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Welcome to our wine bar and book talk central!
We are delighted to announce that our Fourth Annual Boorowa Literary Festival - where readers and writers talk about writing and reading - occurs this year on June 19th and June 20th.
Our star line-up is: Kimberley Allsopp, Sulari Gentill, Sam Guthrie, Alli Parker, Caroline Overington and Chris Hammer.
Early bird tickets are on sale now, via this website. For a complete package - all sessions, plus glass of wine, plus communal dinner (value $100, early bird $90) click here.
Just a note too that we are conscious of the economic pressures everyone faces today and so are keeping our prices as low as possible!
Session 1 Friday 19, 1830 Kimberley Allsopp
Session 2 Saturday 20, 0930 Sulari Gentill
Session 3 Saturday 20, 1100 Sam Guthrie
Session 4 Saturday 20, 1330 Caroline Overington
Session 5 Saturday 20, 1500 Alli Parker
Session 6 Saturday 20, 1630 Chris Hammer
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Grenfell's famous Ukestra 1800
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Literary Festival Communal Ticketed Dinner, 1900
Fourth Boorowa Literary Festival
Friday June 19 and Saturday June 20
We are delighted to host:
Chris Hammer, Sulari Gentill, Caroline Overington,
Kimberley Allsopp, Alli Parker and Sam Guthrie!
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Photo credit
Love Stepha
First Session Friday Evening
KIMBERLEY ALLSOPP
Friday June 19, 1830-1930 tickets
Kimberley Allsopp has had her work appear in Kidspot, The Sunday Telegraph and WHIMN (now Body & Soul) and she co-hosted the rom-com podcast, Meet Cute, which allows her to justify some of her otherwise questionable life choices.
Her first novel, Love & Other Puzzles was published by HarperCollins in 2022.
Rise and Shine was published in 2025.
Kimberley has worked in bookselling and publishing since 2008, and lives in Brisbane with her partner and two daughters.
Sulari Gentill, photo credit Edmund Blenkins
Second Session Saturday Morning
SULARI GENTILL
Saturday June 20, 0930-1030 tickets
Published in English in Australia, the UK and the US, and in translation in more than a dozen territories, Sulari Gentill is the author of The Hero Trilogy and the multi-award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, ten historical crime novels (thus far) chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist. The first book in this series was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the second won the Davitt Award. The remaining books have been variously shortlisted for the Davitt Award, the Ned Kelly Award, and the Australian Book Industry Association Awards.
In 2018, Gentill’s After She Wrote Him won the Ned Kelly Award and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award. The Woman in the Library, published in 2022, was a USA Today Bestseller, nominated for an Edgar Award (US), an Amazon Editor’s Pick, a Goodreads Most Anticipated Read and won the CrimeFictionLover Award (UK). The Mystery Writer was released in March 2023, and was a LibraryReads pick for that month and selected as one of Bookbub's Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2024. It too was an Amazon Editor's Pick, and an Amazon Best Book of March. Five Found Dead will be published in the US, UK and Australia in 2025.
Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, their boys, Edmund and Atticus, two donkeys, a miniature horse, four dogs and cat, a on a small farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, where she grows French Black Truffles and writes.
Coffee/tea break, a quick visit to downtown Boorowa, conversation and book perusing
Third Session Saturday Morning
SAM GUTHRIE
Saturday June 20, 1100-1200 tickets
Sam Guthrie is an Australian author of international political and espionage thrillers.
His debut novel, The Peak, was published by HarperCollins in 2025 and became a bestseller establishing him as a distinctive new voice in the genre. The book was named a Spotify and Amazon Editor’s Pick, selected as a QBD Top Ten Debut of the year, and longlisted for the prestigious international CWA John Creasey First Novel Dagger. It has also attracted international attention, with coverage in The Times and Literary Review, and has been cited within the publishing industry as a breakout commercial debut.
Drawing on a background in geopolitics, diplomacy and strategic communications, Sam writes high-stakes fiction that explores power, influence and disinformation in a rapidly shifting global order. His work combines the pace of a thriller with the realism of contemporary international affairs.
His second novel will be released in Australia and the UK in 2027.
Sam lives in Sydney with his family.
Break for lunch at the various cafes and pubs around town, and peruse the book stands as well
Fourth Session Saturday Afternoon
CAROLINE OVERINGTON
Saturday June 20, 1330-1430 tickets
Caroline Overington is the literary editor at The Weekend Australian, and the author of 15 books.
She is a two-time winner of Australia’s highest award for investigative journalism, the Walkley Award; and she is a previous winner of the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism.
Her book length examination of corruption in the UN oil-for-food program, Kickback, won the $30,000 Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature; and her book-length examination of the hanging of Louisa Collins, Last Woman Hanged, won the 2016 Davitt Prize.
She has been a judge of the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in fiction and poetry; The Australian Fiction Prize for emerging writers; and the Australian Book Industry Awards. She has lived in New York and Santa Monica, and currently lives in Bondi.
Break for coffee and to peruse the book stands, oh and the bar will be open too
Fifth Session Saturday Afternoon
ALLI PARKER
Saturday June 20, 1500-1600 tickets
Alli Parker is a Japanese-Australian bestselling author and screenwriter, with a background in script editing and script co-ordinating. She lives on the stolen land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.
In 2023, her debut historical fiction novel, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree, was published. It is a novelisation of the true story of Australia’s first Japanese war bride and Alli’s grandmother. It became an instant bestseller, was shortlisted for the 2024 Australian Book Industry Award – Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, the Dymocks Book of the Year 2023 and was longlisted for the Aus Indie Book Awards 2024.
In 2025, her sophomore historical fiction novel, Until the Red Leaves Fall, was published by HarperCollins Australia, set in the 1950s Melbourne theatre scene, tracing the untold histories of Australia’s civilian internment camps and asking the question: what happens when you let the truth get in the way of a good story. It was shortlisted for Dymocks Book of the Year 2025.
Alli has also writen episodes of crime drama series Jack Irish among many others…
Leg stretches, vibrant conversation and perhaps a breath of fresh air
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Sixth Session Saturday Afternoon
CHRIS HAMMER
Saturday June 20, 1630-1730 tickets
Chris Hammer is a best-selling, award-winning Australian crime fiction author.
His eight crime novels have been praised for their sense of place, their intricate plots, their colourful characters and their emotional depth.
Scrublands and Silver have been adapted for television, with Treasure and Dirt currently in post -production and Trust in development.
Chris was a journalist for some 30 years before becoming a full-time author in 2017.
His non-fiction books The River (2010) and The Coast (2012) have recently been republished.
He is also a great supported of the Wine Bar and Boorowa's reading community!
Final book signings and convivial conversation over a drink
GRENFELL'S UKESTRA Saturday June 20, 1800-1845
For those not yet ready to leave and for those who are deliberately staying for more conversation and book discussion over the ticketed dinner, we are delighted that the famous Grenfell Ukestra, a community orchestra of pretty much mostly ukele players, will be playing some tunes for us, as we socialise and enjoy the many talents in our midst. No tickets for this event.
Over the past three years of the Festival, we have finished with a communal meal, where readers and writers, who have enjoyed talking about writing and reading, finish the Festival by breaking bread together and raising toasts to cultural endeavours and the hard work of creative folk. In this our Fourth Year, we want to share the joy of the occasion and so it is an open invitation to this dinner, but a ticket is essential please. This is for catering purposes and so as to avoid needless waste. See you then!
Click on the links above, or here for the tickets.
Early bird prices are a genuine discount, as we are conscious of the cost of living pressures.