Once upon a time in Paris, on the banks of the Seine, Jemma Birrell co-directed the Shakespeare & Co. Literary Festival.  She worked with the glamorous actor and bookstore owner Sylvia Whitman to create an Anglophone festival of considerable literary charm. Yet to lure big name writers like Alain de Botton, Will Self and Jeanette Winterson to put down their pens and leave their garrets, they had to enlist sponsors like The Ritz, Louis Roederer and Mont Blanc. And by Jove it worked!

Each year this ambitious festival blossomed and grew. Famous writers from British and American publishing houses graced the historic bookstore giving intimate little readings. It was here in Paris, that our current artistic director of the Sydney Writer’s Festival, Jemma Birrell cut her teeth on the literary world.

“It’s always that gradual process of wooing an author to come to your festival,” says Jemma with a big smile. “All those personal connections pay-off over time, but it does take time,” she explains of her recent efforts to convince authors to take the long plane trip Down Under.

Though Jemma had previously worked for Allen & Unwin and run the Vogel Literary Prize before leaving our shores, she says it was running the festival at Shakespeare & Co. for three editions that really taught her the ‘tricks of the trade’.

“There was so much trust from Sylvia and so much collaborating and brainstorming going on, there was just this wild and wonderful sense that anything was possible,” she says.

Now Sydney-siders are reaping the rewards of Jemma’s seven years in Paris. It was here she formed many  lasting relationships with famous writers like Pulitzer Award-winning Jennifer Egan and best-selling writer Dave Eggars. Her personal connections include authors Julian Barnes and Jeanette Winterson, whose names sparkle like diamonds in this year’s Sydney program.

Invited to apply for the role of Artistic Director while she was still in Paris, Jemma Birrell officially returned from her apartment in Rue Poissioniere in 2012, presenting her first Sydney program in 2013.  Since then, there’s been no looking back.

This year Jemma Birrell will preside over the most successful Sydney Writer’s Festival in the event’s 18 year history. Tickets sales are up and authors are lining-up to take part in the event. The secret to her success, Birrell says, has come from expanding her definition of the word “writer”.

“Our writer’s festival is storytelling across all forms,” she says. “People are hungrier than ever to hear from writers and people want to take a break from the daily grind and from technology too. People really need and want, time and space to come together and think,” she says. But it’s not just famous faces or deep thinking Jemma focuses on.

“Every festival is about discovery. Of course you need the big headliners to draw the crowds in, but people also get very excited about discovering new authors too. It’s a big part of why they come,” she says. Birrell’s program is true to her ethos.

Sessions include performative works from spoken words artists, cabaret singers and actors, as well flaneurs like Vivian Gornick from New York, podcasters and radio stars like Starlee Kine from This American Life and Mystery Show plus journalists like Marie Darrieussecq from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

There are also sessions with singers like Paul Kelly whose latest album is inspired by Shakespearean sonnets and TV Stars like Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb talking about their favourite books. Her program is also generous to politics.

2016 SWF will host panels with leading commentators on the state of countries like Ireland, China, India, France, as well as focused hours on war, travel, terrorism and history. Themes and ideas inform the sessions these days rather than authors and publishers pushing newly published titles. Late night will be covered off by the Hemingway Bar at Pier 2/3, as well as by moderated conversations on controversial topics. There are even themed evenings on science and technology for the self-ascribed geeks.

During her 7 years abroad, Jemma Birrell never in her wildest dreams thought she would come to direct the writer’s festival she always loved in her home town, but she says the atmosphere at the Pier 2/3 makes all her work and all her reading worthwhile. “Book-lovers are the same everywhere. For me it is the people who make the festival great.”