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Black Inc. Highlights for Melbourne Writers Festival
The full program for the Melbourne Writers Festival has been announced! Here are some of our picks:
How is the experience of Alzheimer’s disease – as patient, carer or onlooker – reflected in fiction? Rachel Khong (Goodbye, Vitamin) and Harriet McKnight (Rain Birds) explore the condition’s effect on family, friends and loved ones in their debut novels.
Dennis Glover (The Last Man in Europe), Ryan O’Neill (Their Brilliant Careers) and Marija Peričić (The Lost Pages) explore the lives and motivations of literary figures real and imagined. From Kafka to Orwell, discover the appeal – and sometimes absurdity – of writers writing about writers.
How did Australian politics get to its current demoralised state? What needs to change for good governance to return? Join journalists George Megalogenis and Laura Tingle as they explore the past, present and future of Australian politics.
What are the different factions of climate change activism, and how do they come together in cohesive action? Anna Krien (The Long Goodbye) and Indigenous climate activist Amelia Telford discuss the current state of climate change activism, and where it’s heading.
Celebrate local YA with the best in the biz! #LoveOzYA authors Amie Kaufman, Melissa Keil, Ellie Marney and Alice Pung discuss the importance of representation, telling Australian stories and why YA is important for teens and adults alike. With Danielle Binks.
With the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, will humans become redundant in the workplace? Rutger Bregman, Simon Longstaff, Toby Walsh and Ally Watson discuss the future of worklessness, and its implications for class and social equality.
Drawing together neuroscientific research and memoir, journalist Jenny Valentish charts the world of substance use in her new book, Woman of Substances. Join her as she explores the gendered experience of drug and alcohol addiction. With Kate Holden.
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About the authors
Harriet McKnight’s work was shortlisted for the 2014 Overland VU Short Story Prize, the 2015 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, and the 2016 Overland Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize. She worked as Managing Editor of The Canary Press. Rain Birds was her debut novel.
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Dennis Glover was educated at Monash and Cambridge universities and has made a career as one of Australia's leading speechwriters. His first novel, The Last Man in Europe, was published around the world in multiple editions and was nominated for several literary prizes, including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. His second novel, Factory 19, was published in 2020, and his third, Thaw, in 2023. His book-length essay An Economy Is Not A Society was …
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Ryan O’Neill is the author of The Weight of a Human Heart and Their Brilliant Careers. He was born in Glasgow in 1975 and has lived in Africa, Europe and Asia before settling in Newcastle, Australia, with his wife and two daughters. His fiction has appeared in The Best Australian Stories, The Sleepers Almanac, Meanjin, New Australian Stories, Wet Ink, Etchings and Westerly. His work has won the Hal Porter …
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Laura Tingle is chief political correspondent for ABC TV’s 7.30. She won the Paul Lyneham Award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism in 2004, and Walkley awards in 2005 and 2011. She is the author of Chasing the Future: Recession, Recovery and the New Politics in Australia and two acclaimed Quarterly Essays, Great Expectations and Political Amnesia.
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George Megalogenis has written three previous Quarterly Essays. His book The Australian Moment won the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2012 Walkley Award for Non-fiction. He is also the author of Faultlines, The Longest Decade, Australia's Second Chance and The Football Solution.
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Alice Pung OAM is an award-winning writer based in Melbourne. She is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her first novel, Laurinda, won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. One …
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Jenny Valentish has been devoted to dancing around the void for many decades, first in the pub and then the boxing ring. The author of the acclaimed books Woman of Substances and Everything Harder Than Everyone Else, Jenny is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the ABC, and the former editor of Time Out Melbourne and Triple J’s Jmag.
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