SESSIONS AND PANELS
WARM WINTER WORDS Pass
Includes tickets for all three Warm Winter Words panels on Saturday July 27.
SATFest Pass
Includes tickets for all three Warm Winter Words sessions on Saturday July 27 + The Great DeBayte.
Individual tickets are available below
Friday July 25
WordPLAY Kids Day
MORNING SESSION
10am-11am
Venue: Apollo Bay Community Hall
The WordPlay programme is sponsored by Apollo Bay P-12 College.
In this session, acclaimed author, Mark Smith, will be speaking to senior students and young adults about the ways imaginative writing can confront life’s most important challenges.
‘My writing is embedded in the landscapes I love – the sea, the coast and wild places – and my characters are drawn from the people who populate them’
- Mark Smith
WordPLAY Kids Day
SHORT STORY COMPETITION RESULTS
11:30am
Venue: Apollo Bay Community Hall
Hear more from our young emerging writers and join us as Young Adult author and educator, Mark Smith, announces the winners of the 2025 Primary and Secondary Short Story Competitions.
WordPLAY Kids Day
AUTHOR STORY TIME
1:30pm-2:30pm
Venue: Apollo Bay P-12 College Library
A story time session for the younger ones. Rochelle D’Mello with illustrator Teneille Barwick will read the picture storybook, Love and Light, to junior readers.
In Rochelle’s words, Love and Light is “a story about never giving up. We change, we learn, and we evolve until we become who we are meant to be. The little seed in this story represents each one of us, and is a gentle reminder to embrace all the different seasons of life. The little seed is learning about patience, perseverance, trusting the process – and most importantly, to never give up.”
POETRY & PIES
6pm-9pm
Venue: Apollo Bay Mechanics Hall
Food, good company and the spoken word combine for Poetry & Pies, a stand up poetry event. The mic is open and all forms of expression and languages are warmly welcomed. Don’t want to read a poem? Strap on the guitar and belt out a classic. Your poetry/song may be an original or a personal favourite. The results of the 2025 Short Story Competition Adult Open Category will be announced during the evening.
*Drinks and pies will be available at the venue.
SATURDAY July 26
Warm Winter Words Author Panel
SESSION 1: What if?…
10:30am-11:30am
Venue: Apollo Bay Mechanics Hall
Discussion hosted by Tim Nolan.
Join us in conversation with authors Jock Serong (Cherrywood, The Settlement), Kylie Ladd (The Mix-up, The Way Back) and Mark Smith (The Road to Winter, Wilder Country) as they discuss their latest works and explore a question that might haunt us as we consider the past or inspire us as we look towards the future: What if?…
*Food and drinks available at the venue.
Warm Winter Words Author Panel
SESSION 2: The Real Dirt
1pm-2pm
Venue: Apollo Bay Mechanics Hall
Discussion hosted by Kate Bourne.
Join us in conversation with authors Maggie Mackellar (Graft, How to Get There), Rachel Morton (The Sun Was Electric Light) and Lia Hills (The Desert Knows Her Name, The Crying Place) as they take us through the paddocks of Tasmania, across the Wimmera desert and all the way to the lakes of Guatemala for an exploration of connection with the land, community and ourselves.
*Food and drinks available at the venue.
Warm Winter Words Author Panel
SESSION 3: Imagined Futures
3pm-4pm
Venue: Apollo Bay Mechanics Hall
Discussion hosted by Karen O’Sullivan (Great Ocean Reads).
Join us in conversation with authors Kate Mildenhall (The Hummingbird Effect, The Mother Fault) and Tracey Spicer (Man-Made: How the Bias of the Past is Being Built Into the Future, The Good Girl Laid Bare) as they discuss progress, remnants perhaps best left to the past, and which aspects of ourselves we must preserve for a more hopeful future.
*Food and drinks available at the venue.
THE GREAT DE(BAY)TE
6pm-9pm
Venue: Apollo Bay Mechanics Hall
After a lifetime spent hashing out the big questions (Otways Panther, real or not? … In times of crisis, is ignorance bliss? … Is Marmalade the same thing as Jam?), these two edifying local debate teams are more argumentative machine than human. Bring an open mind and prepare to be swayed back and forth throughout this battle of wit, counter-point and rebuttal.
*Food and drinks available at the venue.
sunday July 27
WRITERS WORKSHOP
10am-12pm
Venue: Marrar Woorn Neighbourhood House
Join award-shortlisted memoirist Maggie Mackellar (Graft) for an inspiring Generative Writing and Narrative Non-Fiction Workshop designed for writers of all levels and genres.
In this interactive session, we’ll explore how to enhance the quality of your writing through guided exercises and thought-provoking prompts. Narrative non-fiction invites us to playfully explore the lines between memory and imagination, where the past can bleed into the imagined future, shaping compelling, authentic storytelling.
WORDFEST BOOK CLUB EVENT
1pm-2pm
Venue: Apollo Bay Library
WORDFest Book Club Event is sponsored by Geelong Regional Libraries.
Join author Lia Hills for a special free book club discussion of her book, The Desert Knows Her Name, an exquisite novel that speaks to a deep longing for connection with the land, and the silences that persist in contemporary Australia.
If you aren't a member of a book club, don't worry! The session is open to all.
Local book clubs are invited to reserve a book club kit (12 copies) at Apollo Bay Library.
