Festival Presenters 2024
Keynote – Peter Goers
PETER GOERS retired from presenting the Evening Show on ABC Radio Adelaide for 20 years and has returned to his first love, the theatre. He has written a column for the SUNDAY MAIL for 33 years and his two books are published by Wakefield Press. They are two memoirs: MADDENING SELF-INDULGENT CRAP and IN THE AIR OF AN AFTERNOON PAST. He is currently writing a book about Adelaide and is also writing poetry.
Joanne Speirs – Workshop 1
Joanne Speirs grew up on a farm in a small rural community on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, where she wrangled sheep with her dad, baked, sewed and crafted with her mum and was a keen netballer. Scouring the school library shelves for Sweet Valley High romance novels became a favourite pastime in her teens and fuelled her passion for reading and writing. She now lives in Adelaide with her two teenage boys, husband, and border collie, and she uses her life experiences as inspiration for her contemporary rural romance stories. Her debut, Second Chance Love in Point Perry, (Harlequin/Harper Collins) was runner-up in the prestigious Romance Writers of Australia Valerie Parv Award in 2019 and longlisted for the Romance Writers of Australia Emerald Award in 2020, and she was recently awarded Favourite Debut Romance Author 2023.
When she’s not writing, she’s chief line & copyeditor + proofreader at Nurturing Words, specialising in editing manuscripts for self-publishing romance authors.
Dale Giles – The Yarning Circle
Dale Giles is a Kuyani and Arrernte man who is connected to the Flinders Rangers and Alice Springs.
He has worked in education for the past 15 years educating and working in the First Nations space.
He looks forward to chatting with you.
Kay Boon – Workshop 2
Kay Boon has studied public speaking for more than 40 years, since she was a member of Gawler Rural Youth Club. She was one of a team of three who won the State Rural Youth Debating Competition. After Kay joined the Two Wells Melodrama Group she undertook NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) courses in public speaking and directing. She was also a member of Gawler Penguins Club, a public speaking and meeting training group for ten years. Hr public speaking skills were particularly useful during the ten years she was State manager of Riding For The Disabled, speaking to organisations to promote the RDA. Reading poetry is another form of performance art, where voice, stance and pause are key actions used by Kay and others who speak publicly.
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