Festival of Fiction 2026

About this event

Pitch Ticket Information here. Tickets for pitching go live at 8am 15 August, 2026. Perth's best literary festival, celebrating all things fiction, is back for 2026! On behalf of the Peter Cowan Writers' Centre and proudly presented by the City of Joondalup and Creative Australia. This year’s Festival of Fiction will be over two massive days in two concurrent theatres at ECU Joondalup on the weekend of 21 and 22 November, 2026. We've got 80 authors, 10 publishing industry professionals, continuous panels and workshops over two amazing days -- this is Perth's biggest and best book-based event! See the program here. For Readers One theatre this year will be purely for reader entertainment. It will feature back-to-back panels of bestselling authors on a range of fun and insightful topics and is aptly called our Readers’ Theatre. Doors will open both days at 8am with a start time of 8.40am and the festival runs through until 5.45pm each day. For Writers Running at the same time, 150m away in another auditorium, will be our Writers’ Theatre. The Writers’ Theatre will have presentations of mini-masterclasses by some of Australia’s best authors and panels, featuring publishers and literary agents. Doors will open both days at 8am with a start time of 8.40am and the festival runs through until 5.45pm each day. Amenities Bermuda Cafe will be open throughout, as well as a coffee and food vans on site. Dymocks is offering continuous book sales so you can get your new books signed by the authors, and there's even a booklovers' merch stand from That Store Over There. Pitching? We’re bringing back our 5 minute in-person pitching opportunity for aspiring authors with leading publishers and agents - 10 of them this year, spread over both days of the weekend! Tickets for pitching are $60 and are separate to festival tickets. **FULL DETAILS HERE** You DON’T need to buy a festival ticket to be able to pitch, all you need is the separate pitch ticket (although you will need both tickets if you want to attend the festival as well as pitching). Pitch tickets go on sale on 15 August at 8am. Please note: you must select a timeslot during the purchase process for each pitch ticket you buy. If you miss this step, it may result in your ticket being cancelled, as the timeslot may have been allocated elsewhere. It is your responsibility to purchase the ticket and timeslot correctly. Helpful information • See more FAQs below. • We encourage you to take public transport or car pool! Books are more fun with friends and less cars is better for the planet. ECU public transport guide. • Free and accessible parking is in Carpark 2 at Edith Cowan University Joondalup. Follow the signs to the event. • The Readers’ Theatre is building 32 • The Writers’ Theatre is building 7 • Sessions in each theatre start at 8.40AM sharp. Please be seated by then as we’ll be closing doors for the Welcome to Country • Please keep a close eye on the program times as we close doors at the start of each session • Printed programs will be available on the day and we will send downloadable printable panel schedules to our newsletter subscribers. • Bermuda cafe will be open from 8am until 4.30pm, serving food and drinks and and we have coffee/food trucks on site. But you can also feel free to bring your own packed lunch to have outside, being mindful that your bag needs to be small enough to fit under your seat and not block the aisles. • For accessibility info, scroll down to the FAQs.