One of the pleasures of putting together The Herald each month is seeing just how many different stories can find a home in one small community publication. This edition feels particularly diverse, not only in the topics tackled but in the ways in which those stories are told.

There’s a thread running through this issue that focuses on the written word. Ahead of her Bangalow appearance, we speak exclusively with acclaimed Australian author Kate Grenville about The Country Schoolmaster, a book built around a remarkable collection of 150-year-old letters. Meanwhile, Carolyn Adams’ book review takes a different approach altogether, reviewing Virginia Evans’ The Correspondent, a novel told through letters, by writing her own review as a letter. And perhaps some future correspondents will emerge from the Written Word section of this year’s Bangalow Show? Better practise your handwriting!

Stories are also carried through food, music and language. Jenny Bird takes us into Palestinian culture through food, dabke, music and hospitality, while the Singing Dingo Choir celebrates Widjabul/Wia-bal language through song. Local farmer Johnny Singh’s recognition at the Australian Sikh Awards for Excellence brings us another feel-good story connecting culture, family, farming and community.

Art appears in all sorts of places in this edition too. Children’s work spills into Bangalow’s main street shop windows for the Little Hands Art Trail, an annual tradition from the local community childcare centre. On the big screen, local filmmaker Nick George explores the potentials of storytelling with AI-animation in his short film premiering at the Byron Bay International Film Festival.

Perhaps that diversity is the real theme of this edition. Stories can arrive as a letter, a song, a meal, a painting, a film or a conversation. What matters is that we continue to make them, share them and make space for others to tell theirs.

Sally Schofield