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  • [Content warning: Sensitive themes] Listen to former Australian of the Year Grace Tame as she talks about The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner, her sharply intelligent, deeply felt and at times blisteringly funny memoir that shares her story – in her own words and on her own terms.

    In conversation with Abigail Ulman, Tame talks about the hard-won journey to finding her voice, what her experience reveals about a culture of abuse in our society and institutions, the writing and editing process behind her memoir, and the values and passions that have helped her become a leading advocate for survivors of childhood sexual abuse who has inspired countless people from all walks of life.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    Please note, this conversation explores sensitive topics including child sexual abuse and domestic violence.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • A world-renowned expert in American literature and culture, Sarah Churchwell (The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells) delivers the 2023 John Button Oration.

    Examining one of the most popular stories of all time, Gone with the Wind, Churchwell shows how histories of mythmaking have informed America’s racial and gender politics, the resurgence of white nationalism, the Black Lives Matter movement, the enduring power of the American dream, and the violence of Trumpism.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was proudly supported by the John Button Fund, Melbourne School of Government and the Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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  • "You can’t really interview a ghost." – Shehan Karunatilaka

    Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka won the 2022 Booker Prize for his dazzling magic-realist satire The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Set during his homeland’s long civil war, the story follows its title character, a self-described photographer, gambler and ‘closet queen’, who wakes up as a ghost with a week to discover who killed him.

    One of the great literary voices of our times, Karunatilaka joins ABC RN’s Kate Evans (The Bookshelf) to discuss the novel's genesis and international success, the ethics of photography, and how Sri Lanka's history and culture informed the novel – with some cricket and daddy issues thrown in.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was proudly supported by ARA Group

    This event was presented in partnership with ABC RN

    This event was supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have provided both sustenance to First Nations communities and many of the materials needed to produce a complex array of technologies. In this wide-ranging discussion, learn more about this fascinating relationship and how it forms the basis of everything – respect, connection and our future survival.

    Featuring co-authors of Plants: Past, Present and Future – Barkandji researcher and storyteller Zena Cumpston, Wiradjuri geographer and scientist Michael-Shawn Fletcher, and geographer Lesley Head – and prize-winning Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian writer Bruce Pascoe, with Sally Warhaft.

    “If we don’t learn to relate to each other, we’ll continue to destroy the earth.”
    – Bruce Pascoe

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Which stories made you 'different'? What makes writing queer? And what books brought about a break up with the gender binary?

    Join a stellar group of queer writers as they share heartfelt (and hilarious) insights into the stories that shaped how they think and write about sexuality and gender, from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to Adrienne Rich's The Dream of a Common Language to Ellen van Neerven's Throat.

    Dipping into the queer canon are Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman (Enclave, Terra Nullius); author of Dreyer’s English (and Twitter's most loved grammar expert) Benjamin Dreyer; photographer and writer Bill Hayes (Insomniac City); writer of poetry, fiction and memoir Kris Kneen (Fat Girl Dancing, The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen); proud Gunai woman and multidisciplinary artist Kirli Saunders (Kindred); and host Maeve Marsden (Queerstories).

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • The 2023 Boisbouvier Conversation

    The Writers on Writers series is an indispensable fixture in the literary calendar, with leading authors penning their reflections on Australian writers who have inspired and influenced them.

    In one of the most loved sessions of the festival, enjoy this discussion about the importance of having generous and compassionate conversations; what readers gain from having fresh light shone on past treasures; and the future of Australian literature – and what literature is for.

    Featuring Black Inc publisher Chris Feik; contributor to the series, Nam Le (On David Malouf); and ABC Radio National’s The Bookshelf host Kate Evans as they speak with the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature, author Tony Birch.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was proudly supported by the Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Enjoy listening to two of 2023's most talked about novelists – and possibly the only two people to have ever become friends over Zoom – Emma Straub (This Time Tomorrow) and Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow). With Brodie Lancaster, they discuss their approaches to crafting fiction, writing a different kind of love story and the idea of wanting to hit restart.

