Acknowledgement

We respectfully acknowledge that Byron Writers Festival takes place on the traditional lands of the Arakwal Bumberbin Peoples of the Bundjalung Nation. We pay respects to Elders past and present, and acknowledge them as the original storytellers of the lands and waterways of this Country.

Writer

Antoun Issa

Antoun Issa is a Lebanese-Australian journalist and co-founder of Deepcut News. After completing his Master of International Relations at the Australian National University, he moved to Lebanon in 2011 where he worked as news editor for Al-Monitor during the heights of the Arab Spring. Antoun relocated to Washington DC in 2015 where he spent two years at the Middle East Institute, a US thinktank, before joining The Atlantic as an editorial strategist. He returned to Australia in 2020, joining The Guardian Australia until his departure in 2024.

His book is Rebirth: A Love Story from the Depths of War.

Byron Writers Festival '25

Join us from 8—10 August at Bangalow Showground on Bundjalung Country

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