2026 Festival

Speaker Profile

Laura Macdonald

Laura is a filmmaker, writer and editor. She worked at William Dalrymple’s Jaipur Literature Festival, then programmed the Dungog Film Fest and the Cockatoo Island Film Festival. She edited her father Ranald’s book and is completing a documentary about the media.

Meet The Memoir Writers

Wednesday April 22
Sorrento Portsea RSL
1.30pm / 60 mins

Lucinda Froomes Price and Kate Reid with Laura Macdonald

How difficult is it to open up your laptop and then open up your heart? Our two guests discuss their experiences writing memorable memoirs.

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Elizabeth, We Hardly Knew You: In Appreciation of Elizabeth Harrower

Thursday April 23
Hotel Sorrento (Cooper Room)
1.30pm / 60 mins

Helen Trinca and Susan Wyndham with Laura Macdonald

The brilliant Australian post-war novelist and short story writer Elizabeth Harrower was private and guarded, and for many years readers knew little about her. With the arrival of two new biographies about her life, a new 21st Century fan club is emerging.


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Social Media: Force For Good Or Engine Of Division

Friday April 24
The Ballroom, The Continental
10.30am / 60 mins

Richard King, Ruby Kraner-Tucci, Clare Stephens and Thomas Mayo with Laura Macdonald

Via our phones and laptops, we can alienate, divide, polarise and cancel out. We can also bring people together, build social and political activism,  and amplify marginalised voices. Our panel discusses. 


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Special Event

Cocktails by The Pool

Friday April 24
The Ballroom, The Continental
6.00pm / 90 mins

Ian Darling with Laura Macdonald

A screening of The Pool followed by a Q&A with the Director, Ian Darling.

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