The Whitsundays Writers Festival has an exciting new update to their speaker line-up with award winning Whitsundays author and investigative journalist Dr Lindsay Simpson announced to speak at the much-anticipated event.
Lindsay is the author and co-author of eleven books including bestselling Brothers in Arms, co-authored with Sandra Harvey and the subject of the Netflix television mini-series Bikie Wars.
She also authored historical fiction novel The Curer of Souls which was shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Prize in 2007. In the same year she won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Crime Writers Association with Sandra.
Lindsay’s 2014 book, Where is Daniel? Written with his parent’s Bruce and Denise Morcombe, investigated the disappearance of their son Daniel and the subsequent police investigation.
Her latest book, following its Dirty Footsteps: Adani is a memoir on climate change which won a Queensland Premier Literary Award in 2019.
Festival President Karen Jacobsen has expressed her excitement at the new line-up addition. “We are thrilled to have Lindsay join this year’s program. Her body of work is profound. Her meticulous research and passionate telling of important stories often present the reader with uncomfortable and problematic aspects of Queensland and Australian stories that need to be told.”
In addition to her book writing, Lindsay was also an investigative journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald from 1983-95 and spent 13 years as an academic, where she was the Inaugural Head of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Tasmania. She also founded the Bachelor of Multimedia Journalism degree at James Cook University in 2010.
Lindsay now writes full time while living in the Whitsundays with her husband Grant. The pair also have their own tourism business where they run two sailing boats, Providence V and MiLady.
“We look forward to Lindsay’s significant contribution to the festival, sharing insights on responsible and respectful truth telling,’ Karen Jacobsen added.
Lindsay joins authors Shankari Chandran, Garry Disher, Sally Hepworth, Kirsty Manning, Christos Tsiolkas, Anne Buist, Graeme Simsion, Karina Kilmore, Melissa Ashley, Jack Roney, Joy Damousi, and Nick Earls for this year’s program.
If you are eager to see Lindsay’s or any of the other talented writer's speech’s, festival program highlights and ticket information are available on the festival’s website: whitsundayswriters.com
What: Whitsundays Writers Festival
When: Friday, September 6, to Sunday, September 8, 2024
Where: Airlie Beach