Entertainment
20 June, 2025
Authors galore for bookfest
UP to 50 local and NQ authors and hundreds of participants are set to appear in the highly anticipated inaugural Douglas Shire Book Festival coming this August for a weekend of books, creativity and connection.
Douglas Shire’s first book festival is creating a buzz among the community, local businesses and authors who have seen an opportunity to share their literature to the world through the festival.
On August 2 and 3, the Mossman Shire Hall will be the home of all things literature and the festival’s committee president Crystal Leonardi is hoping the community gets behind the event.
“Everything’s going really well and we’re ready to go. We’ve confirmed that we have almost 50 authors coming which is a bit more than the 37 we originally announced but we decided to squeeze in a few more because we’ve received lots of interest from authors in the area,” she said.
“The event is going to have 50/50 ratio of authors, 50 per cent local – Douglas Shire and Cairns – and 50 per cent from North Queensland.
“We had a massive response from authors even getting authors from Perth wanting to join but the committee decided to cap it at North Queensland from Mackay and up to run as local of an event as possible.
“As a publisher and author my aim with the event is to highlight those local authors and give the readers the opportunity to engage with these authors. It’s a very unique opportunity.”
Ms Leonardi said the event had been greatly received by the Douglas Shire community.
“Everyone has been wonderful and they’re really excited,” she said.
“We managed to secure a dozen more sponsors on top of the RADF grant we received and the community and authors response shows this is something that the community has been calling for.
“The most notorious author we have from the Douglas Shire is Debra Gavranich, she wrote ‘The Girl Who Left: From Croatia to the Canefields’. We also have Maddi Wright, she’s also a former contestant on House Rules and has been on the airways for 15 years. We’ve got fantastic presenters like Amanda Cranston from ABC Far North, and other authors like Renee Cashman and Kirsty Nancarrow.
“This really as a unique opportunity for readers to get to know authors and connect with them.”
Ms Leonardi invited people to join the free event and make the most of the literary weekend.
“We really want to remind people that it’s a free event, there’ll be book launches, workshops, a kids’ corner and more and it’s all free. The only cost is on the books you buy,” she said.
“What we want is to, not only build community awareness, but to foster that reading culture in the shire which is all about creativity and connection.”
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