New: a Sydney Crime Writers’ Festival!

At last, Sydney is to have its own Crime Writers Festival, called BAD. There’s been a need for this for years – the Sydney Writers Festival does a fine job, but crime can only ever be a small part of what it does. Meanwhile, the audience for crime books – fiction and non-fiction – has been booming.

BAD will be held at the Justice & Police Museum on the weekend of 2-3 September. Speakers will be not just writers like Michael Rowbotham, Nikki Gemmell, Caroline Overington and Lee Child (by Skype from New York), but practitioners in the field of justice such as investigative reporter Kate McClymont, Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin, ex-judges Brian Knox and Michael Finnane, and forensic psychologist Tim Watson-Munro. There will be special appearances  from legendary organised crime fighter Bob Bottom and book and TV/film reviewers Sue Turnbull and Graeme Blundell. Sue will introduce a screening and discussion of outback noir film Goldstone, soon to be a major TV series.

For more details on how to hear from some of the city’s major anti-crime figures and crime writers, see here.

BAD is a not-for-profit event. Its organisers are connected to this website, and are holding the event in partnership with Sydney Living Museums. Major sponsors include Dymocks, Penguin Random House, and HarperCollins.