7:00pm – 9:00pm

Late Night Lit

$20 + booking fee (beverages and food optional extras)

Slip into the velvety low-light of Bar Toto with a trademark cocktail in hand and an open mind, and prepare to be startled and delighted in equal measure at Late Night Lit.

For this fifth birthday party, we will celebrate in style with the electrifying Australian-Māori poet, editor, producer and weaver Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Mettle). She will be joined by disarming and hilarious Egyptian-Australian journalist Daniel Nour reading from his memoir How to Dodge Flying Sandals and Other Advice for Life, and painter and poet Joseph Earp with his ‘droll and deeply funny’ Painting Portraits of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated. Prepare yourself to be amused and delighted.

Don’t miss this much-loved evening of spoken word, poetry, open mic performances and other revelations.

Please note: seating is unallocated.

Umina Beach Book Nook will be the bookseller for the evening; please support the authors, purchase their books and have them signed at the event.

Joseph Earp

Joseph Earp is a novelist, painter, poet, and freelance treatment writer. His first book, Cattle, was self-published in 2023. He has written widely, for such outlets as The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Vice and more. He has been twice shortlisted for the Peter Carey Short Story Award, and his fiction has been published in The Brag, and Island Magazine. He is a fellow at the Ethics Centre, a not-for-profit institution bringing philosophy to the public eye. 

His second novel, Painting Portraits Of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated, was published this year.

Daniel Nour

Daniel Nour is an Egyptian-Australian journalist and a member of Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. His writing has featured in the New York Times, SBS Voices, Meanjin Quarterly and Eureka Street. In 2020, he won the New South Wales Premier’s Young Journalist of the Year Award. He dabbles in improv comedy.

Anne-Marie Te Whiu

Anne-Marie Te Whiu an Australian-born Māori with ancestral ties to Te Rarawa iwi in Hokianga, Aotearoa NZ. She is a full-time freelance writer, editor, cultural producer, and weaver. In 2024 she edited Woven (Magabala Books) and her debut poetry collection is titled Mettle (UQP, 2025).

And our Venue Partner, Bar Toto Ettalong. This event is made possible through their unwavering support.