International authors at BWF 2026
This year, Brisbane Writers Festival is thrilled to be bringing you a stellar line-up of literary luminaries from across the globe. Whether you’re a lover of literary fiction, a fan of fantasy and horror, an eager essay enthusiast, a graphic novel groupie or an all-round aficionado of exceptional writing, you’ll find your perfect international match at the 2026 festival. Here are just a few of the sensational overseas scribes who’ll be joining us in Brisbane.
#Charlie Jane Anders
US speculative fiction star Charlie Jane Anders spins stories of sparkling imagination and intelligence – stories in which worlds like ours refract the complications and contradictions of our contemporary reality. Frequently compared to the legendary Ursula K Le Guin, Anders is the author of numerous standalone novels, series and short story collections and has won an array of major science fiction and fantasy awards, including the Hugo and the Nebula. Her latest book, Lessons in Magic and Disaster, is a tender and resonant exploration of heartbreak, family, and queer resilience.
Regular Program / Salon
Comedy Salon: So Bad It's Good
Regular Program
Charlie Jane Anders: Lessons in Magic and Disaster
Regular Program
Myth & Magic
#Elaine Castillo
A 2026 Whiting Award winner, a two-time San Francisco Public Library Laureate, a 2026 Women’s Prize in Fiction longlister and, according to the Financial Times, one of ’30 of the Planet’s Most Exciting People’: these are just a few of Filipino-American writer Elaine Castillo’s many and deserved claims to fame. Her widely praised novels, 2018’s America Is Not the Heart and 2025’s Moderation, tell captivating stories of labour, power and belonging with barbed wit and piercing insight; her 2022 essay collection, How to Read Now, is a galvanising and bold take on the politics of reading.
#Catherine Chidgey
One of New Zealand’s greatest living writers, Catherine Chidgey is the only person to have won her country’s prestigious Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction twice; her numerous international accolades include the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and the Betty Trask Award. Her mesmerising novels and short stories traverse deliciously dark and discomfiting territory, from the chilling historical drama of 2020’s Remote Sympathy to the fairytale gothic of 2022’s The Axeman’s Carnival to the dystopian spectacle of her prescient and visionary newest novel, The Starving Bride.
Regular Program
It's the End of the World & They Know It
Regular Program
Metamorphosis
#Mariana Enríquez
There’s a reason Argentinian writer Mariana Enríquez has one of the most dedicated cult followings in contemporary literature. Her surreal and unsettling fiction, from the haunting novel Our Share of Night to the visceral short story collections The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and A Sunny Place for Shady People, use body horror and supernatural mystery to lay bare the trauma and brutality of her country’s military dictatorship and its aftermath. Her many literary distinctions include the 2021 Premio Herralde de Novela, a 2021 International Booker Prize shortlisting and the 2024 José Donoso Award.
#Lev Grossman
Award-winning US novelist and journalist Lev Grossman captivated readers the world over in 2009 with The Magicians, a darkly gripping fantasy novel that became a blockbuster trilogy and a popular TV series. Since then, Grossman – who’s been hailed by The New York Times as a ‘master storyteller’ – has worked as a staff writer at Time magazine, penned stories for publications including The Atlantic, Vanity Fair and The Believer, published two novels for children and written an acclaimed screenplay. His latest book is The Bright Sword, a lyrical and profound reimagining of Arthurian legend.
#Dr Lucy Hone
Bestselling author and sought-after speaker Dr Lucy Hone knows all about hardship and resilience. After losing her daughter in a road accident in 2014, Dr Hone was confronted with the limitations of standard models for coping with grief. Ever since, the UK-born, New Zealand–based authority has been using her expertise and experience to develop practical, science-based tools for facing life’s toughest times. Through her warm and relatable books, Resilient Grieving and How Will I Ever Get Through This?, and her viral 2020 TED Talk, Dr Hone has helped people the world over survive their darkest hour.
