Featured Events in Katoomba in November, 2024(December Updated)

IN TRANSLATION Yu Shi and Siang Lu in conversation// Saturday 2 November // 11:30am - 12:30pm // Venue: The Carrington Hotel // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival What is the future of translation in a world of new technologies and AI? In Siang Lu’s critically acclaimed Ghost Cities, a young translator is fired from Sydney’s Chinese Consulate when he is exposed as a fraud, having relied entirely on Google Translate for his work. Who better to explore the art of translation with Siang than Yu Shi, a writer, translator and reporter living in Shanghai? Yu has translated more than 30 books, including the work of Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen King and more. Siang Lu’s first book, The Whitewash, won the ABIA Audiobook of the Year in 2023 and the Glendower Award for an emerging writer in the Queensland Literary Awards. Siang is the co-creator of The Beige Index and the creator of #SillyBookstagram. His latest book is Ghost Cities. Yu Shi is a writer, translator and reporter living in Shanghai. Since 2020, Yu has hosted TiaoDao FM, a popular podcast focused on literature and writers as well as PingPongFM, focused on films adapted from books. Her latest novel One and Only is the first novel written about people living on the Autism spectrum in the Chinese literature world. Please note that this venue is licensed and entry is for over 18’s only. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Adult $20.00 // Concession $17.50 // Under 30's $15.00 // Disability Support Pension $10.00 // Mob Tix $10.00 To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, single tickets for this event will be available from 10 September. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

MICHELLE DE KRETSER in conversation with Felicity Plunkett // Sunday 3 November // 2:00 - 3:00pm // Venue: The Carrington Hotel // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Michelle de Kretser, one of Australia’s most celebrated novelists, is a writer who artfully pushes the boundaries of form. One of only a select group of writers to be awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award twice, her highly anticipated new book, Theory and Practice, is a mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame. Discover how Michelle makes and unmakes fiction as we read, expanding our notion of what a novel can contain. She shares the secrets of her craft with Felicity Plunkett. Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and lives on unceded Gadigal land in Warrane/Sydney. Her fiction has won multiple awards, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Folio Fiction Prize. Theory & Practice is her seventh novel. Felicity Plunkett is a poet and critic living on Wangal land. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney and was Poetry Editor with University of Queensland Press for nine years. Felicity’s books include A Kinder Sea, Vanishing Point and Seastrands, and she edited Thirty Australian Poets. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Adult $25.00 // Concession $22.50 // Under 30's $15.00 // Disability Support Pension $12.50 // Mob Tix $12.50 To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, single tickets for this event will be available from 10 September. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

THE YEAR I MET MY BRAINMatilda Boseley in conversation with Yumi Stynes// Saturday 2 November // 3:30pm - 4:30pm // Venue: The Carrington Hotel // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival A travel companion for adults who have just found out they have ADHD, Matilda Boseley’s The Year I Met My Brain digs beyond the diagnosis to explore the impact of ADHD on identity, relationships, careers and self-esteem. A Walkley award-winning journalist, Matilda applies her skill for concise, entertaining and engaging communication to a truly fascinating topic: her own mind. Shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Social Impact Book of the Year and Illustrated Book of the Year, The Year I Met My Brain is uplifting, empowering and deeply researched. Don’t miss Matilda in conversation with Yumi Stynes. Matilda Boseley is an award-winning social media reporter and presenter for Guardian Australia. Her first book, The Year I Met My Brain, documents her experiences and discoveries after being diagnosed with ADHD at 23. Yumi Stynes is a highly esteemed broadcaster having fronted the podcast Ladies, We Need to Talk on the ABC for 7+ seasons, an interview series called SEEN on SBS, and a hugely popular food podcast called The Food Fix. She is the co-author of four Welcome To books with Dr Melissa Kang, guides for talking to young people about topics such as sex and consent. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Adult $22.50 // Concession $20.00 // Under 30's $15.00 // Disability Support Pension $12.50 // Mob Tix $12.50 To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, single tickets for this event will be available from 10 September. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

REFUGE Shankari Chandran and Jordana Silverstein in conversation with Nadine J. Cohen// Saturday 2 November // 2:00pm - 3:00pm // Venue: The Carrington Hotel // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Miles Franklin award-winning author Shankari Chandran’s latest novel, Safe Haven, is about displacement and asylum. So too, Jordana Silverstein’s groundbreaking examination of Australia’s treatment of child refugees, Cruel Care, a meticulously researched work of non-fiction. Nadine J. Cohen, author and co-founder of Hope for Nauru, a not-for-profit serving refugees and asylum seekers, interviews Shankari and Jordana about the creative tools they use to communicate with readers, and hope to effect change. While these two writers use different genres to examine the refugee experience, at their heart both books are about the children, families and communities our government policies impact. Shankari Chandran is an Australian Tamil lawyer and the author of the 2023 Miles Franklin Literary Award winning Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, as well as Unfinished Business, Song of the Sun God, and The Barrier. Her latest book Safe Haven was published in May 2024. Jordana Silverstein is an award-winning historian and senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Anxious Histories: Narrating the Holocaust in Jewish Communities at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century and Cruel Care: A History of Children at our Borders, which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premiers Literary Awards. Nadine J. Cohen is a writer with bylines in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, SMH/Age, ABC, Harper's Bazaar and more. Her debut novel, Everyone and Everything, was nominated for two Australian Book Industry Awards and named Booktopia's debut release of the year. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Adult $25.00 // Concession $22.50 // Under 30's $15.00 // Disability Support Pension $12.50 // Mob Tix $12.50 To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, single tickets for this event will be available from 10 September. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