    From the geeky committee that informed Emma Straub’s rules of time travel and why she dedicated her book to Peter Straub’s ‘nemesis’ to Gabrielle Zevin’s Emily Dickinson–inspired video game and why she chose to set her novel in the 90s, this is a brilliant conversation between two wildly talented friends.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was proudly supported by United States Consulate Melbourne

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Hear from New York Times–bestselling author and millennial food icon Alison Roman as she joins Benjamin Law to discuss her career, recipes and latest cookbook, Sweet Enough.

    Roman shares her journey from working as a chef in professional kitchens and becoming a much-discussed food writer at Bon Appétit and The New York Times to eventually freeing her voice from mastheads in a creative move that would change her life – as well as her readers. She is now renowned for unfussy, flavourful dishes – exemplified by hit recipes like her Caramelised Shallot Pasta and #TheStew – that tap into the culinary zeitgeist for studied imperfection over aspirationally haute cuisine.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Authors Tracey Lien (All That’s Left Unsaid) and Nina Wan (The Albatross) gripped readers across the country with their spectacular debut novels on family, love and identity.

    Listen in as ABC RN’s Sarah L’Estrange (The Book Show) joins Lien and Wan for a wide-ranging conversation on the craft of storytelling and power of representation. Together, they discuss early influences on their writing (The Baby-sitters Club, Dolly Magazine and Judge Judy, to name a few); what it means to have 'conditional citizenship'; the poetry of golf; and the need for more Asian thirst traps.

    “I wanted to make a point to readers that we are just like everyone else. Which is to say, we are just as complicated as anyone else. Within a community, we’re just as wonderful and petty and stubborn and flawed. We’re just as capable of success as we are of failure. And if you realise we are just like you, whoever you are, then how can you justify treating us differently?” – Tracey Lien

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was presented in partnership with ABC RN

    This event was proudly supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Casting fresh light on Australia's colonial past, the latest novels by award-winning journalist Paul Daley (Jesustown) and acclaimed author Fiona McFarlane (The Sun Walks Down) tell stories that upend the usual depictions in history books. Listen in as they speak to bestselling author and First Nations Curator Tony Birch about their approach to writing narratives that probe the enduring myths and brutal realities of settler-colonial life, the importance of place in their storytelling, and how they explore relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in their novels.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    Content warning: Please note, this discussion includes references to sensitive topics including colonial massacres of First Nations peoples and frontier violence.

    This event was proudly supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • "A few months before he died at 82…Oliver [Sacks] looked up from his notepad one evening in our apartment and said to me: 'The most we can do is to write – intelligently, creatively, critically, evocatively – about what it is like living in the world at this time.' So, I did." – Bill Hayes

    The last few years have changed us all in profound ways. How have we been surprised, unsettled and enlivened as we return to once-familiar relationships, routines and realities? How are storytellers making sense of how life has changed?

    For our Opening Night event, some of the most remarkable writers in the world delivered their unique takes on the 2023 Festival theme: ‘I’ve been away for a while’.

    Listen to author and photographer Bill Hayes (Insomniac City, Sweat) as he shares his experiences of living in New York City throughout the pandemic, and how our cities are like our bodies. He also shares a note he received from a reader in a remote part of Australia that illuminated the power of stories to leap across time and space to connect strangers, intimately and empathetically.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • “…There is nothing more important than communicating to the Australian public the truth about our world.” – Marcia Langton

    Sophisticated systems of law, cultivated over millennia, have enabled First Nations peoples to survive and thrive for more than 2,000 generations – laws that "haven't just survived colonisation but they've survived the last sea level rise of 10,000 years ago" (Aaron Corn).

    Hear from the authors of Law: The Way of the Ancestors, Professor Marcia Langton and Professor Aaron Corn, as they shine a light on the enduring expertise of First Nations peoples. Speaking with Dr Eddie Cubillo, they discuss how Indigenous law has been historically unrecognised; how Australians can understand and respect Indigenous law; and how it can inform our understanding of treaty, native title, sovereignty and much more.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • “It was, after all, a time of great noticing.” – Sarah Krasnostein

    The last few years have changed us all in profound ways. How have we been surprised, unsettled and enlivened as we return to once-familiar relationships, routines and realities? How are storytellers making sense of how life has changed?

