Loading Events

Ballarat Libraries in partnership with BMI | Now cancelled due to travel restrictions caused by recent devastating floods  

Join bestselling crime writer Chris Hammer in conversation with 2022 Indie Book Award winner for debut fiction Lyn Yeowart.  Hammer, the multi-award-winning author of Scrublands will be discussing his highly anticipated novel The Tilt.  

A must attend event for lovers of gripping, homegrown Australian crime writing.  

Yeowart’s debut novel (The Silent Listener) and Hammer’s latest work explore protagonists returning home and delve into gritty stories set in the heart of small-town Australia.  

Got a question for Chris? There will be a 15-minute Q&A at the end of the session. 

Bookings are essential. Contact the Ballarat Library on 5338 6850.
The Tilt | Chris Hammer

More about Chris

More about the Lyn

This event is a BMI Community Cultural Project – Ballarat’s Oldest Cultural Institution

A Message from the Chair | BMI Board of Directors | April 2026

The BMI certainly had a busy and productive 2025/2026 financial year,  filled with so much generosity of spirit, innovative thinking, positive action and energy that would be the envy of any For Profit business.  Of course there have been challenges, but as has been the case for 166 years, these challenges have been seen as opportunities and we are stronger than ever, as we build on the ambition and tenacity of those early civic leaders striving to deliver knowledge through

Read More »

Rosemary’s Book of the Week

Letter from Provence: A memoir Sheryle Bagwell Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell’s move to Provence is enlivened by the discovery of a book of seventeenth-century letters. After buying an ancient stone house in Provence, Australian journalist Sheryle Bagwell finds in her attic an old edition of selected letters by the seventeenth-century French noblewoman Madame de Sévigné, who died, she discovers, in the grand chateau down the road. So begins Sheryle’s new life in southern France as she deals with an ageing

Read More »

Stella Prize 2026 Long List

Stella Prize The 2026 Stella Prize Longlist presents another twelve exceptional works by Australian women and non-binary writers. Spanning poetry, memoir, fiction, non-fiction and graphic works, the 2026 longlist presents themes that explore the transformative power of memory, truth and the intrinsic beauty of creative fiction. This year Stella received 212 entries. In the coming weeks, this list will be reduced to six to make up the short list, to be announced on Wednesday, April 8th, before one extraordinary book is awarded the $60,000 Stella Prize, announced

Read More »

Rosemary’s Book of the Week

The Romanov Secret Chrissie Bellbrae Don’t miss Chrissie at the BMI on Tuesday 24 March at 6pm A priceless Fabergé jewel. An empire on the brink of revolution. A love to dangerous to reveal. A celebrated artist’s painting holds clues to long-held family secrets and lives under threat, long after the fall of the Russian Empire. 1898: When the legitimacy of Grand Duchess Tatiana Romanov’s marriage to the Tsar’s brother comes into question, her son’s claim to the Imperial throne is

Read More »

Rosemary’s Book of the Week

The Missing Wife Kerry Barrett 1933 Hannah Snow is fleeing her unhappy marriage when she finds herself in a small hotel on the banks of Loch Ness. But when a monster is spotted in the depths of the waters, the press descends- and Hannah finds her hiding place is discovered. Present Day. True crime podcaster Scarlett finds herself intrigued by the mystery of Hannah Snow, wife of a promising government minister who disappeared in 1933 – just moments before her husband

Read More »

Rosemary’s Book of the Week

The Hiding Place Kate Mildenhall Don’t miss Kate and Josh Pomare at the BMI on Tuesday 10 March at 6pm From the Author of Skylarking, The Mother Fault and The Hummingbird Effect They’re good people. Why shouldn’t they get what they deserve? When Lou sees an ad for a long-abandoned mining town up for sale, it doesn’t take her long to convince her sister and their oldest friends to go in on the idyllic property buried in the bush – a

Read More »