Upcoming Events
One of Australia’s greatest writers visits Canberra to discuss her new work The Season. Each week Helen sits on the sidelines of training sessions and matches watching her grandson and his teammates tackle triumphs and defeats as they fight their way towards the finals.
She’s a passionate Western Bulldogs fan (with an imperfect grasp of the rules) who loves the epic theatre of AFL football. But her devotion to the under-16s offers her something else. This is her chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him before he rushes headlong into manhood.
With her sharp eye, her generous wit and her warm humour, Garner documents this pivotal moment, both as part of the story and as silent witness.
Join Helen Garner in conversation with CWF Artistic Director Beejay Silcox.
The Family Lode: Family stories and why we love them
Family stories have a universal appeal, but each is different. Why do family relationships provide such a rich seam of material for writers and such captivating stories for readers —whether mirroring our own experiences or taking us into new worlds.
How do authors write about family dynamics? What do they draw on to create these compelling stories? Join three powerful writers, Tony Birch (Women & Children), Melanie Cheng (The Burrow) and Kylie Ladd (The Mix-Up), as they discuss their diverse books on family and relationships with Jason Steger of The Booklist.
Join us for an afternoon of conversation and Q&A, followed by a delicious afternoon
tea.
Bookings are essential.
Robert Dessaix will be in conversation with Andrew Leigh on his new book Chameleon: A memoir of art, travel, ideas and love.
Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful interest in religious thinking, his obsession with all things Russian, his marriage to Lisa and divorce, his discovery of travel. In North Africa he finds different ways of feeling and being, and in Australia he begins his abiding relationship with his partner Peter Timms. At every point he muses on pleasure, art, sex, literature, infatuation, happiness, music, life, death and all the rest.
Chameleon is a virtuoso performance of self-revelation, as Dessaix explores how the restless mind takes constant detours to search for what makes life good, a place of wisdom and love.
Robert Dessaix is a writer, translator and broadcaster whose best-known books are the autobiography A Mother’s Disgrace, the novels Night Letters and Corfu, and the travel memoirs Twilight ofLove and Arabesques. From 1985 to 1995 he presented the weekly ‘Books and Writing’ program on ABC Radio National. His most recent publications are his memoirs What Days Are For (a meditation on what makes for a good life in the face of death) and The Time of Our Lives (which focuses on ageing well), along with Abracadabra, a collection of his recent writings.
Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Before being elected in 2010, Andrew was a Professor of Economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. Andrew is the author of several books, most recently Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia.
The vote of thanks will be given by Allan Behm, Director, International & Security Affairs Program at the Australia Institute.
This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop. Books will be available for purchase. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm and again after the event.
A memoir of art, travel, ideas and love, Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful interest in religious thinking, his obsession with all things Russian, his marriage to Lisa and divorce, his discovery of travel. In North Africa he finds different ways of feeling and being, and in Australia he begins his abiding relationship with his partner Peter Timms. At every point he muses on pleasure, art, sex, literature, infatuation, happiness, music, life, death and all the rest. Chameleon is a virtuoso performance of self-revelation, as Dessaix explores how the restless mind takes constant detours to search for what makes life good, a place of wisdom and love.
Robert Dessaix is a writer, translator and broadcaster whose best-known books are the autobiography A Mother’s Disgrace, the novels Night Letters and Corfu, and the travel memoirs Twilight of Love and Arabesques. From 1985 to 1995 he presented the weekly ‘Books and Writing’ program on ABC Radio National. His books have been published in a number of languages. His most recent publications are his memoirs What Days Are For (a meditation on what makes for a good life in the face of death) and The Time of Our Lives (which focuses on ageing well), along with Abracadabra, a collection of his recent writings. He lives in Hobart.
Join Robert and Geordie at the Afterword Cafe.
Changing Life
Jo Peck found herself in the middle of a cliché when her husband of 35 years left her for a younger woman. Once she picked herself up and dusted herself off, she wrote an inspiring and funny memoir, Suddenly Single at Sixty, that takes us from shock and despair to a new life.
Join us as we discuss their journeys of reinvention—whether through immersing themselves in a new culture, finding humour in heartbreak, or embracing the possibilities of later life.
Bookings are essential.
Don’t miss this conversation about sport, adolescence, belonging, and community on the back of Helen’s remarkable new book, The Season.
In Helen Garner’s new book, The Season, she immerses herself in grassroots football from the sidelines as a spectator of her grandson’s club. Bob Murphy’s book, Leather Soul, details his time playing for the Western Bulldogs with vulnerable clarity. In this discussion led by Mel Fulton, Deputy Editor of The Big Issue Australia, we bring together two legends of Victorian culture and community to chat about sport, fandom, youth, boyhood, belonging, hope and community. All at the spiritual home of football in the West, Whitten Oval, as the Western Bulldogs celebrate their 100th year as a club.
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her award-winning debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, was followed by her highly acclaimed first novel Room for a Stranger in 2019.
Melanie will be chatting about her new novel, The Burrow, a story about ordinary people navigating extraordinary suffering and finding healing through a bond with a pet rabbit.
Free, but bookings are essential.
The Yirrkala Bark Petitions: Clare Wright in Conversation
In 1963—a year of agitation for civil rights worldwide—the Yolŋu of northeast Arnhem Land created the Yirrkala Bark Petitions: Naku Dharuk. ‘The land grew a tongue’ and the land-rights movement was born.
The final book in Clare Wright’s historical trilogy, NAKU DHARUK The Bark Petitions, tells the story of how the people of Yirrkala changed the course of Australian Democracy.
Hosted by Jock Serong.
Bookings are essential.
A Call to Action: Nature Writing
James Bradley’s recent book Deep Water explores the awe-inspiring depths of the world’s oceans and their fight for survival. Science writer Lauren Fuge’s memoir Voyagers traces the history and trajectory of human exploration and adaptation alongside her travels to illuminate our perilous future. Inga Simpson’s latest novel The Thinning is an apocalyptic thriller that imagines a world where the Great Barrier Reef is dead and the last koala extinct.
Join them for a conversation about the ways landscape can shape words, and how writing can make sense of the anxiety about our world, acting as both catharsis and truth-telling. Hosted by Jennifer Byrne.
Bookings are essential.
After the Voice Referendum: Thomas Mayo in Conversation
In his newest book Always Was, Always Will Be, Thomas Mayo investigates ‘what’s next?’ for reconciliation and justice in Australia after the failed Voice to Parliament referendum.
Thomas speaks with Clare Wright, Naku Dharuk The Bark Petitions, about lessons from the past, a path towards the future, and the new generation of Indigenous leaders who are ready, resilient, and hopeful.
Bookings are essential.
