Susan Choi: Flashlight

Louisa goes for a walk along the beach with her father, but only she returns. The new novel from Susan Choi, multi-award-winning writer including the National Book Award and a Lambda Literary Award, is a sweeping, international family drama that was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. Flashligh…

Maria Reva: Endling

Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, Endling is an inventive, bold and original debut which follows three angry women and one endangered snail on a road trip across contemporary Ukraine. Named a Best Book of 2025 by The Guardian, The Observer, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and NPR, Maria Re…

An Evening with Patrick Radden Keefe

His deeply researched and intricately crafted non-fiction has captivated the world. Award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and bestselling author Patrick Radden Keefe is known for his international bestsellers, including the Baillie Gifford Prize–winning Empire of Pain and National Book Crit…

Yann Martel: Son of Nobody

The story of the Trojan War, like so many wars real and imagined, is a story most often told by the victors, the princes and the powerful. In this new imagining of the ancient legend, Son of Nobody, Yann Martel tells the familiar tale from an unheard perspective: that of a commoner and goatherd wh…

Amitav Ghosh in Conversation

An incomparable storyteller, lucid analyst and eloquent polemicist, acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh’s rich body of fiction and non-fiction work has shaped our contemporary understanding of history and the environment. Listen in as Amitav reflects on his career and range of bestselling books includin…

Florence Knapp: The Names

[Content warning: Family violence] Instant bestseller and “best debut novel in years” (The Sunday Times) starts in a literal and metaphorical storm. While registering her son’s birth, Cora faces a decision that could change his life: what will she name him? Her options – Bear, Julian or Gordon – …

David Szalay: Flesh

In a novel, the words on the page are our entrance into another’s mind. But sometimes it’s the space between the lines that define a character. In David Szalay’s 2025 Booker Prize–winning Flesh, István is caught between the boundaries of Hungary and England, his teenage years and adulthood, his bo…

Lyse Doucet: The Finest Hotel in Kabul

The history of the Kabul Inter-Continental Hotel is the history of a nation. Built in 1969, it has stood through Soviet occupation, multiple coups, a civil war, a US invasion and waves of Taliban control. Legendary international war correspondent Lyse Doucet arrived at the ‘Inter-Con’ for the firs…

Mick Herron in Conversation

In the latest instalment of Mick Herron’s internationally bestselling series, palms are itching among Jackson Lamb’s cohort of misfit spies. A legendary former spy’s missing book, a state secret and some mischievous blackmail: which underhanded action will rock the carefully calibrated boat of Slo…

2026 Program Announcement: Yumi Stynes and Ann Mossop

Join Yumi Stynes and Artistic Director Ann Mossop as they discuss the 2026 Sydney Writers’ Festival program. The pair talk about the 2026 Festival theme, Show Me The Truth, and how fiction, poetry and creative writing and bring us closer to the truth. Unpack the program and get a glimpse behind th…