The John Button Oration: The Great American Lie

A world-renowned expert in American literature and culture, Sarah Churchwell (The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells) delivers the 2023 John Button Oration. Examining one of the most popular stories of all time, Gone with the Wind, Churchwell shows how histories of mythma…

Shehan Karunatilaka: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

"You can’t really interview a ghost." – Shehan Karunatilaka Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka won the 2022 Booker Prize for his dazzling magic-realist satire The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Set during his homeland’s long civil war, the story follows its title character, a self-described phot…

Queering the Canon

Which stories made you 'different'? What makes writing queer? And what books brought about a break up with the gender binary?  Join a stellar group of queer writers as they share heartfelt (and hilarious) insights into the stories that shaped how they think and write about sexuality and gender, fr…

Plants: Past, Present and Future

For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have provided both sustenance to First Nations communities and many of the materials needed to produce a complex array of technologies. In this wide-ranging discussion, learn more about this fascinating relationship and how it forms the basis of e…

Writers on Writers: Readers of Australian Literature

The 2023 Boisbouvier Conversation The Writers on Writers series is an indispensable fixture in the literary calendar, with leading authors penning their reflections on Australian writers who have inspired and influenced them. In one of the most loved sessions of the festival, enjoy this discussio…

Like There's No Tomorrow

Enjoy listening to two of 2023's most talked about novelists – and possibly the only two people to have ever become friends over Zoom – Emma Straub (This Time Tomorrow) and Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow). With Brodie Lancaster, they discuss their approaches to crafting ficti…

Alison Roman: The Roman Empire

Hear from New York Times–bestselling author and millennial food icon Alison Roman as she joins Benjamin Law to discuss her career, recipes and latest cookbook, Sweet Enough. Roman shares her journey from working as a chef in professional kitchens and becoming a much-discussed food writer at Bon Ap…

Labours of Love

Authors Tracey Lien (All That’s Left Unsaid) and Nina Wan (The Albatross) gripped readers across the country with their spectacular debut novels on family, love and identity. Listen in as ABC RN’s Sarah L’Estrange (The Book Show) joins Lien and Wan for a wide-ranging conversation on the craft of s…

Frontier Fictions

Casting fresh light on Australia's colonial past, the latest novels by award-winning journalist Paul Daley (Jesustown) and acclaimed author Fiona McFarlane (The Sun Walks Down) tell stories that upend the usual depictions in history books. Listen in as they speak to bestselling author and First Nat…

Bill Hayes: I've Been Away for a While

"A few months before he died at 82…Oliver [Sacks] looked up from his notepad one evening in our apartment and said to me: 'The most we can do is to write – intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively – about what it is like living in the world at this time.' So, I did." – Bill Hayes  The la…