Paul Lynch: Prophet Song

Booker Prize-winning novelist Paul Lynch discusses his propulsive and lyrically rendered cautionary fable with Michael Williams.   Prophet Song is a fearless portrait of Irish society on the brink of tyranny and a mother’s battle to save her family. Throwing into sharp relief the social and politi…

Bri Lee and Liam Pieper: Real Pieces of Work

Bri Lee and Liam Pieper discuss their scathingly funny novels that reveal the tensions of money, power and love in the arts, with Sarah L’Estrange.   Lee's debut novel, The Work, delves into the volatile world of modern art, exposing it as a bedfellow to high finance. Pieper’s Appreciation is an o…

Viet Thanh Nguyen in Ghosts: An Evening of Storytelling

Ghost stories are everywhere. In fairytales, folklore, Gothic novels and modern fiction alike. There are the ghosts that plague our minds – old flames, past wrongs and regrets that come to us in the dead of night – and those that haunt history itself, restless spirits that refuse to rest in peace. …

First Knowledges: Innovation with Ian J McNiven and Lynette Russell

First Nations peoples are some of the oldest innovators in the world.   Hear from authors Ian J McNiven and Lynette Russell in conversation with Larissa Behrendt as they share insight into ingenuity that spans millennia, including body shaping, building artificial reefs for oyster farms, repurposi…

Paul Murray and Bryan Washington: Familiar Haunts

Irish novelist Paul Murray and American author Bryan Washington have penned two of the best ghost stories, of sorts, in living memory. Murray’s The Bee Sting is a sprawling tragicomedy of a family haunted by the ghosts of past trauma. Washington’s tender exploration of lust, love and grief, Famil…

Louise Milligan in Ghosts: An Evening of Storytelling

Ghost stories are everywhere. In fairytales, folklore, Gothic novels and modern fiction alike. There are the ghosts that plague our minds – old flames, past wrongs and regrets that come to us in the dead of night – and those that haunt history itself, restless spirits that refuse to rest in peace. …

Who's Afraid of Reading, Anyway?

It’s little wonder books have been censored, banned and burned throughout history, given their power to shape thought, challenge belief and open whole wide worlds inside us.   Beloved novelists Tony Birch, Lauren Groff and Ann Patchett reveal the ‘inappropriate’ texts of their early reading lives …

Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood: Black Duck

From bestselling Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe and his partner, editor Lyn Harwood, comes Black Duck, a deeply personal story of the consequences for changing Australian history.   Pascoe and Harwood speak with Paul Barclay about living in harmony with Country based on very old practices, and why '…

Leslie Jamison in Ghosts: An Evening of Storytelling

Ghost stories are everywhere. In fairytales, folklore, Gothic novels and modern fiction alike. There are the ghosts that plague our minds – old flames, past wrongs and regrets that come to us in the dead of night – and those that haunt history itself, restless spirits that refuse to rest in peace. …

The Ghost in the Machines

As AI advances and outstrips our notions of its limits and potential, could it capture that essential, undefinable human quality of great art? And if so, how might we preserve the rights of artists?   Leading AI experts Marek Kowalkiewicz (The Economy of Algorithms), Toby Walsh (Machines Behaving …