As many of us turn to literature for guidance and inspiration, contemporary writers have the power to interpret and influence our changing world. Hear critically acclaimed essayist and novelist Brit Bennett's Opening Night Address on the Festival's theme of refuge.

This is an excerpt from the 2017 Sydney Writers' Festival Opening Night Address.

Brit Bennett is an essayist and the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel The Mothers, which became a New York Times bestseller. In 2016 Bennett was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and won the NBCC John Leonard First Novel Prize.