GenreCon 2025: Alchemy

Get ready to let your imagination run free with GenreCon, Australia’s largest conference dedicated to genre fiction writers. An initiative of Queensland Writers Centre, GenreCon has been running annually since 2019, building a tight-knit and welcoming community of fans and devotees. Whether your poison of choice is horror, sci-fi, fantasy, crime or romance, Genrecon has plenty to whet your appetite as it explores both the art and industry sides of writing craft.

The theme for 2025’s conference is Alchemy – and its focus is turning art into business; discussing the sustainability of being a writer in Australia, ways to carve out a career in the market, looking to international and overseas opportunities, independent publishing and more. The program is packed with panels, seminars and special events, featuring more than thirty guest writers, editors, publishers and industry professionals including Aboriginal writer and academic Graham Akhurst (author of Borderlands) and international keynote speaker Steff Green (USA Today bestselling author of over 50 novels). 

The conferences is held at State Library of Queensland, with one of the program’s ‘streams’ broadcast online for writers across Queensland and Australia. Special events this year include Launch Night at Fortitude Valley’s Cloudland (with prizes for best genre-inspired fancy dress); The Shreader, at which six anonymous writers have the opening pages of their work-in-progress novels read aloud and professionally critiqued live over Sunday lunch; Speakeasy sessions, where attendees can get on stage to share their own writing; and Chatterboxes, cosy intimate events in local South Brisbane bars and restaurants that give writers the chance to connect with others in their genre niche. Ticketholders will also receive exclusive opportunities such as pitch sessions with local and international publishing partners, book sales on consignment at the GenreCon Pop-Up Bookshop and free entry to the GenreCon Short Story Comp (grand prize $1,000 plus online publication).

GenreCon regularly sells out so make sure to get in early and secure your place.