30 DAYS TO GO !!A MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL CAMPBELL, THE FESTIVAL'S DIRECTOR:

The Brisbane Writers Festival is more than a Festival for writers, it's for everyone who reads. From the world's headlines, climate change, China or the US Elections, BWF is an event that has meaning and relevance to every single one of us, in every aspect of our lives. This year, there are strong personal voices emanating from the pages of the Festival's books.

The 2008 festival will bring together approximately 220 writers from around the world including some of the world's leading authors including the winners of some of the world's most prestigious literary awards including the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize as well as the winners of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the Queensland Premier's Literary Award and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

We welcome many fine writers including, for the first time to Australia, Yann Martel (Life of Pi), the winner of the Reuters Foundation Best Environmental Reporter in the World, Alanna Mitchell, Lloyd Jones (Mister Pip), pic left, Kate Grenville with the world exclusive release of her new novel The Lieutenant, Robert Drewe, Simon Winchester, biographer Richard Holmes, Chris Abani, Lawrence Hill, Gwynne Dyer, the controversial James Frey, Mahvish Khan - an interpreter at Guantanamo Bay, and many more to excite, challenge and entertain you.

This years' festival contains a number of program strands that sit alongside the main program.

Haloing the main festival week are the Festival Bookends. We are thrilled to be able to hold events with the legendary stage and screen Director, Jim Sharman in conversation with Richard Fidler (see below), Tim Flannery, Peter Costello, and David Marr on the Bill Henson case. We are also running a comprehensive series of masterclass and workshops with writers including classes given by Yann Martel, Lawrence Hill, Debra Adelaide, Margo Lanagan, Michael Robotham, Steven Galloway, Lloyd Jones, Chris Cleave amongst others.

I look forward to you joining us for a feast of ideas, books and passions. 17-21 September, 2008