Authors have long been fascinated by the very human need to belong, and what happens when that need becomes an obsession. A teenage sports game descends into a brawl in Karen Viggers’ Sidelines, two families clash over their beliefs, and their children, in Lech Blaine’s memoir, Australian Gospel, and a 70-year-old alternative health influencer is reunited with her estranged transgender son in Ernest Price’s dry-witted debut, Pyramid of Needs.
Consider family, religion, identity, sport, diet culture and social media with these three brilliant books.
Karen Viggers is a novelist, wildlife and domestic animal veterinarian, and podcaster. She is co-host of Secrets From the Green Room, a podcast on which she interviews writers and other industry colleagues about books and writing. Her latest novel is Sidelines.
Lech Blaine is an award-winning writer of Car Crash: A Memoir and the Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. Lech's second book, Australian Gospel, is a family saga about the tangled fates of two couples and the foster children trapped between their beliefs.
Ernest Price is a transgender man working as a secondary English teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. His debut novel The Pyramid of Needs was published by Affirm Press in 2024.
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.
Festival Ticket Information
To take full advantage of all the events on offer, we recommend purchasing a weekend or day pass. Subject to availability, a strictly limited number of single tickets may become available, see below.