Pencil October 25-27 in your diary as The Berry Writers Festival is back with a blockbuster line-up of international and home-grown authors, including Nobel Prize winning novelist JM Coetzee, and popular Australian writers Michael Robotham and Sally Hepworth.

Tickets for the three-day festival will go on sale next month after the full program is announced on August 15.

More than 60 well-known and emerging authors will join the festival and share insights into their work and the world of books and publishing.

The Guardian editor David Marr will deliver the opening address. Novelists Alice Pung, Madeline Gray, Jessica Dettman, Ceridwen Dovey, Hayley Scivenor and Yuwaalaraay storyteller and performer Nardi Simpson, are among the talented fiction writers, who will talk about their craft.

Journalist, author and Gold Walkley award winner Chris Masters will discuss his latest book, an investigation into the case against Australia's most highly decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith.

Conversations That Count will feature 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame chatting with teacher and author Daisy Turnbull about risk, reward, friendship and contentment.

Mary Cunnane, the festival’s artistic director, and a former publisher and literary agent, said this year’s festival program will be bigger and even more diverse than the inaugural event in 2022.

“The 2024 Berry Writers Festival will deliver a weekend of memorable experiences,” she said. “Words open the world and allow us to tell our stories and understand the lives of others.”

The festival will also include a special Schools Day on October 24. Children’s book authors Kirli Saunders, Nathan Luff and Maryam Master will visit primary schools in Berry and nearby communities to share their stories.

A collaboration with the South Coast Writers Centre, New Voices of the South Coast: A Showcase for Debut Writers, gives new and emerging local literary talent a platform to showcase their work on the final day of the festival. 

Berry Writers Festival president James Robinson said the much-loved event was for “writers, readers and people who believe in the power of storytelling, sharing ideas and healthy debate”. Access to pre-sales is now available at: berrywritersfestival.org.au.