Trans Book Festival (TBF) is the only writers’ festival in the southern hemisphere focused on uplifting and celebrating trans and gender diverse (TGD) literary excellence in all narrative forms.

After a hugely successful inaugural festival on 8 February 2025, led by Sam Elkin, TBF is back once more from 17-19 April 2026, led by Eli Sutherland.

Catch the below Magabala creators at these festival sessions.

Ellen van Neerven

Evening the Score: Sports Writing

Saturday 18 April, 14:30 - 15:30

The Wheeler Centre

Amid regressive debates about trans participation in sport, how can we reclaim a love of movement, play, and team fandom? In this powerhouse panel, hit debut author Darcy Green (After the Siren) joins award-winning writers Ellen van Neerven (Personal Score, Ruby's Web) and Dylin Hardcastle (A Language of Limbs) for an energetic conversation spanning AFL, soccer, surfing, and more. Chaired by Sam Elkin (Detachable Penis).

Trans Poetics

Sunday 19 April, 09:30 - 10:30

The Wheeler Centre

Poetry is a form that lends itself to fluidity and challenging the confines of the page. How, then, might a trans lens go about this queering of language in a way that serves both the form and an ideological desire to transform? In this session, Hasib Hourani (rock flight) unpacks poetry as a site for linguistic play with panellists Kaya Ortiz (Past & Parallel Lives), Jazz Money (mark the dawn), Ellen Van Neerven (Personal Score, Ruby's Web), and Rae White (Exactly As I Am).

Arlie Alizzi

TRANScedent

First Nations panel

Sunday 19 April, 16:00 - 17:00

The Wheeler Centre

Being an Ancestor is beyond the limitations of time, space, and the material world. First Nations writers and poets Arlie Alizzi, moirra., and Lay Maloney (Weaving Us Together) yarn with chair Jazz Money (mark the dawn) about what it means to be a trans Ancestor, the responsibility of truth-telling with ink, and how Blak Love transcends all expectations. Programmed by guest-curator by Lay Maloney.

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