Exciting Opportunity

QLF is hiring!

The Queenscliffe Literary Festival (QLF) Committee seeks to contract the services of a single provider or individual providers for three functions:

Event management

In conjunction with the Program Director and committee members, coordinate and oversee the planning and staging of festival events. This includes the main festival, staged over two weekends, in October, providing operational assistance to the Schools Program in May, and a minimum of two pop-up events in July 2026 and January 2027.

 Communications / publicity management.

In conjunction with the Program Director and the operations committee develop, design, produce and disseminate QLF communications to promote the QLF and our events to multiple stakeholders. This includes communications / publicity management for the main festival staged over two weekends, a minimum of two pop up events in 2026, and the Schools Program.

Ticketing management

In conjunction with the Festival Manager and the operations sub committee, refine, implement and monitor ticketing systems for all QLF events, including pop-ups and our October festival. 

About the Queenscliffe Literary Festival

The Queenscliffe Literary Festival (QLF) brings the best of established and emerging Australian literary talent to the Borough of Queenscliffe and the greater Bellarine community. The festival has become a recognised and anticipated cultural event on the local calendar. The purpose is to curate a lively, intelligent and engaging season of events that stimulates discussion and provides opportunities participation. The program aims to be inclusive, accessible, thought-provoking and diverse. It celebrates Australian literature across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, music, and visual art, and is delivered by an exciting and diverse range of authors, storytellers, and social commentators to the Borough of Queenscliffe and the wider community.

More information about the functions and how to apply can be accessed here:  Management Tender Document

Tenders close at 5.00pm on Friday 20 March 2026.

Virginia Todd

President

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QLF's 2025 festival featured award-winning writers, thinkers and experts, and included for the first time an international author.

The list of outstanding Australian authors who attended our festival included Marcia Langton, Peter Greste, Bob Brown , Virginia Trioli, Alice Zaslavsky, Brian Nankervis and Melissa Leong, as well as 2025 Miles Franklin-winner Siang Lu and two previous Stella Prize-winners, poet Evelyn Araluen and novelist Heather Rose.

QLF hosted our first-ever international guest in Egyptian-Canadian journalist Omar El Akkad, in conversation with Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf about global flashpoints including Black Lives Matter and the genocide in Gaza.

Footy fans enjoyed Geelong Cats champion Zach Tuohy and ABC broadcaster Catherine Murphy in conversation about their book The Way of the Irish.

Mystery afficianados attended sessions with Sydney author Jane Caro and local crime writers Mark Smith, Christine Keighery and Tanya Scott, and true crime lovers relished a conversation about podcasting with veteran crime reporter Andrew Rule and ABC investigative journalist Rachael Brown, in which they unpacked our fascination with the true crime genre, and mushroom murders.

At our 2025 festival we also -

• marked Jane Austen’s 250th birthday with a lively panel discussion, afternoon tea and sparkling wine, and a Regency dance lesson; 
• hosted a play-reading of a new work about Germaine Greer ;
• offered budding writers a half-day workshop with award-winning romance writer Marion Lennox;
• celebrated real life and stories with a special Better Off Said event created by Marieke Hardy and Emilie Zoey Baker and featuring Antoinette Lattouf, Hannie Rayson, Brian Nankervis, Andrew Rule and Shokoofeh Azar, with music by Sarah Carroll; and
• featured discussions on Indigenous art, memoir, gardening, politics, America, journalism, the wellness movement, food and more!

QLF 2025 was a brilliant, captivating and highly engaging celebration of community and culture. We look forward to creating another vibrant and enriching festival for 2026!

Was literacy this much fun when you were in school?

Queenscliffe Literary Festival’s eleventh annual Schools Program has just wrapped up and it was a smashing success.

Across two weeks in May, authors visited every kindergarten and school in the Borough of Queenscliffe. 

CBCA Award-winner Andrea Rowe captivated preschoolers with her beautiful beachy picture books; Beth and Byll Stephen from the Teeny Tiny Stevies had Foundation—Year 2 students up and dancing between readings from their six picture books; Felice Arena, author of the bestselling Specky Magee books, literally had Year 3-4s rolling in the aisles and taking speccies; and CBCA-shortlisted novelist Huda Hayek encountered some year 5-6s so polite they didn’t want to acknowledge her red nose let alone her hijab!

The kids had a ball: here is some of their feedback.

‘I like that it was funny and I learnt about things.’

‘It was super fun.’

‘It was too good.’

‘I would tell my parents that today I had the best school day ever and tell them about it.’

‘I wood tell my parents that I had a grat time.’

Thanks to these excellent authors for visiting Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale; thanks to the schools and kindergartens for their enthusiasm and support (and their AV skills!); thanks to the kids for sharing their love of books with us all; and thanks to the QLF volunteers—Viv, Colette, Marg, Ginny and especially Linden, who put it all together.

Queenscliffe Literary Festival’s Schools Program is supported by the Borough of Queenscliffe and receives donations as people buy tickets for the adult festival program. We are very grateful for the community support for this excellent program, which reaches every preschool and school student in the Borough each year.