September saw the City of Brimbank exploding with literary happenings galore in cafes, the town hall, community hubs and libraries – all part of the annual Brimbank Writers & Readers Festival, and the culmination of the Brimbank Writers Awards and awards workshops. Booked Out has a long and lovely association with Brimbank City Council, assisting them with their festival, awards and related workshops since 2008.

This year cartoonist and illustrator Oslo Davis gave an insight into his creative process, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Chemo memoirist Luke Ryan shared his story, Justin Heazlewood and Torre De Roche contributed their knowledge and experience to `The Business of Writing’ panel, and Chrissie Perry and Melissa Keil helped kids and teens with their creative writing skills.  Bec Kavanagh and Emilie Zoey-Baker once more judged the poetry, kids and teens Writers Awards categories, and the effervescent Bernard Caleo acted as MC for the closing night awards ceremony. Leading up to the awards deadline, writers Alice Pung, Robert Hillman, Lia Hills, Sofie Laguna, and Michael Wagner helped Brimbank residents start their creative process.

Congratulations on another successful festival, City of Brimbank, it’s extremely inspiring to see such exciting community events taking place!