Join Annabel Crabb and Artistic Director Ann Mossop as they discuss the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival program. The pair talk about the 2024 Festival theme, Take Me Away, and how books let us escape into different worlds, live other lives and travel in time and space.  The 2024 Sydney Writers' Festival is out now. Head to our website to explore the program: https://www.swf.org.au/ Tickets on sale Saturday 9 March at 10am.  Thank you to 2SER for facilitating the recording of this...

[Content warning: Child sexual abuse] Join internet darling Daniel Lavery as he lifts the lid on his writing life and Dear Prudence, a collection of the weirdest and wildest questions received during his tenure as Slate’s agony aunt. Filled with his always sympathetic, thoughtful and good-humoured advice, it offers a good dose of sense and compassion in an increasingly wonky world. Daniel reveals the secrets to dispensing wise counsel and talks about his broader career as the co-founder of...

The Curiosity Lecture series returns to the Festival with a line-up of our most thought-provoking speakers delivering one-time talks on topics of intrigue, interest and importance. In this entertaining talk, author Tabitha Carvan shares the story of how falling for Benedict Cumberbatch while stuck at home with two young children became an unlikely catalyst for self-discovery. She casts light on what becomes of women’s passions in adulthood and what happens if you subvert the narrative and...

[Content warning: Sexual assault and paedophilia] Women and girls have long been pressured to conform to written and unwritten rules about how to think, act, look and feel. But a new generation of writers and activists are breaking down barriers to allow women and girls to show their real selves.  Hear from Wadjanbarra Yidinji, Jirrbal and African-American filmmaker and Gigorou author Sasha Kutabah Sarago and activist for sexual assault survivors and The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner author...

Celebrated Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov has been one of the most important voices throughout the Russian invasion of his adopted homeland, releasing frequent dispatches from Kyiv and the remote countryside. See him in conversation about Diary of an Invasion, his searing on-the-ground account of the human toll of the war, the interrelated history between the nations, and how language itself has become a battleground in the conflict. Andrey speaks live via video with on-stage interviewer...

When Ghassan Hage’s seminal study on racism in Australia, White Nation, was published 25 years ago, the Cronulla riots, Christchurch massacre and Black Lives Matter movement all lay ahead. Hear from a lively panel of writers and thinkers as they consider how racism and white privilege have changed here since then and what lies ahead. Anthropologist and social critic Ghassan Hage, Palestinian-Egyptian author and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, The Sydney Morning Herald culture editor Osman...

Australian author Holly Ringland became a publishing sensation with the release of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, a gripping coming-of-age novel that has been adapted for TV, starring Sigourney Weaver and Leah Purcell. Her latest novel, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, is an equally enthralling tale, tracing the far reaches of grief, courage and sisterly love in a story spanning Tasmania, Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands. Holly she speaks with Michaela Kalowksi about her new...

Richard Osman, bestselling novelist of The Thursday Murder Club series and king of British television trivia, talks with Sydney Writers' Festival's Artistic Director Ann Mossop in his first Australian appearance.   The beloved murder mystery series has gripped readers worldwide – soaring to success as an international bestseller with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. Richard talks about the fourth book in the series, The Last Devil to Die, and the antics that await the unlikely...

Did podcasts kill the radio star – or completely revitalise storytelling for the 21st century? Join a special line-up of crime podcasters for a discussion about the rise of the medium and how it is changing journalism. They consider how the format fosters creativity and intimacy, and why it may yet rank among the most exciting cultural innovations of our times. Featuring Patrick Abboud, Kate McClymont, and Hedley Thomas, on stage with the Schwartz Media’s 7am host, Ruby Jones. This episode...

In a special series of events, Your Favourites’ Favourites sees our most beloved writers speak with a breakout Australian author from the past year. Join globally bestselling crime novelist Jane Harper as she chats with fellow crime writer and stand-up comedian Benjamin Stevenson about the secrets to crafting a suspenseful story. They talk about the worldwide success of Benjamin’s third novel, the darkly funny meta-murder mystery Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, which is soon to be...

[Content warning: Explicit language] Eleanor Catton became the youngest winner of the Booker Prize in 2013 for her sprawling Victorian mystery The Luminaries. Its keenly anticipated follow-up, Birnam Wood, is a psychological thriller set in rural New Zealand, where super-rich foreigners face off with ragtag locals on the eve of a global catastrophe. Eleanor is in conversation with Beejay Silcox about her gripping story that brings kaleidoscopic insight into what drives us to...

In skilled hands, historical fiction brings the past to life in surprising ways. It also helps us make sense of our present, and even offers foreknowledge of the future. Hear from some of the country’s finest writers of historical novels – Geraldine Brooks (Horse), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho) and emerging talent Sally Colin-James (One Illumined Thread) – as they discuss the past as prologue and how they convincingly intertwine fact and fiction in their work. Hosted by ABC RN’s...

