Clunes Booktown is a wonderful local festival celebrating books, reading and authors. It’s heart is one of the biggest book sales you could wish to attend, with a mix of second-hand, antiquarian and new booksellers along with small press and indie authors setting up shop for the weekend in the small village of Clunes – and I mean IN the village. They’re everywhere, on the main street, in shopfronts, in halls and just about everywhere you can squeeze some tables. You will need the map, trust me!
There are also panels, workshops and author ‘in conversations’ as well as street entertainment, music and a generous selection of food vendors. I’ve been several times as both participant and general punter, and this year and I am beyond excited to join three smart and funny authors on a panel discussing the Australian Gothic – Sean Williams, Lisa Hannett and Jason Nahrung. The four of us have been good friends for many years and, honestly, those sorts of dynamics make the BEST panels.
If you’re going to Booktown, come along and join us for a rollicking good chat!
Where: Clunes Booktown, Clunes, Victoria
Venue: Esmond Gallery @ The Warehouse
When: 1.30pm, Saturday 21 March 2026
Tickets are available now and please check out the full program to see what else is on. It’s going to be a bustling weekend!
Family is often valorised as a source of strength when times get tough, but it can also be a place of danger and discord when ill-kept secrets spill into the light. Four writers working in the darker corners of speculative fiction discuss how family bonds can be tested in intimately unsettling ways.
Kirstyn McDermott 