India’s great chronicler of memory, family, identity and belonging sits down with host Mridula Nath Chakraborty to discuss her luminous, genre-defying books and extraordinary literary career. 

Originally presented on Wednesday 12 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre.

‘Anything worth doing transcends borders,’ writes Geetanjali Shree in her 2022 International Booker Prize-winning novel, Tomb of Sand. This sentiment also encapsulates her career to date. An author writing in Hindi, with her gaze firmly fixed on the lives and concerns of Indian characters, Shree tells the kind of polyphonic, big-hearted stories that chime with universal truth.

From Our City That Year, an evocative tale of love, loss and the indelible marks left by time, to the poetic and formally inventive short stories in the collection Once Elephants Lived Here, to the lauded Tomb of Sand, Shree’s work offers readers insight into the rich plurality of the world.

Join her for a conversation about the ascendency of South Asian literature, the life-changing impact of winning the International Booker Prize and how storytelling connects us across backgrounds and borders.

India&rsquo;s great chronicler of memory, family, identity and belonging sits down with host Mridula Nath Chakraborty to discuss her luminous, genre-defying books and extraordinary literary career.&nbsp;
Originally presented on Wednesday 12 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre.
&lsquo;Anything worth doing transcends borders,&rsquo; writes Geetanjali Shree in her 2022 International Booker Prize-winning novel, Tomb of Sand. This sentiment also encapsulates her career to date. An author writing in Hindi, with her gaze firmly fixed on the lives and concerns of Indian characters, Shree tells the kind of polyphonic, big-hearted stories that chime with universal truth.
From Our City That Year, an evocative tale of love, loss and the indelible marks left by time, to the poetic and formally inventive short stories in the collection Once Elephants Lived Here, to the lauded Tomb of Sand, Shree&rsquo;s work offers readers insight into the rich plurality of the world. Join her for a conversation about the ascendency of South Asian literature, the life-changing impact of winning the International Booker Prize and how storytelling connects us across backgrounds and borders.

Subscribe to the Wheeler Centre's podcast to hear full recordings of our talks, featuring the best in books, writing and ideas from Melbourne, Australia.

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Geetanjali Shree in Conversation

Tech critic Cory Doctorow on the broken promise of the utopian internet, the systems that sustain it and what it might take to reclaim a more open digital future. With host Professor Lisa M. Given, Director, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments at RMIT University. 

Originally presented on Tuesday 25 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Now or Never and RMIT University.

You’re not imagining it: the experience of being online is getting worse. Services degrade, platforms shift and what once felt open and useful becomes harder to recognise. What was once good is now… shit. This is not a glitch. In fact, it’s by design. ‘Enshittification’, a term coined by tech critic Cory Doctorow, names what is already happening.

In this talk, Doctorow outlines how major platforms like Facebook, Amazon and X are structured to follow this trajectory. First, users are drawn in with convenience and connection. Then, advertisers are invited into the system. Finally, the experience itself is stripped back in the pursuit of profit.

Featured music is 'Traveling Again' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist.

The official bookseller was Brunswick Bound.

Tech critic Cory Doctorow on the broken promise of the utopian internet, the systems that sustain it and what it might take to reclaim a more open digital future. With host Professor Lisa M. Given, Director, Centre for Human-AI Information Environments at RMIT University. Originally presented on Tuesday 25 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Now or Never and RMIT University. You&rsquo;re not imagining it: the experience of being online is getting worse. Services degrade, platforms shift and what once felt open and useful becomes harder to recognise. What was once good is now&hellip; shit. This is not a glitch. In fact, it&rsquo;s by design. &lsquo;Enshittification&rsquo;, a term coined by tech critic Cory Doctorow, names what is already happening. In this talk, Doctorow outlines how major platforms like Facebook, Amazon and X are structured to follow this trajectory. First, users are drawn in with convenience and connection. Then, advertisers are invited into the system. Finally, the experience itself is stripped back in the pursuit of profit. Featured music is 'Traveling Again' by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist. The official bookseller was Brunswick Bound.

