Patrick Ness discusses his award-winning Chaos Walking trilogy - The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer.

Featuring a hand-picked selection of some of the best international and local writers in young adult literature, Sydney Writers' Festival's 2010 Secondary School Days program offers an opportunity for students to engage with, and be inspired by, their favourite authors in an educational, fun and interactive day.
Secondary School Days showcases the very best local talent in young adult writing, with Melina Marchetta, Anthony Eaton, Boori Monty Pryor and John Danalis. They will be joined by the UK’s Charlie Higson, best known for his highly successful Young Bond series.
Secondary School Days will be held at Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay on Tuesday 18 May and Riverside Theatre in Parramatta on Wednesday 19 May.
For full program details visit www.swf.org.au/school-days

Featuring a hand-picked selection of some of the best international and local writers in children’s literature, Sydney Writers' Festival's 2010 Primary School Days program offers an opportunity for students to engage with, and be inspired by, their favourite authors in an educational, fun and interactive day.
Much-loved Australian writers Andy Griffiths, Kate Forsyth, Belinda Murrell and Leigh Hobbs, and UK author of the phenomenally popular Alex Rider series Anthony Horowitz, will feature in the superb Primary School Days line-up.
There will be four sessions of Primary School Days in Sydney, Parramatta and Penrith from Monday 17 to Thursday 20 May. Sydney Writers' Festival is also pleased to announce a fifth Primary School Days event for primary students attending NSW Priority Schools, which will be held at Sydney Town Hall on Friday 21 May with up to 1200 tickets offered free of charge.
For full program details visit www.swf.org.au/school-days
 

Award winning writers Patrick Ness and Isobelle Carmody talk about literature and imagining the future. The session will also include performances of scenes from the books.

Patrick Ness is the author of The Knife of Never Letting Go and its sequel The Ask and the Answer, two compelling novels. The story of teenagers Todd and Viola fighting for survival in a totalitarian post-holocaust future raises complex moral questions. The Ask and the Answer won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Booktrust UK Teenage Book Prize. Patrick has also taught creative writing at Oxford University.

Isobelle Carmody is Australia’s international queen of fantasy literature. Carmody began writing Obernewtyn aged 14-years-old. Obernewtyn is an adventure story set in a dystopic future. Twenty two years later, Obernewtyn comes to its climax with The Sending. (Released March 2010)

 Presented by the Centre for Youth Literature, supported by Walker Books Australia