The Big Day of Books is back for 2026
The Big Day of Books is back! Join us on Saturday 20 June for a lively day of conversations, fresh ideas and unforgettable stories as some of Australia’s most exciting writers come together for a festival made just for readers.
From celebrated voices to emerging talent, this year’s program explores themes of love, identity, history, satire, crime and more. It’s a celebration of the stories that help shape how we see the world.
Hosted by ABC Radio, in partnership with Fremantle Press, UWA Publishing, Magabala Books, Copyright Agency Limited, Hachette Australia, Centre for Stories and Boffins Books, this is your chance to enjoy a live literary show, meet the authors and snap up some fabulous reads.
View the program below and book your tickets via Humanitix: https://events.humanitix.com/big-day-of-books-perth-2026
This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
PROGRAM
Two Hearts, Two Cultures: Many ways of knowing and sharing
Inventive and heartfelt – three writers share the experience of inhabiting multiple worlds. Big Sky: When Emu Left the Earth is a meeting of science and holistic knowledge as Bruce Pascoe and astrophysicist Professor Ray Norris share two ways of knowing the sky. Trials of Hope weaves Ethiopian heritage and language with poetry and prose to tell the story of Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes’s journey from shepherd boy to university human rights director, and Olivia de Zilva’s Plastic Budgie contains stories that expand and contract around questions of self and family, and how our memories form us.
Supported by Centre for Stories
Indestructible Love
Three powerful writers invite readers into stories about deep and abiding love. In Rebirth: A Love Story from the Depths of War by Anton Issa, Laila’s dreams of marrying Nicolas, a coiffeur at the local hair salon in Beirut, are derailed when the Lebanese Civil War breaks out. The Hair of the Pigeon by Mohammed Massoud Morsi takes us from the Syrian Civil War to the suburbs of Copenhagen, where Ghassan finds comfort and reunion with those he thought were lost. In I Remember Everything by Fiona Wilkes, Billie finds her chosen family, only to lose them to an epidemic and find them again through her stories.
Wuthering Words: Reimagining the classics
A panel in which three audacious new novels challenge our notions of historical fiction. Inspired by Lorna Doone, The Names of a Hare by Bernice Barry ponders what life would be like for neurodiverse woman at the height of the witch trials in Cornwall. Cast Away by Francesca de Tores reimagines the extraordinary true story of Alexander Selkirk, inspiration for the novel Robinson Crusoe. The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan takes us to rural France, where the Beast of Gévaudan is poised to plunge the continent into war.
From Invisible to YEAH!
Award-winning writer Holden Sheppard has come a long way since his early days in Geraldton – and so have his characters in Invisible Boys. Join him as he shares his new book Yeah the Boys – a bold, propulsive new novel about male friendship, masculinity, modern gay life and the first gay male AFL player – in this feature interview with Claire Nichols from Radio National’s The Book Show.
Sleepless in Satire: Comedic books for the chronically unrested
From life in the Big Apple to life on the wards, and from housing crises to emotional outlets, these novels are the antidote to life’s challenges. In Kill Your Boomers by Fiona Wright, Keira is languishing in a mouldy sharehouse while nannying a pair of wealthy monsters. In Nadine Browne’s Gone Guru, Noni Barlow has imposter syndrome at her new writing school while the spiritual man she was subletting from has disappeared. Meanwhile, in A Little Unwell by Kerry Jewell, Amy is helping people and saving lives in between sobbing her heart out in the ED toilets. These three writers have found ways to find lightness in the dark times and comfort in the truly uncomfortable.
Supported by Hachette Australia
How Do You Take Your Crime? Hardboiled or with a side of marshmallow?
No matter the genre, a crime writer has to get their plot dead right every time. Whether it’s a 1951 police procedural that opens with a pile of clothes on a Queenscliff beach (Steven Carroll’s The Afterlife of Harry Playford), an escape room game show with a murder on set (The Escape Game by Tamara Moss) or a crime novel about the high stakes that come with easy money, old friends and murder (The Gambler by J.P. Pomare), the author is responsible for taking the reader on a heart-stopping ride every single time.