THE LOST GHOSTS OF KATOOMBA LIBRARY// Saturday 2 November // 2:00pm - 2:45pm // Venue: Katoomba Library // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Recommended ages 7 - 14 Lovers of spooky tales and clever mysteries are invited to join author Antony Mann and Creative Director of Word Travels, Miles Merrill, to discover their inner ghostbuster. Go on a ghost hunt through Katoomba Library to see what – or whooooo – you can find, then write your own ghost story set in the Blue Mountains. Antony Mann’s The Lost Ghosts of Lawson sees its protagonist Lewin Fowler move from the beaches of Sydney to a small town in the Blue Mountains. He gets off on the wrong foot at school, his mum signs him up for piano lessons with a creepy old instructor and he's not sure he'll ever make any new friends . . . until the ghosts of Lawson begin appearing. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Tickets for this event are free, however, registration is required to manage room capacity. At least one carer should accompany children at this event: please include adults and child(ren) when you register. Registration will open at 10:00 am on 10 September, and spaces are strictly limited. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

NARDI SIMPSON in conversation with Cheryl Leavy // Sunday 3 November // 11:30am - 12:30pm // Venue: The Carrington Hotel // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Festival-goers might remember the pin-drop silence when Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson took to the stage to deliver the Mick Dark Talk for the Future in 2023, or the swift and enthusiastic standing ovation she received upon its completion. Winner of the 2018 Black&Write! Fellowship, Nardi’s debut novel, Song of the Crocodile, was longlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Literary Award. She joins Cheryl Leavy to talk about her hotly anticipated new release, The Belburd, a lyrical and masterfully woven novel about women, creation, belonging and the precious fragility of a life. Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay musician and storyteller whose debut novel, Song of the Crocodile, won the 2017 Black&Write! Fellowship and the ALS Gold Medal, and was longlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her latest novel is The Belburd. Cheryl Leavy is a Kooma and Nguri woman writing across non-fiction, poetry and children's literature. In 2022 Cheryl was awarded the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize for Indigenous Poetry. Published by UQP this year, Yanga – Mother, Cheryl’s first children’s book is told in Kooma and translated to English. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Adult $22.50 // Concession $20.00 // Under 30's $15.00 // Disability Support Pension $12.50 // Mob Tix $12.50 To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, single tickets for this event will be available from 10 September. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

TREES AND GALAXIES Ceridwen Dovey and Dave Witty in conversation with Renee Krosch // Sunday 3 November // 11:30am - 12:30pm // Venue: The Carrington Hotel // Part of the 2024 Blue Mountains Writers' Festival It takes a particular sort of mind to focus simultaneously on the specific and the immense. Taking us to the outer reaches of space, Ceridwen Dovey’s Only The Astronauts observes humanity from the strange and magical perspectives of a series of object-astronauts: a lovelorn mannequin orbiting the Sun, the first sculpture ever taken to the Moon, the International Space Station, the Voyager 1 space probe, and more. In Dave Witty’s What the Trees See: A Wander Through Millennia of Natural History in Australia, we are offered a stunning meditation on the remarkable insights that Australia’s trees can offer into our past. The mallee box by the 12th hole of North Adelaide Golf Course tells the story of mallee scrub and desert senna; Brisbane’s remnant blue gum evokes a time when the city was jungle; cabbage palms tell of migration and loss. Blending science and remarkable creativity, these two writers discuss their beautiful new books with ABC Radio Sydney’s Renee Krosch. This session is presented in partnership with Blue Mountains Stargazing. Ceridwen Dovey is the author of several books, including Only the Animals, On J.M. Coetzee: Writers on Writers, and Mothertongues. Her science writing has been recognised with an Australian Museum Eureka Award. Her latest book is Only the Astronauts. Dave Witty is the recipient of the 2021 Rosina Joy Buckman Award in the Nature Conservancy Nature Writing Prize, and his work appears in publications including Island, Griffith Review and Meanjin. His first book, What the Trees See, came out in November 2023. Renee Krosch is a senior producer and presenter across a range of programmes on ABC Radio over the last 20+ years, with highlights including being a Presenter of ABC Radio Weekends and ABC Afternoon, and Executive Producer of ABC Nightlife across Australia. / A Blue Mountains Writers' Festival Event / Join us on beautiful Dharug and Gundungurra country for a weekend of joyful, thought-provoking and thrilling opportunities to connect with the written word. Set against the stunning backdrop of the Blue Mountains, this unique literary festival brings together the country’s greatest minds and most exciting new talent. 1-3 November, 2024. / Ticketing / Adult $20.00 // Concession $17.50 // Under 30's $15.00 // Disability Support Pension $10.00 // Mob Tix $10.00 To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, single tickets for this event will be available from 10 September. / Accessibility / This venue is wheelchair accessible, but please visit our Accessibility page or email hello@bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au if you have any other accessibility requirements. Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival will have Auslan interpreters available for the Festival and will schedule them into sessions on request. Please complete the Auslan request question at checkout. Head to bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au for more information about the festival, individual events and accessibility. Information Source: Blue Mountains Writers' Festival | eventbrite

Join us in November as we dance with the FLOWER MOON at MOONFLOWER MOVEMENT! Feel free to wear flowers in your hair and dress in pinks and or reds. We will be dancing a piece Moonflowers celebrating personal growth beauty and the natural world as we dance a fusion dance piece (burlesque/ bellydance/ blues, sensual dance and contemporary) as Moonflowers to Carlos Santana's Flor d'Luna (Moonflower). We will dance with a Dance Veil and celebrate flowers, ourselves, the natural world and the moon! We will open with our Moon Child Full Moon piece where we dance for the moon (we will run through this on the evening), set intentions for the workshop and engage in affirmations and exercises in somatic movement before we head into the choreography. For anyone who wants to be this piece will be filmed at the end of the workshop. Vells provided. Information Source: Porcelain Doll | eventbrite