TONIA Wilson from Whitsunday Voices Youth Literature Festival gave us the scoop on a few of this year's star presenters.

Let's start with the very special guest speaker at the popular WorkPac Literary Dinner 2019 - Li Cunxin.

Li Cunxin is the author of Mao's Last dancer and artistic director of Queensland Ballet, and he is an absolute star. Not only is Li our literary dinner guest speaker, he has also agreed to do a student session at the festival on Friday, July 19. Tickets will definitely sell quickly for that session, so make sure you book yours now.

This year's festival features an incredible line up of authors and presenters this year, with a lot of the focus being around important issues that affect students and young adults. One of those in authors in particular is Sophie Hardcastle.

Sophie's memoir Running like China is a beautifully written account of her battle with mental health issues, and she hopes that her book will help others experiencing similar challenges to articulate what they are going through and ask for help. This is especially pertinent in today's times with an increasing number of senior school students encountering extreme levels of isolation and depression.

There is a lot of focus on STEM at the moment, so it's great to see an author within that field present at the festival.

Cristy Burne is our STEM writer and her characters use scientific principles to solve the problems they encounter. Her wonderfully quirky and warm personality make students feel comfortable to engage and interact. She is presenting to grades Prep to 8.

Books are important, but so is our love of reading them. This year's festival features a book blogger.

Jeann Wong is someone who loves reading books, talking about books, writing about books and everything to do with books. Her book blog www.happyindulgencebooks.com was started in 2012 and has over 20,000 followers. She has a lovely bubbly personality as can be seen in her Youtube videos reviewing books.

One of the authors that many of the students will know and love is Michael Gerard Bauer.

Michael has been very popular with schools, as many of his books have been school set books. He will also be talking about his more recent YA novel The Things that Will No Stand which is a beautifully written coming of age story that is highly recommended for middle and senior school students. It has been named as the 2019 CBCA Older Readers NOTABLE book.

Two other authors that are attracting a lot of attention include Steven Herrick who writes novels in the verse genre and who is also a very entertaining presenter, and Tim Harris whose book series　Mr Bambuckles Remarkables and Exploding Endings are very popular with students Grades 2 to 6.

There are plenty of opportunities for students to be involved in the festival, especially in the workshops. One of the big student events in the Slam Poetry Competition.

We are very excited about our Slam Poetry Competition and it looks like we will have around 17 teams competing for cash prizes and glory. Earlier this month, CQUniversity hosted a workshop to help students to prepare for competition. The topics they chose look to be hugely enlightening and display the issues our young students feel strongly about.

It looks like it's going to be another successful festival. Are tickets still available and where can we get them?

Tickets are certainly selling fast, so make sure you book yours quickly. You can purchase your workshop and session tickets at www.whitsundayvoices.com.au and the Literary Festival Dinner Tickets at www.themecc.com.au.