Your Guide to Unmissable Festival Sessions
We’ve prepared a special curated guide to help you navigate our main program themes.
Read on to find out and be sure to check out our full festival program.
Current Affairs
Journalist Jan Fran digs into what’s going on nationally and globally with some of Australia’s most esteemed political and science writers and thinkers—Amy Remeikis, Antony Loewenstein and Tim Flannery.
Gaza & Lebanon
Theodore Ell wrote a memoir of his time in Lebanon. Poet Omar Sakr and illustrator Safdar Ahmed, both multi award-winning writers, collaborated on The Nightmare Sequence, a searing response to the atrocities in Gaza and beyond since October 2023. They join Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, for an important discussion on Gaza and Lebanon.
Big Ideas
Journalist Amy Remeikis is the chief political analyst at the Australia Institute think-tank. Amy joins Jan Fran to discuss the big ideas in Australia’s current political landscape: from fresh thinking about climate action and safeguarding our democracy, to the housing crisis and our relationship with the United States.
Literary Spirits
Jessie Tu (Honeyeater) and Zahid Gamieldien (All the Missing Children) discuss their haunting, genre-blurring novels with critic Myoung Jae Yi. Explore ghostly metaphors, translation, and the uncanny in contemporary fiction.
Literary Figures
Emily Maguire (Rapture) and Gail Jones (The Name of the Sister) reveal how they weave history, myth, and crime into their acclaimed works, in conversation with best-selling author Hayley Scrivenor.
Poetry: Beyond the Personal
Poetry is both a personal and social act. Meet Eileen Chong and David Stavanger—two esteemed poets whose new works are deeply personal but also social and political. In conversation with Peter Frankis they will speak about their work, non-linear time, and what poetry is good for in times of loss and erasure.
Our Wild Selves
All of internationally best-selling author Charlotte McConaghy’s novels touch in some way on the relationship between wild animals, human-impacted environments, trauma and healing. She discusses our wild selves with Dr Christine Howe.
Climate Futures: Writing YA
Isobelle Carmody’s latest book, Comes the Night, is set in the near future of a dystopian Canberra. Helena Fox’s award-winning second novel, The Quiet and the Loud, explores coming of age against the backdrop of the 2019 bushfires. They sit down with Dr Christine Howe to talk about writing YA fiction in an uncertain climate future.
The Voices of This Place
Don’t miss this profound yarn between Nardi Simpson (the belburd) and Dr Debra Dank (Terraglossia), moderated by Gamilaraay writer Judi Morison.
Storytelling Before Colonisation
Dr Debra Dank (Terraglossia) and Darren Rix (Warra Warra Wai) will delve into the living languages, intellectual traditions, and untold histories of First Nations peoples—offering a vital perspective on Australia’s deep past.
Womanhood
Lucy Nelson’s Wait Here, a bold story collection about childlessness, sparks a candid discussion with Suzanne Leal on freedom, stigma, and femininity in a changing world.
Writing Women: From Memoir to Thriller
Nikki Gemmell is one of Australia’s bestselling authors, known for her provocative and honest writing style. Her latest novel, Wing, is a searing examination of what it means to be female today. She sits down with author Meredith Jaffé to talk about writing women from memoir to thriller and everything in-between.
Linguists & Book Binders
Pip Williams (The Dictionary of Lost Words) and Professor Catherine McKinnon explore how women have shaped—and been excluded from—knowledge across centuries.
Fantasy & Mythology
Two icons—Isobelle Carmody (Comes the Night) and Kate Forsyth (Psykhe)—share secrets of crafting timeless myths and speculative fictions, guided by A.L. Tait.
Mermaids & Beehives
Travel through folklore and history with Lauren Keegan (16th-century Lithuania), Camille Booker (1920s Illawarra) and Kell Woods (18th-century France).
The Business of Publishing
Top publishers Meredith Curnow (Penguin) and Elizabeth Weiss (Allen & Unwin) discuss industry trends and the future of books with author Meredith Jaffé.
Authors, Readers & Publishers
Vanessa Radnidge, Hachette’s Head of Literary Publishing, NSW State Librarian Caroline Butler-Bowdon and bestselling local author Hayley Scrivenor speak with Professor Catherine McKinnon about the vital contemporary issues for authors, readers and publishers.