Every year, the Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF), welcomes thousands of readers to celebrate and express their passion and joy for authors, fiction, and the written word. BWF encourages readers from all walks of life to join the momentous event for literary conversations and to spark ideas.
BWF is Australia’s oldest continuing literature event, with a longstanding history of connecting communities and showcasing creativity and talent.
QBD Books have been proud partners of BWF for many years and we are so excited for this year’s author program, with visits from iconic Australian authors such as Trent Dalton and Michelle Bridges to international headliners such as Callie Hart. Make sure to visit your local QBD Books or our online store to grab these titles before the big event in October.
Keep reading to find out more about the attending authors and their bestselling stories.
Trent Dalton
Trent Dalton is a two-time Walkley Award–winning journalist and the international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, All Our Shimmering Skies, Love Stories and Lola in the Mirror.
The Boy Swallows Universe television series, which aired in January 2024, was Netflix’s most successful Australian-made show to date.
Gravity Let Me Go
There are one thousand stories up and down your street. There are nine thousand stories in your neighbourhood. This is the one about Noah Cork and the most important story he almost missed in pursuit of his dreams.
Dark, gritty, hilarious and unexpected, Gravity Let Me Go is a novel about marriage and ambition; truth-telling and truth-omitting; self-deception and self-preservation. It’s a novel about the stories we want to tell the world and those we shouldn’t, and how the stories we keep locked away are so often the stories that come to define us.
Callie Hart
Callie Hart is the Sunday Times and # 1 New York Times bestselling author of the international phenomenon Quicksilver, along with many other bestselling dark romance and dark academia titles. A British expat now living in California, Callie can most likely be found sequestered away in the corner of a library, fantasising about exciting new realms and the brooding antiheroes who occupy them.
Quicksilver
Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen’s reservoirs for as long as she can remember.
But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.
When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently reopens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares…but it turns out they’re real, and Saeris has landed herself right in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.
Michael Robotham
Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was a feature writer and investigative reporter working in Britain, Australia and America, and with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes.
The White Crow
As the daughter of a London crime boss, Police Constable Philomena McCarthy walks a thin blue line keeping the two sides of her complicated life apart.
On patrol one night she discovers a child in pyjamas, wandering alone. Taking Daisy home, Phil uncovers the aftermath of a deadly home invasion, as three miles away a prominent jeweller is found strapped to an explosive in his ransacked store.
The crimes are linked, and all the evidence points to Phil’s father as the mastermind. Phil’s two worlds are colliding, trapping her in the middle of a vicious gang war that will threaten her career and everyone she loves. Who can she trust – the badge or her own blood?
Michelle Bridges
Michelle Bridges is a beloved fitness trainer, author, television personality and advocate for women’s health.
The Peri Menopause Method
Your ultimate guide to all things perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause, combining science-backed information, practical strategies and advice, from beloved health and fitness expert Michelle Bridges.
Suzanne Do
Suzanne Do is an Australian writer and former lawyer. She co-wrote the feature film, Footy Legends, as well as the award-winning children’s book, The Little Refugee. Suzanne lives with her husband, four children and two dogs on the south coast of New South Wales. The Golden Sister is her first novel.
The Golden Sister
Lili Berry’s meticulously curated life in the charming coastal town of Swanning is in disarray after the shocking news of the death of her twin sister, Honey. With an unlikely friendship, their own tragedies to bear, and a web of devastating secrets, Pete and Lili must work together to uncover the truth.
“The Golden Sister” expertly explores the solace of discovering kindred spirits, the messiness of grief and the unbreakable strength of familial love.
Naima Brown
Naima Brown holds degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology and Religious Studies. Her essays have appeared in Vogue Australia, the Guardian Australia, and more. She has spent over a decade working in news, current affairs and documentary – save for her brief stint in reality TV, which inspired her first novel, The Shot. She was born and raised in Northern California before living and working in Yemen and Afghanistan, and now lives in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales with her husband and her dog.
Mother Tongue
Brynn is a claustrophobic suburban mother on the brink. Eric, her husband, is transforming in dark and dangerous ways . . .Their daughter, Jenny, can’t fathom the storm barrelling towards her . . .
When Brynn awakes from a coma speaking fluent French, she seizes the opportunity to start a new life in Paris, a seismic personal transformation that leaves a slew of shattered lives in its wake. Darkly funny and profoundly insightful, Mother Tongue challenges our expectations of motherhood and our beliefs about women’s lives. It is at once an exhilarating tale of escape and a warning about the cost of renewal.
Sara Foster
Sara Foster writes page-turning psychological suspense thrillers with strong female leads. Her latest novel, When She Was Gone (2025), begins when an au pair and two small children vanish from a remote Australian beach, and is a race-against-time thriller, exploring themes around misogyny, wealth, power and control.
When She Was Gone
Rose was torn away from her daughter. Now, is she the only one who can save her?
Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote Western Australian beach, and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care, Rose is asked to help bring Lou home. The police think Rose’s insights will lead them to Lou, but they don’t realise that Rose hardly knows her daughter anymore.
Meg Bignell
Meg Bignell was a nurse and a weather presenter on the telly before she surrendered to a persistent desire to write. She is the author of four novels and one non-fiction book. Her third novel, The Angry Women’s Choir, won the People’s Choice Award for fiction at the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards. She has written and performed in short films, cabaret shows and a musical. She lives on the east coast of Tasmania with her husband, three children, one dog and about a thousand cows.
The Good Losers
Callie March is fascinated by human absurdity, including the habits of the upper class. So when she pushes her screen-addicted teenage son to join a local rowing club.
Thrust into a support crew and a very silly uniform, Callie has inadvertently volunteered for a season of pre-dawn parenting, endless fundraising, and pandering to insufferable dickheads. But she also finds friendship, intrigue and lust, while her son might just find love.
Callie is torn between enchantment and repulsion, until a trail of corruption and scandal leads to deep suspicion. There’s something fishy in the rowing shed, and Callie is determined to find out what lurks behind the closed doors of this sports club.
We cannot wait for the 2025 Brisbane Writers Festival! The event will be running from the 9th to the 12th of October at Brisbane Powerhouse. We are so excited to see our QBD Books community at the event! For the full author and event program, visit BWF’s website here.
You can ensure to be festival-ready with all of the attending authors’ fantastic books by visiting us in-store or online here.
