Jimmy Barnes: Highways and Byways

Award-winning author and musician Jimmy Barnes recounts the twists and turns of his larger-than-life adventures live on stage. With his trademark candour, humour, and distinctive voice, Barnes shares anecdotes, lessons, and cracking good yarns: from unearthing shattering family secrets in Glasgow t…

Someone Like Me: Autistic Writing and Belonging

The extraordinary writers and editors behind Someone Like Me: An Anthology of Non-fiction by Autistic Writers come together for this panel discussion exploring identity, creativity and culture. This expansive anthology of creative non-fiction, memoir, graphic storytelling and more features a stell…

Samantha Harvey: Orbital

Samantha Harvey discusses her 2024 Booker Prize-winning novel, Orbital – a profound meditation on deep space, our environment, the meaning of life and the nature of humanity itself. Taking place over a single day – with sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets – Orbital tells the story of six astronau…

The Writer as Witness

What does it mean for a writer to bear witness? How do writers reject or subvert the constraints of traditional structures and institutions, such as media and academia, to depict the stories of their families, their communities and themselves with autonomy and integrity? With host Evelyn Araluen, …

Kaliane Bradley: The Ministry of Time

Writer Kaliane Bradley discusses her debut novel, The Ministry of Time, a propulsive tale of time travel, spies and the potential for love to change it all.     In the near future, a jaded civil servant is offered a job in a mysterious government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to t…

Rumaan Alam - Entitlement

Rumaan Alam's latest novel, Entitlement, follows a 33-year-old Black woman named Brooke Orr, who lands a job as a program manager at 83-year-old white billionaire Asher Jaffee’s charitable foundation and quickly becomes his protégé. What follows is a searing portrait of need and worth, race and pr…

Jessica Townsend: Silverborn

Hear internationally bestselling author Jessica Townsend discuss the latest book in her phenomenally popular Nevermoor series, Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow, with host Rachael King.  Townsend’s book is an enchanting, page-turning adventure that takes readers deeper into the world of Nev…

Peter Steele Poetry Conversation: Pádraig Ó Tuama

Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama takes a deep dive into the state of poetry for the annual Peter Steele Conversation. He explores poetry’s power across mediums and provides a taste of his Poetry Unbound podcast. With host Izzy Roberts-Orr and an introduction by University of Melbourne Poet in Residence M…

We Sharpen Our Axes Against the Hardest Stone

Is adversity the key to making great art? Must we sink to rock bottom to write the perfect break-up album or a life-changing guidebook to recovery? Can hostile political conditions be a fulcrum for progressive social change? Is conservatism the kryptonite we need to stoke the fire in our bellies? …

Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland: Broken Brains

Writers, friends and co-authors Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland discuss brain health – the physical and the mental – through their intertwined experiences. Together with host Clare Bowditch, they consider illness, resilience and friendship in this raw and insightful conversation on their new book…