Explore the 2024 Program
A new year is a new opportunity to reflect on the year that’s been and begin again with a new one stretching ahead. January brings with it the energy for change across all elements of your life. For us at Sydney Writers’ Festival, the new year means new reading goals that push our TBR piles higher and stretch our shelves wider.
From across the office, our 2024 reading goals include focus on reading more diversely, reading outside our comfort zones, and the ever-pressing hunt for a hidden gem.
Georgia, Development Manager
Georgia has a clear quantity goal, setting herself to read a book a fortnight for the entire year. She also wants to read more books by women of colour so she’s started 2024 off strong with The Lovers by Yumna Kassab and Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Sarah, Head of Marketing & Digital
Sarah has a penchant for new and noteworthy releases which means old favourites often get overlooked in her TBRs. Inspired by recently loving Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, Sarah is turning to the much-loved, more established writers of the 20th century in 2024.
Julia, Digital Marketing Coordinator
Julia also noticed some gaps in her reading knowledge in 2023 which is why her reading goal is to pick up as many Nobel Laureates as she can across the year. Two that she has lined up for January are Disgrace by JM Coetzee and Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah. She’s excited for how this goal will take her reading all over the world and back into the backlist, as well.
Iain, Ticketing & Customer Service Manager
Iain, like Georgia, has a quantity goal to read a book a month throughout 2024 while trying to read outside of his crime fiction comfort zone. He could start with some genre-bending mysteries like Gun, with Occasional Music by Johnathan Lethem, which mashes crime noir with science fiction, or the meta-literary style of I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai.
Kieran, Volunteers & Internships Coordinator
Kieran has a project to attend to in 2024 which requires a deep dive into fantasy and dark academia genres, for research purposes, of course. In his downtime, he’ll be filling the gaps in his TBR with closer to home Australian authors.
What are your reading goals for the new year? Are you focusing on quantity or quality in your reading plans? Do you have any recommendations to help us achieve our goals this year?
Whether you’re trying to read more diversely, read new-to-you authors, or return to old favourites, you can check out our Summer Reading List 2023 for some ideas to kick off your year in reading.