Whitsundays Writers Festival Thank 2025 Sponsors and Partners
The Whitsundays Writers Festival in September 2025 included daytime memoir workshops, the Love Letter to Queensland evening event featuring keynote speaker Dr. Anita Heiss at the Whitsunday Sailing Club, and a 4-day writing intensive at Yangaro Resort.
These outstanding events would not have been achievable without the support from individuals, businesses, Council, and other organisations in our community. These sponsorships and partnerships are the only viable way to fund programs such as the Whitsundays Writers Festival and without them it would not be possible to sustain cultural events in our community.
A big thank goes out to the Whitsunday Regional Council for continued support of festivals in the region, the Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Writing at James Cook University, IngramSpark, Whitsunday Sailing Club, Queensland Writer’s Centre; Daydream Island, Wilmar, Hembury Books, Pinnacles Airlie Beach, Bendigo Bank, Tropix Photography, Street Library Australia, Yangaro Resort, Airlie Beach Music Centre, and Kitten Vintage.
The Love Letter to Queensland event provided a stimulating evening and celebration of writing and reading. Dr. Heiss gave the keynote address, ‘From the Heart’.
Dr. Heiss is an internationally published award -winning author of 25 books including non-fiction, poetry, social commentary and women’s fiction and is a lecturer on Aboriginal literature and a lifetime ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
Our Speakers included Gold Walkley Award winner Hedley Thomas, Queensland Literary Award winner Steve MinOn and prize -winning Australian novelist and journalist Matthew Condon OAM, as well as our very own The GPS Girl® Karen Jacobsen, who sang her Love Letter to Queensland.
Following the event, authors signed books and talked with excited book lovers who purchased almost all of the titles available.
Festival Patron Mayor Ry Collins read the winners in our Love Letter community writing competition with outstanding prizes including a $1000 voucher from Daydream Island for our adult age group, $500 gift certificate from Tropix Photography for under 18s, and for our younger writers, a gift from Street Library Australia and Kitten Vintage Mackay.
The winner of the Whitsundays Literary Heart Awards, Paul Garrety author of “Before Summer Comes”, was announced with a cash prize of $2500 made possible by the Roderick Centre.
“The Whitsundays Writers Festival continues in our commitment to spotlight the success of Australian authors and showcase their extraordinary talents,” Festival President Karen Jacobsen emphasised.
“Sponsorship from local and national entities is imperative to the growth of cultural events in our region, and we are proud to deliver programming that reflects original local and Queensland stories and experiences. The only compulsory subject in senior schooling is English, and the importance of literacy and all it makes possible cannot be overstated.”
Photo credit: Daniel Heggie / Mackay and Whitsunday Life