Tamworth, Bingara, Nundle, Quirindi and Walcha libraries will live stream Sydney Writers' festival

After eight years as a staff member of Tamworth City Library, and time spent in libraries in the Central Coast and Hornsby, Ita Hanssens believes writers' festivals are beneficial.

Tamworth library will live stream the Sydney Writers' Festival for members from Thursday, May 25.

"It gives them the opportunity to see authors that might not want to travel this way," senior librarian information services Ms Hanssens said.

"It gives them the opportunity to actually see it here without having to travel to Sydney."

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It's worth putting it on, she said, and in 2022, there were about 15 people in each session, which means more than 100 in total attended.

The session with fiction writer Geraldine Brooks has grabbed Ms Hanssens' attention.

The author's book Horse, opened her mind to racism in the horse industry in the 1800s.

A whole series of sessions are being filmed in bay 17 at Carriageworks in Sydney, and live streamed as part of the Live and Local program, festival artistic director Ann Mossop said.

Authors set to hit the screen include Jane Harper, Richard Fidler, Eleanor Catton, Colson Whitehead, Pip Williams, Helen Garner, and more.

"We put together this amazing program, and obviously there's a whole lot of reasons why people can't get here," she said.

"And we just want as many people as possible to be able to share in the program."

The festival's theme is stories for the future, she said, and attempts to capture what's important now, and what's being done presently to shape the future.

"What we do is a mixture of celebrating an art form, bringing together communities and helping ideas circulate in our community in different ways," she said.

Tamworth Library will host all live stream sessions and its partner libraries will showcase a selection of sessions between Thursday May 25 to Sunday May 28.

Sessions are free, but bookings are required.

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