Episodes
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Three pairings of highly acclaimed Aboriginal and Palestinian poets read new works to each other in affirmation of commitment, care and solidarity.
Featuring Tony Birch, Samah Sabawi, Jeanine Leane, Micaela Sahhar, Nayuka Gorrie and Sara Saleh, with host and Festival Curator Mykaela Saunders.
Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.
Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Two of the most perceptive storytellers of our time, Leslie Jamison (Splinters) and Nam Le (36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem) became close friends after meeting at the storied Iowa Writers’ Workshop many years ago.
In a fascinating conversation about their crafts, they come together with Sophie Black to compare genre-switching bodies of work that range from poetry to memoir and fiction in their search for truths about family, society, memory and identity.
The United States Consulate Melbourne supported the appearances of US authors at MWF.
Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
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With scorching wit and formal inventiveness, Viet Thanh Nguyen rewinds the story of his life in A Man of Two Faces, in conversation with André Dao.
This triumphant and hugely entertaining memoir takes readers from his success as the author of novels including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer, to migrating to California as a young refugee from the Vietnam War. A Man of Two Faces reckons with the ghosts of imperialism, family, memory and identity.
United States Consulate Melbourne supported the appearances of US authors at MWF.
Supported by ARA.
Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.
Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Why have public conversations become so fraught? We seem to have lost the art not just of civil discourse but of having any semblance of a robust and nuanced debate.
Over a career spanning nearly 40 years, journalist Laura Tingle has been in the unusual position of being both a reporter and a commentator. In the 2024 John Button Oration, she examines the quality of our national debate.
Supported by the Melbourne School of Government and the Faculty of Arts,
University of Melbourne.Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.
Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
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Award-winning storytellers Christos Tsiolkas (The In-Between) and Bryan Washington (Family Meal) have each penned acclaimed new novels that tenderly depict the triumphs and obstacles of love. They join Maeve Marsden for an insightful conversation about putting romance to the page and love’s power to change us (for better or worse).
Supported by the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne.
Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.
Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
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In a special meeting of literary minds, bestselling American author Lauren Groff (The Vaster Wilds) and acclaimed Australian writer Charlotte Wood (Stone Yard Devotional) join Ailsa Piper to discuss their stories of solitude.
How does a writer bring colour to the silence, contemplation, pleasure and melancholy of solitude? Groff’s thrilling The Vaster Wilds follows a spirited girl trying to survive alone in the wilderness, while Wood’s mesmerising Stone Yard Devotional depicts a woman holed up in a small religious community hidden in the stark plains of the Monaro, NSW.Please note there are some minor audio issues in the first five minutes of the recording. Rest assured these were resolved and the rest of the episode audio is unaffected.
United States Consulate Melbourne supported the appearances of US authors at MWF.Supported by ARA.
Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Globally acclaimed, Miles Franklin–winning novelist Alexis Wright (Carpentaria, The Swan Book) discusses her influential body of work and newest masterwork, Praiseworthy, with 2024 Festival Curator Mykaela Saunders.
Wright has long been recognised for the scale of her writing, which combines mythical, political, surreal and comic elements to forge a mode of Aboriginal epic entirely her own. She speaks with Saunders about how she has challenged literary traditions and language to illuminate the contemporary and timeless perspectives of storytelling, spirituality and sovereignty.
Supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.Recorded live at Melbourne Writers Festival 2024.
Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
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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.
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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.
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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 PascoeSupport MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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.
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“…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.
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“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.
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