plans to grow the author numbers, they would like to increase the number of pitching sessions, which were so popular there was a waiting list.

“We’re bringing the industry to WA because it’s so hard for WA to get to the industry – it’s really what we’re about,” Wasley says.

Not to mention putting smiles on the faces of eager readers. “I think WA readers are just so excited to have such a big bunch of popular authors coming over for the festival, as well as our own authors,” Wasley says.

The Festival of Fiction is on at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, on October 18-19. Keep an eye on the website so you don’t miss the boat next year.