About the Event
To finish the first day of events for the Mandurah Readers & Writers Festival, join us for a panel discussion with members of the Writers of the North Group. David Allan-Petale, Sara Foster, Holden Sheppard and Josephine Taylor, will discuss their work and writing methods.
The panel are inviting you to submit questions prior to the event.
Questions can be emailed to manlib@mandurah.wa.gov.au, please include Questions to Writers of the North Group in the Subject line.
The Readers’ and Writers’ Festival is an annual adult literature event presented by City of Mandurah Library Services. In 2025 it will be held from 16 – 18 January at the Seashells Resort Mandurah. The aim of the festival is to foster a love of reading and literature and encourage creativity in our community. This year the festival brings together an array of established and emerging storytellers from across Western Australia. The free to attend three-day festival includes author talks, and panel discussions.
David Allan-Petale
David Allan-Petale is a writer from Perth/Boorloo whose debut novel Locust Summer was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards and The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award and longlisted for the ALS Gold Medal. David worked as a journalist in Australia and internationally for the ABC, BBC World News and Al Jazeera, and is an advocate for arts & culture, community and philanthropy.
Sara Foster
Sara Foster is an internationally published, bestselling psychological suspense author living in Western Australia. She has published seven novels: the near-future acclaimed thriller The Hush, and suspense thrillers You Don’t Know Me, The Hidden Hours, All That is Lost Between Us, Shallow Breath, Beneath the Shadows and Come Back to Me. Her next novel, When She Was Gone, set in the Southwest of WA will be released in April 2025. Sara recently graduated from Curtin University with a Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for her PhD work on maternal relationships in dystopian fiction with young adult heroines.
Holden Sheppard
Holden Sheppard is a West Australian author whose debut novel Invisible Boys won multiple awards, including the WA Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer. Invisible Boys has been adapted as a ten-episode television series with Stan Australia, due for a 2025 release. Holden’s second book The Brink won accolades including the Ena Noel Award, and his third novel King of Dirt will be published in June 2025. Originally from Geraldton, Holden now lives in Perth’s far north with his husband and his V8 Ute.
Josephine Taylor
Josephine Taylor is a writer and editor and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University. Her debut novel, Eye of a Rook, was published in 2021 and subsequently shortlisted in the WA Premier’s Book Awards. Her creative and critical writing has been anthologised and published widely, most recently in Australian Feminist Studies. She is currently at work on her second novel.
What to Expect:
4.00pm: In Conversation
5.00pm: Book Signing
5.30pm: Drinks & Nibbles
Tea & Coffee provided.
Festival Bookseller is Dymocks Busselton
Places are limited, Bookings required. Book Now!
