NT Writers Festival

The NT Writers Festival (NTWF) returns to Garramilla/Darwin 28 – 31 May 2026 with the theme NAVIGATING.

The world is changing fast and hard, and it can be tempting to disconnect or despair. In this year’s festival, we explore how to stay the course amid uncertain waters. What anchors us in place? What stories nourish us and help us grow strong?
First Peoples navigate by land, stars, language groups, ceremony, and kinship structures. Collectively, we delve into calm waters that are medicine for our frayed nervous systems. We share what helps us grieve and reckon with the past, and what truthtelling can reveal in order for us to see clearly. And we discover what narratives push back against divisive tides, to reveal the currents that connect us all.
Together we will seek the guiding lights that steer us to safe harbour.

NT writers are invited to send in Expressions of Interest to be an Artist at the 2026 Festival. EOIs close 17 Dec 2025.

NTWF is a four-day festival that brings the community together to share story, language and culture.

Held annually in iconic outdoor locations, the festival alternates between Garramilla / Darwin and Mparntwe / Alice Springs. With a thousand miles between locations, the festival shifts from the tropics to the desert, from coastal to inland, from Larrakia to Arrernte Country, creating a character which reflects the diversity – environmental, cultural and social – of the Northern Territory itself.

Founded in 1999, NTWF has hosted an impressive array of some of Australia’s most distinguished writers, thinkers and storytellers, including Charlotte Wood, Gina Chick, Bruce Pascoe, Kim Mahood, Christos Tsiolkas, Hannah Kent, Trent Dalton, Rick Morton, Larissa Behrendt and Alexis Wright.

‘The perfect small festival…exactly the right atmosphere to explore big and complex ideas in the company of generous minds. All in a location reminding us that stories are the foundation of every civilisation.’ – Morris Gleitzman

Photo credit: Paz Tassone

Video credit: Reelwire Productions

If you are interested in partnering with us on the 2026 NT Writers Festival, please contact executive@ntwriters.com.au. To find our more about the benefits of sponsorship, download our latest sponsorship package.

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Photos in gallery above: Campfire Stories (Oliver Eclipse Photography); Trent Dalton and Liz Trevaskis (Paz Tassone); Words on the Wharf (Paz Tassone); Eunice Andrada (Oliver Eclipse).