Sanctuary (Byron Writers Festival 2026)

When I heard this year's Byron Writers Festival theme was Sanctuary, I found myself sitting with the word for a while. What does it really mean?

For me, it immediately brings to mind words like peace, safety, tranquillity, repose and nourishment. It's the quietening of chaos. It's crawling into bed after a long day or closing the bathroom door and disappearing into a hot bath. Sometimes, when you have children, sanctuary is simply hiding in the toilet for five uninterrupted minutes.

But it can also mean something much bigger than that. For some people, it's literally the difference between life and death—a refuge from war, famine, persecution, violence and fear. When I think about that, I realise how incredibly fortunate I am to have the freedom to seek sanctuary at all. I'll never take that for granted.

One of the first places I ever found sanctuary was within the pages of a book. Growing up, there were times when life around me felt unpredictable. I couldn't always change what was happening around me, but I could transform myself through living vicariously through others. Books became a place where I found mercy, forgiveness, courage, hope and possibility. They weren't just an escape from my world—they slowly expanded it. Looking back now, I think books gave me a rich, private and transcendent inner world that nobody could ever take away. I've always thought they were an escape, but perhaps they were actually the way home?

Years later I read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and it put words to something I think I'd always known. Even in the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust, Frankl believed that our greatest freedom lay in our ability to choose our response. That idea has stayed with me ever since. Sanctuary may not be a place, but a state of mind we can tap into at any time, even against the greatest adversity. 

These days, I also find sanctuary much closer to home. Living in the Northern Rivers, I never have to drive very far before I feel myself exhale. There's something about driving towards the base of Wollumbin, feeling cradled by the mountain, hushed to the sound of wind through the trees and cicadas humming while the icy creek water tickles my toes. Watching yabbies and eels disappear beneath the rock shelf tot heir own sanctuary. It's impossible not to feel held and soothed by our magical mountain. 

Perhaps that's why the festival's theme, Sanctuary, is inspiring me. The more I've thought about it, the more I've realised that sanctuary means something different to each of us.

For some, it's found in nature. For others, in stories, creativity, philosophy, home, or simply the quiet company of a good book.

Over the coming week, we've put together a series of special collections inspired by the many different ways we find sanctuary. We'll begin among gardens, forests and wild places with Sanctuary in Nature, before exploring the refuge we find in books and storytelling, the comfort of friendship and community, the quiet resilience of the inner spirit, and finally the places—and people—we call home. Each collection offers a different perspective on the same simple idea: that sanctuary is rarely one place. More often, it's something we discover, nurture, and can learn to carry within us always.

Each collection is a different doorway into the same idea: that books have the remarkable ability to comfort us, challenge us, inspire us and, every now and then, become a sanctuary in their own right.

Whether your sanctuary is beneath a canopy of ancient trees, beside a quiet creek, in the embrace of someone you love, or simply between the covers of a favourite book, I hope you'll join us over the coming week as we celebrate the stories that have offered refuge, inspiration and hope to generations of readers.

Welcome to our Sanctuary series.