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Sydney Writers Festival Program Launch
The Sydney Writers Festival launched their 2017 program today! Don't miss events with Stan Grant, David Hunt, Ryan O'Neill, Brigid Delaney, Tom Griffiths, David Marr, Jenny Valentish, George Megalogenis, Anita Heiss, Annabel Crabb and Benjamin Law. Check out some of our highlights below.
Stan Grant: The Australian Dream
In 2015, Wiradjuri man and award-winning journalist Stan Grant made a splash with his book Talking to My Country. In his new landmark Quarterly Essay, he makes the case for a more capacious Australian Dream with a place for all Indigenous people that includes those flourishing on intellectual, cultural and sporting fields, as well as those in detention or living in the shadows. He appears in conversation with Susan Carland.
As country after country reels from revelations about the systemic sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, three of Australia’s pre‑eminent voices discuss the crimes and causes of this institutional dysfunction. Tom Keneally Crimes of the Father, David Marr (Quarterly Essay: The Prince), and James M. Miller (The Priests) join Louise Adler for a powerful conversation about sexual abuse, conscience and celibacy in the Catholic Church.
Being a Historian in the Digital Age
As advancements in technology allow us to revisit and revise our past, what is gained and what is lost? Nick Brodie’s 1787 counters the established narrative of Australian settlement, Tom Griffiths explores our changing understanding of Australian history in The Art of Time Travel and Mark McKenna’s From The Edge uncovers Australia’s forgotten stories. Join them in a discussion with Jürgen Tampke to gain a new perspective on the way we think about the past.
In a cultural climate that fixates on the human body, wellness has become a billion-dollar industry. Alyx Gorman talks to writers Brigid Delaney (Wellmania: Misadventures in the Search for Wellness) and Jenny Valentish (Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment) about health and addiction in Australia.
Things You Need To Know and May Have Missed
From LGBTI bushrangers to early stories of travel and conquest, learn something new with this panel of history buffs led by Mark McKenna. David Hunt (True Girt) highlights the humour in Australian history, while Jürgen Tampke (A Perfidious Distortion of History) addresses misinformation about WWII. Nick Brodie (1787) offers an alternative take on Australian settlement, and Bruce Pascoe (Dark Emu) argues that we must take a new look at Australia’s past.
For decades, social researchers have been debating and dissecting what it means to be Australian. In this fascinating session, two of our best social spies come together to pool their findings on what makes us tick. Guest curator Rebecca Huntley has traversed the continent for her enthralling book on Australian attitudes Still Lucky. For three decades, bestselling author George Megalogenis (Balancing Act) has been using history, politics, culture and economics to build compelling theses about Australia and where it stands in the world. Rebecca and George discuss what’s changed about us, and what’s stayed the same.
Henry Lawson and The Drover's Wife
One hundred and fifty years after Henry Lawson’s birth, we are still captivated by his most famous work, The Drover’s Wife. A panel of bush bard experts tallk to Nicole Abadee about Lawson’s influence and their own retellings of the story. In Frank Moorhouse’ own version of The Drover’s Wife his academic persona uncovers the shameful truth of the ‘real’ drover’s wife. Ryan O’Neill is working on retelling the story in 99 ways, and Kerrie Davies’ A Wife’s Heart is written from the perspective of Lawson’s wife Bertha.
About the authors
Stan Grant is the ABC’s international affairs analyst, and vice-chancellor’s chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University. He won the 2015 Walkley Award for coverage of Indigenous affairs and is the author of On Thomas Keneally, The Australian Dream, Australia Day, The Tears of Strangers and Talking to My Country.
More about Stan Grant
David Hunt is an unusually tall and handsome man who likes writing his own biographical notes. He is the author of the bestselling Girt and True Girt, as well as two books for children. David is also a television presenter and podcaster, and has a birthmark that looks like Tasmania, only smaller and not as far south.
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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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Brigid Delaney is the author of Wellmania, This Restless Life, Wild Things and a book explaining Stoic philosophy – Reasons Not to Worry.
She has worked as a columnist and journalist for Guardian Australia, and is currently a speechwriter for a federal Minister.
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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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Dr Anita Heiss AM is the author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women's fiction, poetry, social commentary and travel articles. She is a Lifetime Ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central NSW. Anita was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards and the 2013 Australian of the Year Awards. In 2022 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal. She lives in Brisbane.
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Annabel Crabb has been a journalist since 1997, beginning her career at Adelaide’s Advertiser and moving on to cover politics first for the Age and then for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she was a columnist and sketch-writer. She is the author of Losing It: The Inside Story of the Labor Party in Opposition (2005) and the Quarterly Essay Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull, which won a 2009 Walkley Award. She is presently …
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Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law, Gaysia, the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101, and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia. He's also a TV and radio broadcaster; co-creator, co-executive producer and co-writer of the Netflix comedy-drama Wellmania; creator and co-writer of three seasons of the award-winning TV series The Family Law (SBS/Hulu/Comedy Central Asia); and playwright of the sold-out mainstage play Torch the Place (Melbourne …
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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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David Marr’s books include Patrick White: A Life, The High Price of Heaven, Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson), Panic, My Country, Killing for Country and six Quarterly Essays. He has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Monthly and The Guardian and been a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of Media Watch and Late Night Live.
More about David Marr
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