The Boundless Festival is a biennial celebration of Indigenous and culturally diverse writers presented by Writing NSW.
In 2023, the program consisted of five in-person events between September and December, in partnership with Western Sydney venues. All events in the program were free to attend.
Poetic Justice: How Hip-Hop Saved My Life
Friday 22 September, 7pm at Bankstown Arts Centre
Curated by Simone Amelia Jordan
Celebrate fifty years of rap and its transformative power with this session hosted by Simone Amelia Jordan, Australia’s top hip-hop journalist, in conversation with Zig Parker, and witness an electrifying rap battle between L-FRESH The Lion and Mari. with DJ Capital Zee.
A Home of One’s Own: Writers on the Housing Crisis
Wednesday 27 September, 6.30pm at The Joan, Penrith
Curated by Alejandra Martinez
Join author and city-maker Jess Scully, writer and poet Mohammad Awad, Shelter NSW Planning Officer Stacey Miers and moderator Dominic Santangelo for a panel discussion on the housing crisis, and the power of words and lived experience to affect change.
A Voice Appears in the Dark
Friday 13 October, 6.30pm at Bankstown Arts Centre
Curated by Tina Huang
Come along to experience sounds, images, and words at this multi-disciplinary performance event with Tina Huang, Bella Li, Coco Huang and Lou Garcia-Dolnik.
Failed Writers’ Festival
Thursday 2 November, 7-9pm at Petersham Bowling Club
Curated by Greg Page
The Failed Writers’ Festival showcases a range of diverse voices, which the mainstream market has skipped over and looked past, even though we need these voices more than ever. Come and hear what they have to say! Featuring Mark Marusic, Rosie Bogumil, Joana Tumpalan, Greg Page, Jill Carter-Hansen and John Hallam.
Writers of Colour Write Nature
Saturday 2 December, 12.30pm at Bankstown Arts Centre
Curated by Zohra Aly
Join four women writers of colour as they discuss challenging the white male-dominated field of nature writing and share what the Australian landscape means to them and how they explore it in their writing. Featuring Zohra Aly, Kavita Bedford and Uthpala Gunethilake in conversation with Sujatha Fernandes.
Emerging Curators
Boundless is curated by the successful applicants to our Boundless mentoring program for emerging curators of writing events from culturally diverse backgrounds: Alejandra Martinez, Greg Page and Simone Amelia Jordan, as well as returning curators Tina Huang and Zohra Aly. The events have been programmed under the guidance of writer, editor, producer and curator Sheila Ngọc Phạm, with support from Writing NSW.
Boundless Festival History
The Boundless Festival was established by Writing NSW in 2017, in partnership with Bankstown Arts Centre and Sweatshop. The first Australian festival to focus on First Nations and culturally diverse writers, the biennial event gives a platform to established writers and emerging voices from a rich array of genres and styles. Authors, writers for performance, journalists, poets and interdisciplinary practitioners come together to discuss the important issues of our times and the value of story.
The 2019 festival won FBi Radio’s SMAC award for Sydney’s Best Arts Program. In 2021, the festival was further enriched with the launch of a new Writing NSW development program for emerging literary curators. Curators Zohra Aly, Annie Brockenhuus-Schack and Tina Huang designed the festival under the guidance of Sisonke Msimang, curator of the literature and ideas program at Perth Festival. Covid restrictions meant the 2021 festival had to be reimagined as an online event, attracting an enthusiastic audience from around the country.
More information about previous Boundless festivals can be found here.