Before Markus Zusak became an international bestseller with The Book Thief, he wrote and published the award-winning novel The Messenger. The story of a Sydney taxi driver’s extraordinary adventures, it has now been brought to television by the ABC. In this conversation about the joys and challenges of taking a beloved work of fiction to the screen, Markus is joined by award-winning executive producer and writer Sarah Lambert (Lambs of God, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart). Film and TV critic...

A dazzling love letter to gaming and friendship, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by American novelist Gabrielle Zevin has become a word-of-mouth bestseller across the globe. It follows two university friends who become creative partners in a brilliantly imagined world of video game design, where success brings fame, joy and tragedy. Gabrielle chats with Melanie Kembrey about her lifelong love of gaming, what her novel reveals about the importance of play and the many ways we forge human...

Weary of nonstop climate doom? Listen to a trio of environmental experts examine promising developments, signs of hope and viable solutions for a greener, more sustainable future. Climate scientist Joëlle Gergis (Humanity’s Moment: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope), inventor and scientist Saul Griffith (The Big Switch), and environmental advocate Claire O’Rourke (Together We Can: Everyday Australian’s doing amazing things to give our planet a future) offer an empowering vision for stemming...

Much-loved Conversations host and bestselling author Richard Fidler delves into The Book of Roads & Kingdoms, an account of medieval wanderers who travelled to the edges of the known world during Islam’s fabled Golden Age. He joins Nicole Abadee to discuss the work hailed by The Sydney Morning Herald as “a bewitching tale consisting of stories within stories that radically tilts the Western reader’s perspective, revealing a world when all roads led to Baghdad”. This episode was recorded...

Hear from Miles Franklin Award–winning Carpentaria novelist and Waanyi nation woman Alexis Wright as she talks about her latest novel, Praiseworthy. Set in a small Australian town beset by a haze cloud that heralds both an ecological catastrophe and a gathering of ancestors, the story is rendered with the richness of language and scale of imagery for which Alexis is renowned. Alexis speaks with Ivor Indyk about a timely fable for the end of days. Alexis Wright appears thanks to the support...

[Content warning: Domestic violence] Award-winning and bestselling author Trent Dalton has captured readers with books like Boy Swallows Universe, All Our Shimmering Skies and Love Stories. He has made us laugh, and made us cry, but above all, he has drawn us in to his unique world of storytelling.  His new novel, Lola in the Mirror, is a darkly funny and beautiful story of life, death and a country neck-deep in a housing crisis. Trent talks about his work's progression from page to stage...

Hear from acclaimed storytellers Robbie Arnott, Fiona McFarlane and James McKenzie Watson about their beautiful novels, which chart very different lives set against unmistakably Australian backdrops. Robbie’s Limberlost tells the story of a man’s journey through life, while evoking Tasmania’s diverse natural habitat. Fiona’s The Sun Walks Down unfurls the narrative of a missing child in 1883 South Australia, depicting the distinct landscape and unsettling history of the Flinders Ranges. James...

[Content warning: discussions of mental health and suicide] How can we apply the wisdom of the ages to modern living? This is the question at the heart of books by Worimi storyteller Paul Callaghan and journalist and author Brigid Delaney. Paul’s The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life reveals the power of Indigenous spirituality as a deep source of contentment and wellbeing, while Brigid’s Reasons Not to Worry examines how ancient Stoic principles can help us regain a...

The latest novels of celebrated writers Sophie Cunningham and Gail Jones explore the lives of extraordinary artistic figures at turning points in history. Sophie’s This Devastating Fever interweaves the lives of Leonard and Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Set with modern-day climate change disasters. Gail’s acclaimed Salonika Burning imagines how the stories of famous figures who served in the first world war, including author Miles Franklin and painters Grace Pailthorpe and Stanley...

A panel of fascinating figures discuss their new memoirs and what it means to live a creative life – on stage, on screen, or in journalism. Mawunyo Gbogbo’s Hip Hop & Hymns recounts growing up African Australian and forging a media career via New York. Shane Jenek’s Caught in the Act charts his hard-won journey to fame as drag artist Courtney Act. Heather Mitchell’s Everything and Nothing depicts the light and shade that co-exist in love, family and the arts. They talk with host Maeve...

One of the great Australian writers, Don Watson has done much to hold a mirror up to the nation. His latest title, The Passion of Private White, tells the true story of an anthropologist and Vietnam veteran, Neville White who has devoted fifty years to the Yolngu clans of the Donydji homeland in north-east Arnhem Land; at once mapping and recording their culture, law, lands and languages and helping them build a successful community – one precariously poised between their traditions and...

Home cooking is at the heart of our food cultures and brings a comfort that can satisfy our physical and emotional needs. Join a panel of celebrated chefs and writers as they discuss their own home cooking, compare comfort dishes and consider the rich conversation between time-honoured ways of preparing meals and the sometimes-showy food culture of today. Featuring restaurateur Durkhanai Ayubi (Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen), prize-winning chef Rosheen Kaul...