Headed to the Sydney Writers’ Festival? Check out our fabulous AWC presenters

It's almost that time of year again when over 100,000 literature lovers flock to Walsh Bay for the Sydney Writers' Festival. This year the program is jam-packed with 300+ events held across 16-22 May 2016. And we are thrilled that some of our amazing AWC presenters are taking part and sharing their writing wisdom with the masses. If you're planning to attend, we highly recommend checking out these superstars.

Kate Forsyth

Kate wrote her first novel aged seven, and has now sold more than a million books internationally. Her novels include The Beast's Garden, a retelling of Beauty & the Beast set in Nazi Germany; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers' fairy tales; and Bitter Greens, a retelling of Rapunzel, which won the 2015 ALA Award for Best Historical Fiction. Named one of Australia's Favourite Novelists, Kate has a doctorate in fairy tale studies and is an accredited master storyteller.

Kate's SWF appearances:

• Kate Forsyth: Diagnosing Your Story's Problems
• Dark Enchantments: An Hour of Old-Fashioned Storytelling
• Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? Love, Sex and Literature

Candice Fox

Candice Fox is an award-winning crime writer. Hades, her first novel, won the Ned Kelly Award for best debut in 2014 from the Australian Crime Writers Association. The sequel, Eden, won the Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel in 2015, making Candice only the second author to win these accolades back-to-back. Her third novel, Fall, was released in late 2015. Two collaborative works by Candice and James Patterson are due out in 2016; Black and Blue in May and Never Never in August.

Candice will appear at:

• Candice Fox: Sleuths, Science, Serial Killers – the Craft of Crime Writing
• Forest for the Trees: Writers and Publishing in 2016
• Rising Tension

David Leser

David Leser is a Walkley award-winning journalist who has worked in Australia, North America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia for the past 36 years. He is the author of six books, including his latest, a memoir – To Begin to Know: Walking in the Shadows of My Father which was shortlisted for the 2015 National Biography Award. He is also executive producer of the award-winning documentary, Paul Kelly: Stories of Me.

See David at:

• Zelda la Grange: Good Morning, Mr Mandela
• Philanthropy: The Art of Giving
• Andrew Denton: Better Off Dead

Judith Rossell

Judith has been an illustrator and author of children's books for over 12 years. Before that, she worked as a government scientist (not a mad scientist, a normal kind of scientist) and also for a cotton spinning company. She has written 11 books and illustrated more than 80. Her books have been published in the UK and USA, and have been translated into more than 10 languages. Judith lives in Melbourne with a cat the size of a walrus.

Judith will present at:

• Primary School Days: Paramatta
• Primary School Days: City
• Primary School Days: Penrith
• Primary School Days: Free at Town Hall

Claire Scobie

Claire Scobie is the award-winning author of Last Seen in Lhasa and The Pagoda Tree, chosen by Good Reading magazine as one of their Best Fiction Reads 2013. She has lived and worked in the UK, India and now Sydney. She writes for numerous publications, including The Daily Telegraph, Destinasian and contributes to The Sydney Morning Herald. Claire mentors writers; runs writing courses in Australia, Asia and the UK and hosts Abercrombie & Kent's literary tour to the Jaipur Literature Festival in India.

Claire's SWF workshop:

• Claire Scobie: Creating a Believable Story World

Michael Visontay

Michael Visontay is a journalist and former senior editor at The Sydney Morning Herald. Michael was a ghost writer for The Happiest Refugee, he has co-authored two other memoirs, Undies to Equities: The Remarkable Life of Henri Aram, and Nathan Hindmarsh: My Life, and the upcoming memoir of child abuse activist Manny Waks. Michael also has a keen interest in sport, he created and taught a course on Sport and Media at UNSW, and has written a book about the Western Sydney Wanderers football club, which will be published later this year.

Hear from Michael at:

• Ghostwriting: The Untold Story

For the full program, visit the Sydney Writers' Festival.