What’s on
From Sunday 17 March to Saturday 23 March, we are inviting all Tasmanians to try something new with reading. With events and activities happening across the state there is something for everyone.
Tasmania Reads events at your local library
Events run by Libraries Tasmania can be found on Eventbrite. Remember that some events do require registration.
Find out more by contacting your local library.
Tasmania Reads partner events
Explore some of our amazing partner and outreach events. Watch this space for more exciting events to come.
Statewide and online
UCTV Alive for Kids and Tasmania Reads: “Big Apple Diaries”
UCTV is collaborating with Tasmania Reads again in 2024, and we are excited to have local author and illustrator Alyssa Bermudez joining the webinar. A born and bred New Yorker, Alyssa now calls Tassie home. During this special broadcast, she will share insights into her latest work, “Big Apple Diaries,” a graphic novel tailored for young people aged 8-12. The book is based on her own life growing up in NYC around the time of September 11, 2001.
South
Libraries Tasmania Pop-Up at Farm Gate Market
Date: 17 March 2024
Time: 8:30 am – 1:00 pm
Where: Bathurst Street,
Between Elizabeth + Murray Streets,
Hobart
Libraries Tasmania is popping up at Hobart’s Farm Gate Market! We’ll have a collection of foodie books to help inspire your cooking and gardening adventures. Our friendly staff will be happy to chat to you about our collection and other services we offer.
Anatomy of Writing Masterclass with Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin
Learn and practice the foundation techniques of good writing through our four primary organs of communication. Participants will gain confidence in their writing by practicing translating into words the range of emotions associated with our four thinking and feeling organs.
Back by popular demand, this very special workshop is run in conjunction with Tasmania Reads 2024.
About the instructor: Lisa Gershwin has been a Research Scientist specialising in jellyfish for more than 30 years. She has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers and industry and government reports, three best-selling books, and given two invited TEDx talks. She was recently named by the ABC as one of the Top 100 Australian Scientists (of all time!).
Ten percent off the ticket price when you use the code TasmaniaReads
Little Tasmanian Storytime and craft at Hobart Library
Date: 19 March 2024
Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Where: Hobart Library,
91 Murray Street,
Hobart
Storytime is a free 30 minute session which includes stories, rhymes and action songs. Sessions are aimed at preschoolers aged 2-5 years. Reading is a free and fun family activity, sharing books with your child helps develop their listening, memory and language skills.
Come along for Storytime and a Craft with Hobart Library and Brand Tasmania to Celebrate Tasmania Reads
Discover Your New Favourite Author at Hobart Library
Date: 19 March 2024
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: Hobart Library,
91 Murray Street,
Hobart
Our Tasmanian independent authors are taking their talents to the world.
Some of our top indie authors are getting together to celebrate Tasmania Reads by entrancing you with an evening of live excerpts from their best-selling books.
Covering genres from thrillers to romance, fantasy to women’s fiction and more, you’ll not only hear these writers read, but also have the opportunity to chat with them and maybe even purchase your next great read.
Kind of, Sort of, Maybe, But Probably Not: Imbi Neeme in conversation with Jane Rawson
Date: 20 March 2024
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: Afterword Café,
Fullers Bookshop,
131 Collins Street,
Hobart
Kind of, Sort of, Maybe, But Probably Not is “a charming, nostalgic, quirky, uplifting novel of people young and old finding their tribe, gaining courage to be themselves and perhaps falling in love, too.”
Imbi Neeme is a recovering blogger, ardent novelist and spreadsheet enthusiast. Her manuscript The Spill was awarded the 2019 Penguin Literary Prize and published by Penguin Random House Australia in 2020. She blogged for many years at Not Drowning, Mothering, which won the 2010 Bloggies Award for best ANZ Weblog. She lives in Footscray, Melbourne, on the right side of the Maribyrnong. Jane Rawson is an author, environmentalist, and the editor of Island magazine. Join them for a conversation about this latest work from Imbi at Fullers Bookshop.
World Poetry Day at Fullers Bookshop
Date: 21 March 2024
Time: 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
Where: Fullers Bookshop,
131 Collins Street,
Hobart
March 21 is UNESCO World Poetry Day! Hobart has just been named a UNESCO City of Literature (that’s a big deal), and because we’ve just named Cally Conan-Davies our inaugural Cafe Poet Laureate (also a big deal)… *and* just because we love us a bit of poetry round ‘ere, Fullers is inviting Hobart to join in. Cally will be in our café throughout the day to talk about anything poetry with anyone (email her at poet.laureate@fullersbookshop.com.au to book in). She welcomes you to take part in a collective poem by writing what you notice on a slip of paper provided in the café. Pop it into the box, and Cally will make a poem out of the cafe images. And ask at the counter for a marker pen to scribble your favourite poem across our glass Fullers frontage for passers-by to read. Poetry for the people!
UTAS Reads – Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy
Date: 21 March 2024
Time: 5:15 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: Aurora Lecture Theatre,
IMAS Building,
20 Castray Esplanade,
Battery Point,
The University of Tasmania invites Tasmanians to read Cold Coast by Robyn Mundy, and then attend a special lecture by the author on 21 March.
UTAS will also be hosting Cold Coast Book Club discussions across the State on 14 March – learn more on the registration page.
Join the Rebellion! Publishing as an Indie Author at Hobart Library
Date: 21 March 2024
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: Hobart Library,
91 Murray Street,
Hobart
Top selling Tasmanian indie authors Georgina Makalani, Tara Marlow and Mark Mannock present an informative overview of the process of publishing as an independently published author. The growing fraternity of independent creatives is taking the publishing world by storm. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear these experienced authors take you through the process from pen to promotion.
Topics include:
• Writing – Getting in the Flow.
