Get thinking at this year's Melbourne Writers Festival
The Melbourne Writers Festival begins today! If you’re like us and feel like your reading and planning has gotten away from you, below are some of the fabulous panels, debates and in-conversations that can challenge your thinking, without requiring any festival pre-reading!
Love, Factually
Few topics have inspired authors, artists, poets and pop stars alike as that of love. Join two of Australia’s favourite writers, Trent Dalton (Love Stories) and Clementine Ford (How We Love), as they discuss their new books, both of which bring fresh perspective to the endlessly complex workings of the human heart. They explore how love transforms our lives, how we fall into it and out of it, and the myriad ways that we care for each other as children, friends, partners and parents. They appear in conversation with Elizabeth McCarthy.
When: Fri 9 Sep, 10am
Where: Athenaeum Theatre
Tickets: $30–$35, book here
Hope vs the Climate Crisis
After apocalyptic bushfires and floods, Australian voters cast a stunning rebuke of climate inaction at this year’s federal election. At this crucial moment of opportunity, 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.
When: Fri 9 Sep, 12pm
Where: State Library Victoria
Tickets: $20–$25, book here
Mistakes Were Made
To err is human, proverbial wisdom tells us. But fessing up to our blunders is another matter altogether. Hear from a line-up of writers, thinkers and comedians as they bravely divulge the defining mistakes they’ve made in their personal and professional lives. From the silly to shocking, humbling to hilarious, listen to just how badly they got it wrong and what they learned along the way. Featuring one of Australia’s most trusted doctors, Norman Swan, acclaimed singer-songwriter Sally Seltmann, award-winning comedian and broadcaster Sami Shah, comedy writer and author Sinéad Stubbins, in conversation with Jacinta Parsons.
When: Fri 9 Sep, 6.30pm
Where: The Wheeler Centre
Tickets: $20–$25, book here
Ambitiously Un-Australian
From being booed off a football field to be being booed out of the country, people of colour who take a stand against racism draw swift and severe censure in our public debate. Hear from a panel of speakers brought together by First Nations Curator Chelsea Watego as they explore the works of First Nations creatives who have ambitiously critiqued the construction of so-called Australia and the costs of doing so in the settler-colonial state. Gunditjmara, Bindal, Yorta Yorta and Torres Strait Islander filmmaker, writer and community organiser Tarneen Onus-Williams, Brinja Yuin Koori police scientist and prison abolitionist Amanda Porter and prize-winning Koori and Lebanese writer Mykaela Saunders (This All Come Back Now), appear in discussion with Watego.
When: Sat 10 Sep, 10.30pm
Where: State Library Victoria
Tickets: $15–$20, book here
Food for Thought
Our national palate has rapidly evolved as native ingredients and dishes from across the globe go mainstream. But what has it been like for First Nations people and people of colour seeing food that was ignored and even ridiculed when they were younger find sudden cultural cache and sometimes clumsy appropriation? First Nations chef Nornie Bero (Mabu Mabu), Cantonese food writer Jess Ho (Raised by Wolves) and writer and food activist from Mollo, South Central Timor, Dicky Senda, discuss their experiences in the fast-changing world of food, with Hardie Grant food and lifestyle commissioning editor Rushani Epa.
When: Sat 10 Sep, 1.30pm
Where: State Library Victoria
Tickets: $15–$20, book here
Australia’s Reckoning with Sexism and Misogyny
The new books of Guardian political reporter Amy Remeikis (On Reckoning) and criminal lawyer Katrina Marson (Legitimate Sexpectations) shine a light on the complicity of our political and justice systems in entrenching misogyny and sexual violence. Remeikis and Marson come together to share their unique perspectives – Remeikis as a journalist in the Canberra press gallery and Marson as a sexual offences prosecutor – on consent, safeguarding sexual wellbeing, shifting power structures and their hopes for change, with Sophie Black.
When: Sat 10 Sep, 4.30pm
Where: The Wheeler Centre
Tickets: $20–$25, book here
The MWF Big Debate: Nihilism Makes Life Worth Living
Hope. Is it just a foolish thing with feathers? Isn’t it more practical – and easier – to just be a nihilistic nay-sayer? Or is hope the only thing keeping us alive? Let the battle begin.
Nihilism doesn’t necessarily mean sucking the joy out of life, in fact a nihilistic attitude can make life all the more worth living – or at least that’s what Paul Beatty’s book The Sellout made a case for. He writes of nihilism as ‘not giving a fuck’, a determined ‘unwillingness to succeed’, an idea taken up by Chelsea Watego in her chapter ‘Fuck Hope’ in Another Day in the Colony. But don’t we need hope to get by? To envision and claim a better future? Activist and scholar Angela Davis thought so, stating ‘We can’t do anything without optimism’. In the inaugural MWF Big Debate from First Nations Curator Chelsea Watego, two teams comprising our sharpest minds and wittiest word-wielders go head-to-head to argue the case for and against hope. Find out who else is appearing here.
When: Sat 10 Sep, 6.30pm
Where: Athenaeum Theatre
Tickets: $30–$35, book here
The End of the Monarchy?
As the Queen enters the twilight of her reign, there is renewed debate about Australia’s place in the British crown. Some 23 years since the first republic referendum, with growing momentum to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart and enshrine a First Nations Voice to parliament, a panel of experts consider the possible path towards Australia becoming a republic and the legacy and future of the monarchy itself. Dennis Altman (God Save the Queen: The Strange Persistence of Monarchies), Julia Baird (Victoria), Peter FitzSimons, Chair of the Australian Republican Movement, and Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, lawyer and essayist Teela Reid, speak with Sushi Das.
When: Sun 11 Sep, 2pm
Where: Athenaeum Theatre
Tickets: $30–$35, book here
