Molly Schmidt - Salt River Road

The Readers’ and Writers’ Festival is an annual adult literature event presented by City of Mandurah Library & Heritage Services. In 2024 it will be held from 11 – 13 January at the Seashells Resort Mandurah. The aim of the festival is to foster a love of reading and literature and encourage creativity in our community. This year the festival brings together an array of established and emerging storytellers from across WA. The free to attend two-day festival programme includes author talks, panel discussions, and poetry reading.

Molly Schmidt

Molly Schmidt is a writer and journalist from the coastal town of Albany, Western Australia. Molly is passionate about producing stories that are inclusive of all members of her community. Written as part of her PhD under Miles Franklin Award winner Kim Scott, and novelist Brett D’Arcy, Molly collaborated with Noongar Elders to produce a novel that actively pursues reconciliation. Molly works as a radio producer and journalist for the ABC, where her passion for storytelling is put to good use.

Salt River Road

Salt River Road is a compelling coming-of-age novel about grief and healing set in a small town in the 1970s. In the aftermath of their mother's death, the Tetley siblings' lives are falling apart. Left to fend for themselves as their family farmgoes to ruins, Rose sets out to escape the grief and mess of home. When she meets Noongar Elders Patsy and Herbert, she finds herself drawn into a home where she has the chance to discover the strength of community, and to heal a wound her family has carried for a generation. Salt River Road is a poignant exploration of healing and resilience, small-town racism and the power of human connection.

In Conversation - Kathy Heys

Kathy Heys graduated from UWA with a degree in English Literature and a Graduate Diploma of Education and embarked on a career teaching in public schools. She is the Head of English at Coodanup College, a position she has held for eight years. Highlights of Kathy’s reading journey include meeting Markus Zusak and visiting Jane Austen’s house. Kathy is also currently studying Creative Writing at Curtin University.

What to Expect:

2.00pm: In Conversation

2.45pm: Q & A

3.00pm: Book Signing

Places are limited. Bookings required.

Tea & Coffee provided.

Festival Bookseller is Dymocks Busselton

Host or Publisher City of Mandurah