Cory Doctorow: Enshittification

What does it take to keep showing up to the blank page? Award-winning author Alice Pung offers reasons for optimism in this year’s E. W. Cole Lecture. 

Originally presented on Thursday 6 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre, supported by the E. W. Cole Foundation.

Two decades ago, Alice Pung published Unpolished Gem, a funny, loving and irreverent portrait of a migrant family’s everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs. 

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of her beloved debut, Pung presents this year’s E. W. Cole Lecture on a subject near to her heart: the fundamentals of writing and the circumstances under which writers practice their craft. Drawing on knowledge earned from writing 15 books across contemporary fiction, YA, children’s literature and non-fiction, she examines the work that goes into the act of creation and what it takes to carry on writing, day after day.   

Pung speaks on the quiet power of turning up through crises, changing political situations and changing tastes, and what makes it all worthwhile: how writing – and reading – can help us make sense of our lives, and the world at large, now more than ever.

The official bookseller was Amplify Bookstore.

Featured music is Br1ghter (Instrumental Version) by Tape Machines.

What does it take to keep showing up to the blank page? Award-winning author Alice Pung offers reasons for optimism in this year&rsquo;s E. W. Cole Lecture. Originally presented on Thursday 6 August 2026 by The Wheeler Centre, supported by the E. W. Cole Foundation.   Two decades ago, Alice Pung published Unpolished Gem, a funny, loving and irreverent portrait of a migrant family&rsquo;s everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of her beloved debut, Pung presents this year&rsquo;s E. W. Cole Lecture on a subject near to her heart: the fundamentals of writing and the circumstances under which writers practice their craft. Drawing on knowledge earned from writing 15 books across contemporary fiction, YA, children&rsquo;s literature and non-fiction, she examines the work that goes into the act of creation and what it takes to carry on writing, day after day.   Pung speaks on the quiet power of turning up through crises, changing political situations and changing tastes, and what makes it all worthwhile: how writing &ndash; and reading &ndash; can help us make sense of our lives, and the world at large, now more than ever. The official bookseller was Amplify Bookstore. Featured music is Br1ghter (Instrumental Version) by Tape Machines.

The 2026 E.W. Cole Lecture: Alice Pung on Keeping Calm and Carrying On

An unmissable episode for Slow Horses fans, writer Mick Herron unveils the next instalment in his phenomenally successful Slough House series with host Jason Steger. 

Originally presented on Thursday 21 May 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University.

Spies lie. They betray. It is what they do. Readers were first introduced to Jackson Lamb and his team of misbegotten secret service agents in Slow Horses, an offbeat spy story filled with biting satire, murky morality and political prescience.

In Clown Town, the latest instalment of the series, the ugly side of state security threatens to come to light as the disappearance of a mysterious book and the death of a sadistic former IRA informant has secret agent River Cartwright asking some uncomfortable questions. Filled with blackmail, covert operations and cover-ups that go all the way to the top, this page-turner sees the slow horses embroiled in their most high-stakes spy games yet.

An unmissable episode for Slow Horses fans, writer Mick Herron unveils the next instalment in his phenomenally successful Slough House series with host Jason Steger.&nbsp; Originally presented on Thursday 21 May 2026 by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with RMIT University. Spies lie. They betray. It is what they do. Readers were first introduced to Jackson Lamb and his team of misbegotten secret service agents in Slow Horses, an offbeat spy story filled with biting satire, murky morality and political prescience. In Clown Town, the latest instalment of the series, the ugly side of state security threatens to come to light as the disappearance of a mysterious book and the death of a sadistic former IRA informant has secret agent River Cartwright asking some uncomfortable questions. Filled with blackmail, covert operations and cover-ups that go all the way to the top, this page-turner sees the slow horses embroiled in their most high-stakes spy games yet.

Geetanjali Shree in Conversation

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