• The Self-Publishing Process – Editing, Revising, Proofreading,
• Available Platforms, Publishing Wide or Amazon Exclusive, eBooks & Paperbacks.
• Publicity & Promotion – How Do I Sell My Books?
TasWriters Celebrates Tasmania Reads: Island Magazine Launch #170
Date: 22 March 2024
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: Hadley’s Orient Hotel,
34 Murray Street,
Hobart
Launch of Island Magazine #170, which features the winners and shortlistees of 2024 Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. Also, Kate Kruimink and Keely Jobe discuss how they choose items for publication.
Hobart Silent Book Club x Tasmania Reads
Date: 22 March 2024
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: The Afterword Café, Fullers Bookshop,
131 Collins Street,
Hobart
A special pop-up edition of the Hobart Silent Book Club to read along with Tasmania Reads. Created for introverts, there is no pressure to speak, converse, or cringe through awkward small talk. Engage as much or as little as you like. Silent Book Club is about community: everyone is welcome, and anyone can join. There are no ‘reading books’ prescribed: you simply bring a book you are reading, or want to read, and then have an hour of uninterrupted reading time. Reading begins at 5.30pm and finishes at 6.30pm. The Afterword Cafe will be open for wine and cafe drinks until 6.00pm. (Our regular Hobart Silent Book Club meets on the first Friday of each month.)
Writing Fiction Set in Tasmania Panel Discussion at Hobart Library
Date: 22 March 2024
Time: 5:30pm- 6:30pm
Where: Hobart Library,
91 Murray Street,
Hobart
Join a panel of local authors, Kim Bambrook (Undertow, 2022), Karen Harrland (Daughter of the Plateau, 2022), and Steve Tolbert (Nowhere Man and the Roadkill Lady, 2024), in conversation with Forty South publisher Rayne Allinson, to explore the art of crafting fiction set within Tasmania’s rugged landscapes and rich history, to offer insights into storytelling rooted in our unique locality.
TasWriters Celebrates Tasmania Reads: Deceptions by Stella Kent
Date: 22 March 2024
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:50 pm
Where: Hadley’s Orient Hotel,
34 Murray Street,
Hobart
TasWriters presents a staged reading of Deceptions, a play by Stella Kent about Gwen Harwood’s mischievous attempts to get published whilst striving to be the perfect housewife.
TasWriters Celebrates Tasmania Reads: Book Chats
Date: 23 March 2024
Time: 9:20 am – 3:00 pm
Where: Hadley’s Orient Hotel,
34 Murray Street,
Hobart
TasWriters and Libraries Tasmania present Book Chats.
Free sessions with poets, writers, illustrators and storytellers prompting fun discussions.
TasWriters Celebrates Tasmania Reads: Launch of Forty South Short Story Anthology 2023.
Date: 23 March 2024
Time: 3:45 pm – 4:45 pm
Where: Hadley’s Orient Hotel,
34 Murray Street,
Hobart
Moderator: Rayne Allinson
Mallika Naguran in conversation with finalists from the competition.
TasWriters Celebrates Tasmania Reads: Writing the Wild: The Rise of Eco-Literature in Tasmania
Date: 23 March 2024
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Where: Hadley’s Orient Hotel,
34 Murray Street,
Hobart
Forty South presents:
Writing the Wild: The Rise of Eco-Literature in Tasmania
Moderator: Cameron Hindrum
Hilary Burden, Simon Grove, Karen Harrland and Lyn Reeves
North
Book Council of Lutruwita/Tasmania presents Steve Biddulph
Date: 20 March 2024
Time: 1:15 pm
Where: 2nd Floor, Launceston Library,
71 Civic Square,
Launceston
RSVP to bookcouncillt@gmail.com
Top selling parenting author Steve Biddulph will be the guest speaker at the Book Council of Lutruwita/Tasmania’s March meeting.
Steve will be discussing his forthcoming book, Make Friends With Your Wild Creature Mind. Members free, non members $5.
The Place that Made Us: Martin Flanagan in conversation with Cameron Hindrum
Date: 21 March 2024
Time: 6:00 pm
Where: UTAS Inveresk Library – Ground Floor,
2 Invermay Road,
Invermay
Martin Flanagan explores what is about Tasmania–its places, its stories, its people and its ghosts–that seeps into the bones and the imagination of a creative soul such as Cameron Hindrum, who has called the Island home all his life. What are the defining cultural moments and narratives that both define Tasmania and are reflected in the art that is produced here? How is this reflected in the seminal reading, writing and creativity that has occupied Martin and Cameron in their various literary endeavours?
Quixotic Books Book Chat
Date: 21 March 2024
Time: 6:00 pm
Where: Quixotic Books,
1st Floor,
109 Brisbane Street,
Launceston
Every Thursday, Quixotic Books holds a Silent Book Club between 4:00-6:00 pm where participants read in silent company. For Tasmania Reads Week, Quixotic Books will host a Book Chat after the Silent Book Club on the 21st of March to talk about our favourite reads. Tea, Coffee, and a nibbles platter will be provided.
Read it, Grow it, Pick it, Cook it, Eat it!
Date: 23 March 2024
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Where: SOMA Stage
Harvest Launceston Community Farmers Market,
71 Cimitiere St,
Launceston
Harvest Launceston Community Farmers’ Market will be all about reading about growing, preparing, and eating healthy food for young children and their families as part of Tasmania Reads Week. Please bring along a book if you are keen to share your favourite on all things food. There will be reading, storytelling, and even some mini kid-friendly healthy food preparation and demonstrations to inspire young people to read and engage with healthy eating.
The Launceston Library is excited to bring a Pop Up Library to the event. You can join the Library, find out about what’s happening at your local library and borrow amazing cook books, children’s books and more on the day!