About the Book Merimbula will feature guest speakers from the publishing field, as well as authors, book sellers, book collectors and printing and book binding experts.

The festival’s highlight will be the dinner featuring well-known speaker, author and social commentator Jane Caro.

Festival organiser and former Merimbula resident, Michelle Delle Vergin, said she is hoping all those interested in literature will attend.

“With so many authors in the region, our intention in putting the festival together was twofold: to bring writers and readers together for a day, and to draw attention to the Sapphire Coast as a tourist destination that’s more than sun, surf and sand,” she said.

Discussion panels will feature writers from the Sapphire Coast, such as Glenda Guest, winner of a 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, University of Sydney professor, Mark McKenna, writer John Blay, Warren Foster, a Yuin-Monaro hip-hop artist, Noe Lumby, teacher and linguist, and Bruce Pascoe, winner of Book of the Year’ in the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Prize. 

Another panel will feature a dynamic team of young writers, bloggers and publishers Jessica Nelson, Lara Fanning, Kate Liston-Mills, Meghan Brewster and Gabrielle Stroud who will all discuss and reflect on the world of digital publishing.

Ms Liston-Mills said their panel will be particularly interesting as each writer has their own specialties. 

“We will look at promoting and marketing yourself and forming an online identity,” she said. “I’m excited to be on the panel but I am more excited about the event as a whole.”

Ms Stroud, who is currently working on her memoir, said she hopes the festival grows bigger every year. 

“I’ve been to the Byron Bay Writers Festival and I think, why can’t we do that? We’re a small coastal town with talented writers, let’s make this festival grow,” she said. 

For details and tickets see www.aboutthebook.net.