Moorabool Festival of Stories will also launch the Peter Carey Short Story Award to be judged by The Weight of a Human Heart author Ryan O’Neill.

Moorabool Writers Craft’s Wayne Marshall said the festival had grown from modest expectations to a size that would put the shire “on the map” for writers.

The festival will include a gothic writer’s workshops with Fairytales for Wilde Girls author Allyse Near, and The Taste of Egypt by Dyna Eldaief.

There will also be workshops with poet Jennie Fraine and screenwriter Steven Tandy.

“It was starting out quite small with a view to making the festival bigger over the coming years but as far as the town itself and the shire it absolutely puts us on the map in terms of literary culture, in terms of storytelling and to have these big names is fantastic,” Mr Marshall said.

Mr Marshall said the group had grown from a handful to more than 30 members since it started five years ago.

Moorabool Writers Craft will release their second anthology of creative writing as part of the festival. 

“We’ve just come together and it’s a great supportive place and continues to grow in what is otherwise quite a sports-obsessed culture Australia-wide, it’s a refuge for creative people to come in and find that support so it’s been great.”

Moorabool Shire Libraries and customer service coordinator Lesley Fell said the festival would celebrate the shire’s growing literary community. 

“We want to invest in the future of our local writers and we’re showcasing our story telling culture and just wanting to bring that community together and celebrate its diversity and the growing interest within our community,” she said.

“It’s just an exciting opportunity for people to attend and to network with likeminded people. During May there’s not much happening in the shire - they’re had the Ballan Autumn Festival, the Longest Lunch, so it's something new for people to attend and something fresh.”

Moorabool Festival of Stories is on Saturday, May 20 from 10am to 4pm at Lerderberg Library, 215 Main Street Bacchus Marsh. Sat. 20 May 2017. For more information contact Moorabool Shire Libraries on 5366 7100.