Upcoming Events
Does History Repeat? (And if so, should we be nervous?)
With Judith Brett, Dennis Glover and Don Watson with Tom Wright.
Judith Brett is a political historian and biographer and emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. Among her books are Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People: Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, which won the 2018 National Biography Award, and From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award.
Fearless Beatrice Faust celebrates, explains and questions her struggle to change both herself and her world. Drawing on public records and private writings, award-winning biographer Judith Brett creates a compelling and psychologically nuanced portrait of a gifted, argumentative woman who refused to be a victim.
This event is now SOLD OUT.
Our Modern World, In My Book
Melanie Cheng, Luke Horton, Madeleine Ryan with Rose Donohoe.
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. Room for a Stranger, her highly acclaimed first novel, was published in 2019.
The Burrow tells an unforgettable story about grief and hope. With her characteristic compassion and eye for detail, Melanie Cheng reveals the lives of others—even of a small rabbit.
Bookings are essential.
The Next Gen
Jumaana Abdu, Luke Horton, Raeden Richardson and Madeleine Ryan with Jo Dyer.
Raeden Richardson grew up in Melbourne and graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has been supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, La Napoule Foundation and Yaddo. His writing has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings and New Australian Fiction.
In propulsive prose, The Degenerates summons the power of storytelling, disrupts conventional narratives and pays tribute to those lives often lost in the margins.
Bookings are essential.
What I Learned
Judith Brett, Helen Ennis and Anthony Sharwood with Jane Montgomery Griffiths (M).
Three biographers explain the impact of writing another person’s life story.
Fearless Beatrice Faust celebrates, explains and questions her struggle to change both herself and her world. Drawing on public records and private writings, award-winning biographer Judith Brett creates a compelling and psychologically nuanced portrait of a gifted, argumentative woman who refused to be a victim.
Judith Brett is a political historian and biographer and emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University. Among her books are Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People: Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class, The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, which won the 2018 National Biography Award, and From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award.
Bookings are essential.
Writers on Writing
Luke Horton, Finegan Kruckemeyer and Kylie Mirmohamadi with Irma Gold.
Finegan Kruckemeyer was born in Ireland and now lives in Adelaide. He is an award-winning playwright, whose works have been performed on six continents and in eight languages. The End and Everything Before It is his first novel.
Finegan Kruckemeyer’s astonishing debut, The End and Everything Before It, is a sweeping, joyous novel about love, loss and the power of stories—an uplifting journey into our deepest humanity.
Free, but bookings are essential.
In Conversation with Michelle de Kretser
With Fiona Gruber.
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka. She lives in Warrane/Sydney on unceded Gadigal land. An honorary associate of the English Department at the University of Sydney, she has won several awards for her fiction. Theory & Practice is her seventh novel.
Theory & Practice is a mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame. It makes and unmakes fiction as we read, expanding our notion of what a novel can contain.
Michelle de Kretser, one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, bends fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes to uncover what happens when life smashes through the boundaries of art.
Bookings are essential.
Migration Stories in the Round
How human journeys impact storytelling.
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. Room for a Stranger, her highly acclaimed first novel, was published in 2019.
The Burrow tells an unforgettable story about grief and hope. With her characteristic compassion and eye for detail, Melanie Cheng reveals the lives of others—even of a small rabbit.
Bookings are essential.
Sometimes My Imagination Just Runs Away...
Melanie Cheng, Michelle de Kretser, Malcolm Knox and Jock Serong with Rosemarie Milsom.
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. Room for a Stranger, her highly acclaimed first novel, was published in 2019.
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka. She lives in Warrane/Sydney on unceded Gadigal land. An honorary associate of the English Department at the University of Sydney, she has won several awards for her fiction. Theory & Practice is her seventh novel.
Bookings are essential.
Drinks with the Publishers
Ben Ball, Michael Heyward, Catherine Milne, Julie Pinkham and Henry Rosenbloom with Corrie Perkin.
A range of Australian publishers chat about the publishing industry.
Drinks available at bar prices.
Bookings essential.
Barefoot Bowls and Read Out Loud
Jonty Claypole, Lucy Grant, Finegan Kruckemeyer, Jane Montgomery Grffiths, Ailsa Piper, and Clara Tuite with Michael Cathcart.
Our speakers read and recite some of their favourite passages, poems, speeches and soliloques.
Finegan Kruckemeyer was born in Ireland and now lives in Adelaide. He is an award-winning playwright, whose works have been performed on six continents and in eight languages. The End and Everything Before It is his first novel.
Bookings are essential.
