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

Mark Brandi

Mark Brandi's bestselling novel, Wimmera, won the coveted British Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger, and was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime.

Mark's second novel, The Rip, was published to critical acclaim in 2019, and his third novel, The Others, was shortlisted for the Best Fiction prize in the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards. His fourth novel, Southern Aurora, was Highly Commended in the 2024 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.

Mark's shorter work has appeared in The Guardian, The Age, The Big Issue, and is sometimes broadcast on ABC Radio National. Mark graduated with a criminal justice degree and worked in the justice system before changing direction and deciding to write. Originally from Italy, he grew up in rural Victoria.

His new novel, Eden, is out now.

Byron Writers Festival '25

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

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