    For our Opening Night event, some of the most remarkable writers in the world delivered their unique takes on the 2023 Festival theme: ‘I’ve been away for a while’.

    Listen to Sarah Krasnostein (author of The Believer and The Trauma Cleaner) as she seeks to measure what it means to be apart from others, and wonders if writers aren’t always just a little bit away from the world. Discover the books that became her life-rafts in testing times and what she has noticed about the world since.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • "It's a very human thing to be an actor, a storyteller. It’s pre-historic."
    – Sam Neill

    By his own account, the career of celebrated actor Sam Neill has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune. From discovering acting at boarding school in Christchurch, to treading the boards in amateur Shakespeare productions, to finding his lucky break and going on to star in films such as The Piano, Jurassic Park and Peaky Blinders.

    Listen in as Neill shares true tales from his storied life, chronicled in his new memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, in conversation with comedy legend Jane Kennedy.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was proudly supported by ARA Group. It was also supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • The last few years have changed us all in profound ways. How have we been surprised, unsettled and enlivened as we return to once-familiar relationships, routines and realities? How are storytellers making sense of how life has changed?

    For our Opening Night event, five of the most remarkable writers in the world delivered their unique takes on the 2023 Festival theme: ‘I’ve been away for a while’.

    Enjoy listening to Jazz Money, a Wiradjuri poet and artist and author of the award-winning how to make a basket, on how some journeys can change your life – and for the first time, allow you to hear the call towards home and community.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • “Things happen, people leave us, the world shuts down and the world reopens. We realise over time, sooner or later, that we’re never going back to anything. We’re only going forward and finding a new way.” – Benjamin Dreyer

    The last few years have changed us all in profound ways. How have we been surprised, unsettled and enlivened as we return to once-familiar relationships, routines and realities? How are storytellers making sense of how life has changed?

    For our Opening Night event, five of the most remarkable writers in the world delivered their unique takes on the 2023 Festival theme: ‘I’ve been away for a while’.

    Benjamin Dreyer – author of Dreyer’s English and vice president, executive managing editor and copy chief, of Random House – delivers a sweeping oration on finding your way through life, sharing profound wisdom and advice from writers across time including Virginia Woolf, Robert Frost and Elizabeth Strout.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Queen Elizabeth came to the throne at the height of the British Empire and died with the world at a tipping point. Stan Grant’s timely new book, The Queen is Dead, considers how, in the wake of her passing, we might more fully reckon with our colonial past and redefine our future. Listen to Grant in conversation with Anne Pattel-Gray about our place in the monarchy and the necessity of a just settlement with First Nations people.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2023

    This event was proudly supported by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • How do First Nations writers work through the legacies of our histories to create new stories while honouring those we inherit? Stella Prize 2022 winner Evelyn Araluen (Dropbear) and Koori and Lebanese writer, teacher, community researcher and This All Come Back Now editor Mykaela Saunders come together to discuss their roles as both custodians and creators of meaning and memory, in this conversation with Wiradjuri writer, teacher and academic Jeanine Leane, brought together by 2022 First Nations Curator Jazz Money.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2022.

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • Critically acclaimed Canadian author Sheila Heti has tackled some of modern day's greatest conundrums, including whether to have children (Motherhood) and how to live an authentic life (How Should a Person Be?). Hailed 'the most timely, urgent book of 2022' (Los Angeles Times), her latest novel, Pure Colour, considers how love and art can heal. Heti speaks with Sarah Krasnostein about a genre-defying story that, like her previous works, refreshes our perception of the world and what a book can be.

    Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2022.

    This event was proudly supported by Consulate General of Canada, Sydney

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  • When it comes to the climate, how can we replace despair with optimism, ambition and purpose, even as experts warn that we are fast running out of time?

    A panel of the country's leading thinkers on the climate crisis consider how climate fatalism can be as harmful as denialism and why hope might be our greatest tool in mitigating environmental catastrophe. Featuring award-winning climate scientist Joëlle Gergis (Humanity's Moment), First Nations environmental justice campaigner Tishiko King and Walkley Award–winning writer Jeff Sparrow (Crimes Against Nature), in conversation with Environment Reporter at The Age Miki Perkins.

    This event was proudly supported by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

    Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.