The award-winning Boundless Festival returns in 2021 with a powerful line-up of emerging and established writers, discussing everything from the evolution of Indigenous storytelling, to the challenges facing Muslim writers, to the restorative power of literature in times of isolation and lockdown.
The Boundless Festival was established by Writing NSW in 2017 to provide a platform for writers from Indigenous and culturally diverse backgrounds. This year’s festival will be presented online, accessible nation-wide across the weekend of 30 October – 1 November. All festival sessions are free but registration is essential.
“Boundless is a festival that celebrates our interconnectedness, amplifies our unique voices, brings us together through the power of words. We are over three hundred languages strong, rooted in other homelands, connected to thousands of places both here and elsewhere,” says Boundless speaker Roanna Gonsalves.
“As we acknowledge the first storytellers of this land, we come together to listen to each other, to recognise ourselves in each other, to witness how language and story shape our world. Boundless is a comfort zone and a space for provocation, made by people like us for people like us.”
The 2021 festival showcases a new generation of emerging literary curators. Writers Zohra Aly, Annie Brockenhuus-Schack, Phoebe Grainer and Tina Huang have collaborated to produce an exciting program of panel discussions and other experiences. Interactive sessions will invite participants to reflect on the connection between plants and community or to focus on breath as they listen to some of Australia’s leading poets perform their work.
Speakers at the festival include: Paula Abood, Eunice Andrada, Melanie Cheng, Roanna Gonsalves, Bilal Hafda, Amani Haydar, Bella Li, Sara Mansour, Rachel Maza, Sara Saleh, Pearl Tan, Dylan Van Der Burg, and Alison Whittaker.
Festival speakers’ books will be available for purchase through Lost In Books.
Boundless is presented by Writing NSW and Bankstown Arts Centre. It is supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural, Create NSW and the Australia Council for the Arts.
View the full program