Whitsunday Anglican School has announced Dr Richard Harris SC OAM as their keynote speaker for the 2022 Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival and Literary Dinner.
Dr Harris is an Australian anaesthetist and cave diver who played a crucial role in the remarkable international rescue of a teenage soccer team from a flooded Thai cave system in 2018.
Dr Harris and dive partner Dr Craig Challen have recounted the heroic tale of the rescue in their book ‘Against All Odds’, and Festival Manager Tracey Gurdler says he will be huge for the town and the festival.
“He’s a hero,” she said.
“I think that the Mackay community will be able to come together to celebrate him as a person and an author.”
Dr Harris will speak to senior students at the festival and deliver a keynote speech at the Literary Dinner.
He is among 13 Australian authors attending as well as artists, musicians, a drama group, a slam poet, and a screenwriter, with the rest of the program and ticket sales to be launched on April 22.
The Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival is the only festival of its kind north of the Sunshine Coast and welcomes approximately 5000 students from around the region, including 500 children from regional Queensland thanks to the Winchester Foundation.
“Sometimes being a regional community, you don’t expect to be exposed to the same sort of cultural activities as you are if you lived in Brisbane or Sydney or Melbourne,” Tracey said.
“To actually have something like this here as well that our kids can enjoy and benefit from, it’s fantastic.
“I love being a part of it.”
The 2022 Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival will launch on Wednesday 13th of July with festivities taking place on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th July 2022.
The festival consists of book talks, workshops, performances, and author signings.
Heroic Cave Diver Dr Richard Harris has been announced as the keynote speaker at this year’s Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival
