2026 Festival
Speaker Profile
Kate Mildenhall
Kate Mildenhall is the author of four novels - Skylarking (2016), The Mother Fault (2020), The Hummingbird Effect (2023) and The Hiding Place (2025). The Hummingbird Effect was longlisted for the 2024 stella prize and shortlisted for the 2024 Abia Literary Fiction Book of the Year. In 2024 she released her first children’s book To Stir With Love illustrated By Jess Racklyeft, shortlisted for the 2025 Indie Book Awards and the 2025 ABIA Children’s Book of the Year and notable in the CBCA Book Awards for early readers.
Write A Bestseller, Quit My Job? How authors find the courage to write full-time
Sarah Bailey, Kate Mildenhall and Heather Rose with Jaclyn Crupi
My Book Became A Movie
Candice Fox, Rosalie Ham and Niall Williams with Kate Mildenhall
Messy Characters = Great Fiction
Bri Lee, Kate Mildenhall and JP Pomare with Hannie Rayson
Where do great characters come from? Do your family or friends ever recognise themselves in your work? And why is the flawed, imperfect oddball in a novel way more interesting than someone nice?