#Ingrid Horrocks
There are few literary forms to which New Zealand’s Ingrid Horrocks hasn’t turned her talented hand. She’s an accomplished scholar and a lauded memoirist, essayist and poet; she’s been a Commonwealth Scholar in the UK and has a PhD from Princeton. In 2026, Horrocks released her debut work of fiction, All Her Lives, a stirring and striking collection of interlinked stories that celebrate women’s search for freedom and love across the centuries. All Her Lives was also this year’s deserving winner of New Zealand’s top literary honour, the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction.
#Andrew O'Hagan
He’s a triple Booker nominee, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner, the London Review of Books Editor-at-Large, and the author of seven novels and numerous remarkable essays (several of which, including his gimlet-eyed 2026 reflection on the misdemeanours of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, nearly broke the internet). For more than two decades, Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan has been masterfully chronicling the vicissitudes of contemporary British life, elucidating themes of privilege, morality, memory and friendship with wit, dexterity and grace.
Special Event
Marion Taylor Address: Keynote by Andrew O'Hagan
Regular Program
Of Morals & Men
Regular Program
The Art of the Essay
Regular Program
Andrew O'Hagan: On Friendship
#Susan Orlean
You may know legendary US journalist and author Susan Orlean from her renowned 1998 book The Orchid Thief (the subject of Spike Jonze’s Oscar-winning 2002 film Adaptation). You may know her from her gripping 2018 bestseller The Library Book. You may know her from the immersive features she pens for The New Yorker – where she’s been a staff writer since 1992 – on everything from umbrella inventors to the canine film star Rin Tin Tin. You may know her from her era-defining new memoir, Joyride, which captures her creativity, curiosity and career highs as one of the world’s finest practitioners of narrative non-fiction.
#Alice Oseman
She secured her first publishing deal at just 17 years old and is now the third bestselling graphic novelist since records began. She is, of course, Alice Oseman, the creative powerhouse behind the global phenomenon webcomic and graphic novel series Heartstopper, which was adapted into a hugely successful Netflix show. Praised for her realistic and sensitive portrayal of contemporary teenagehood – and especially for her joyful representations of LGBTQI+ life and her nuanced depiction of mental health issues – Oseman is a defining voice for Gen Z.
Regular Program
Alice Oseman: Art with Heart(stopper)
Special Event / Regular Program / YA Program
Alice Oseman: Heartstopper
#Lyla Sage
For Wild West wonder Lyla Sage, romance means small towns, blue skies, rugged ranch hands, and sassy single gals who are about to meet their match. A #1 New York Times bestseller and a TikTok queen, Sage writes sweet and spicy Westerns set in the breathtaking terrain of Wyoming’s cowboy country, where the stakes are high, the feelings are big and the sunshine (and the characters) are hot – very hot. Saddle up for her Rebel Blue Ranch and Sweetwater Peak series and get ready to cross the frontier of love.
Regular Program
A Bit of Spice
Regular Program
Lyla Sage: The Sweetwater Peak Duology
#Josie Shapiro
One of New Zealand’s most exciting new literary stars, Josie Shapiro crafts compelling contemporary stories of friendship, ambition and change – and of what it takes to achieve your dreams. In 2022, Shapiro won the inaugural Allen & Unwin Fiction Prize for her debut novel, Everything Is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, which flew off the shelves and was named one of 2023’s best books by The Spinoff. Her second novel, 2025’s Good Things Come and Go, is another bestseller, and her literary success so far has earned her a place as one of the Coalition for Books’ 2025 New Voices of Aotearoa.
Regular Program
Chaos Merchants
Regular Program
Stop the Clocks: On Grief
#Josh Silver
It’s been a blockbuster year for bestselling UK author and rising star Josh Silver: his wickedly funny and provocative adult fiction debut, Fruit Fly, has been captivating readers the world over with its satiric skewering of publishing and the politics of storytelling. Silver began his career in acting before turning his quick wit and keen eye to the art of writing: before Fruit Fly, he published three acclaimed young adult novels that put a gripping dystopian spin on our contemporary tendency to commodify pain and pursue happiness at any cost.
YA Program
Good Grief
Regular Program / Salon
Queerstories
Regular Program
Once More with Failing
Regular Program