Brisbane Writers' Festival LoveY.A. Event | PHOTO DIARY

Hello there!

Last Saturday the Brisbane Writers' Festival held an event at South Bank's Flowstate Pavilion celebrating YA Australian authors, aptly called LoveYA.

I had the most amazing time listening to all the authors and guests that spoke in the 5 sessions. It was genuinely delightful hearing about so many different approaches to writing and the authors' motivations behind their books. I also enjoyed the fact that book reviewers were included in the day's events with a panel about their experiences and approaches to sharing reviews on online platforms. Special mention goes to Rhianna Patrick: host, interviewer and trivia master extraordinaire!

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Beyond the sessions there were bookish related stalls, a letter library installation inspired by Cath Crowley's book Words in Deep Blue (complete with books, highlighters, and a typewriter!), a book swap and donation table supporting the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, an AVIDReader popup store, and of course a signing table where authors were stationed at the end of each session so you could have your books signed.

I'm so glad that Rhianna encouraged me to attend this event. I had initially skimmed the email BWF sent out in April, but I hadn't thought about it much beyond that. Then a few days later I happened to bump into Rhianna (Brisbane isn't a huge place, this happens to people more than you'd think) when I was on my way to the Gallery of Modern Art and I guess the rest is history! If you're interested in YA fiction I'd definitely recommend attending events like this one. Apart from all the sessions, it was fun meeting new people with similar interests.

Thanks so much to BWF/Uplit for holding this event and all the volunteers and staff, I hope we'll be seeing more events like these in the future!

Scroll down to see my photos from the event, and I'll see you in my next post.

Happy reading!

x E

Rhianna Patrick opening LoveYA 

Welcome to country

Session 1: LoveYA - In Conversation with Ellie Marney author of White Night

LoveYA Youth Ambassadors and Jeann Wong of Happy Indulgence Books prize draw number 1 (there were a few!).

The lovely letter library - the writing station!

The book where the original letter library can be found!

Cathy Crowley, author of Words in Deep Blue mid photoshoot

Matching dresses!

I found the secret letter in the letter library and made a new friend in the process!

All bundled up because it was a bit chilly/windy!

Bottled Books stall featuring Sarah's elbow and some cute and colourful dragons eggs!

Early attendees received a copy of Unearthed and few other lovely bits in a BWF book tote

AVID Reader pop-up store

Book swap and donation table

Session 2: LoveYA - Author to Author: Cath Crowley and Steph Bowe

Session 3: LoveYA - In Conversation with Paula Weston (interviewed by Kristina Schulz)

Session 4: LoveYA - Spoilers! Behind-the-Scenes of Book Reviewing with Alex Adsett, Jeann Wong and Piera Forde 

N.B. Session 5 was trivia. I was participating in the first few rounds and didn't end up taking any photos of that session, but I think there's enough here for you despite that!