Events | Black Inc.

Upcoming events

Toby Walsh

World Science Festival 2024: Decoding Thought with Toby Walsh

Can machines read minds? Neuroscientists in Australia and the US have made remarkable strides in harnessing the power of AI to ‘read’ the brain’s electrical signals, translating them into natural language.  Machines that can read minds can give voice to the voiceless, but what do they portend for privacy?  Leading researchers and privacy experts join Brian Greene to explore the function and ethical implications of this technological breakthrough. 

Presented with World Science Festival New York

Date:   Thursday 21 March

Time:   7:30pm

Venue: Playhouse, QPAC, Corner Grey and Melbourne Streets, South Brisbane

Price:   $39

Toby Walsh

World Science Festival 2024: Mysteries from the Museum with Toby Walsh

Museums are marvellous places, full of stories uncovering our history and tales from across the world. Mysteries from the Museum will share three unbelievable stories, revealing their secrets to unsuspecting audiences.

Join ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell as she forages down the rabbit hole with her three extraordinary guests.

Featuring AI expert Prof Toby Walsh connecting the dots between a scrap of paper and an 18C English mathematician, author Andrew Stafford sharing the discovery of a headless bird in the Museum’s collection and it’s link to an “extinct” nighttime creature, and Principal Curator Geosciences Dr Andrew Rozefelds revealing what object took 10 years to identify (hint, it’s over 252 million years old).

Don’t miss this trail of intrigue and discovery as part of WSFB Conversation Series.

Presented with Queensland Museum

Date:   Friday 22 March

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, South Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Price:   $39

Alice Pung

Clunes Booktown 2024: What Makes a Good Read? with Alice Pung

Alice Pung, Tony Birch, Joanna Murray-Smith are writers who’ve had works on the Year 12 syllabus. They’ll discuss what it takes to keep the next generation reading - with Rebecca Fraser in the chair.

Date:   Saturday 23 March

Time:   1:30pm

Venue: Clunes Courthouse, 98 Bailey St, Clunes

Lech Blaine

Lech Blaine in conversation with John Birmingham

John Birmingham is in conversation with Lech Blaine discussing his Quarterly Essay; On Peter Dutton and the Forgotten People.

Where will Dutton lead the Coalition?

A portrait of Peter Dutton, as well as a modern interrogation of the Australian suburbs and the people who live there.

2022 saw the splintering of the Liberal Party's electoral coalition. Influential conservatives have urged Peter Dutton to forget about the seats lost to the Teal independents and instead pursue outer-suburban and regional seats held by Labor. Since then we have seen his manoeuvring on the Voice. The mortgage crunch in the outer suburbs. The rental and housing crisis, especially for millennials and under.

What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies' Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety? Or will he collapse the Liberals' "broad church"?

An essential essay for 2024.

Date:   Wednesday 27 March

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: The Loft, 100 Boundary St, West End

Price:   $15

David Marr

Newcastle Writers Festival 2024: Killing for Country with David Marr

David Marr has spent his illustrious career untangling complex issues – from political censorship to clerical authority and much in between. With Killing for Country, it is personal. David has written a saga of colonial politics and power that combines frontier violence with his confronting family history. Hosted by Lyndall Ryan.

Date:   Saturday 6 April

Time:   10:00am

Venue: Civic Playhouse, 375 Hunter St, Newcastle NSW 2300

Price:   $30

David Marr

Newcastle Writers Festival 2024: The In-Between with David Marr

Can we meet each other halfway? This is one of the central questions in Christos Tsiolkas’ new novel The In-Between, which follows two heartbroken men in their early 50s who meet on a dating app. It’s a quiet, tender love story with faint echoes of the boldness and carnal desire that distinguished his debut, Loaded, almost 30 years ago. Hosted by David Marr.

Date:   Saturday 6 April

Time:   1:30pm

Venue: University of Newcastle, NUspace X101

Price:   $25

Alecia Simmonds

Newcastle Writers Festival 2024: Things We Don't Speak About: Sex

In this new series of conversations about issues we don’t speak about, we invite authors to share how they interrogate tough topics in their writing lives.

Esme Louise James, Alecia Simmonds and Yumi Stynes discuss sex, taboo and relationships from the past to the present. Hosted by Elfy Scott.

Date:   Saturday 6 April

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Civic Playhouse, 375 Hunter St, Newcastle NSW 2300

Price:   $30

Anne Manne

Anne Manne in conversation with Nick Feik

Join us to hear Anne Manne in conversation about her book Crimes of the Cross.

For many years, Newcastle was the centre of an extensive paedophile network run by members of the Anglican church – and protected by parishioners and community members who looked the other way. In this gripping book, Anne Manne reveals how this network was able to avoid detection for so long, and how its ringleaders were finally exposed and brought to justice. At the centre of the story is a survivor, Steve Smith, who endured years of childhood abuse but refused to be silenced.

Tickets are $10 per person, redeemable off the RRP of Crime of the Cross on the night.

Date:   Tuesday 9 April

Time:   6:30pm

Venue: Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton VIC 3053

Price:   $10

Lech Blaine

Author Talk: Lech Blaine

Who is Peter Dutton, and what happened to the Liberal Party?

In Bad Cop, Lech Blaine traces the making of a hardman – from Queensland detective to leader of the Opposition, from property investor to minister for Home Affairs. This is a story of ambition, race and power, and a politician with a plan.

Dutton became Liberal leader with a strategy to win outer-suburban and regional seats from Labor. Since then we have seen his demolition of the Voice and a rolling campaign of culture wars. What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies’ Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety, or will he collapse the Liberals’ broad church? This revelatory portrait is sardonic, perceptive and altogether compelling.

About the author

Lech Blaine is the author of the memoir Car Crash and the Quarterly Essay Top Blokes. He is the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good WeekendGriffith ReviewThe Guardian and The Monthly.

Organised in partnership with Constant Reader Bookshop.

Date:   Wednesday 10 April

Time:   1:00pm

Venue: Stanton Library, 234 Miller St North Sydney, NSW 2060

Price:   This is a free event.

Andrew Leigh

Author Talk: The Shortest History of Economics with Andrew Leigh

The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP – Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities & Treasury & Assistant Minister for Employment

Date:   Wednesday 10 April

Time:   5:30pm

Venue: The Sydney Institute, 47 Phillip Street Sydney

Lech Blaine

Lech Blaine in conversation with Ebony Bennett

The latest Quarterly Essay by Lech Blaine is Australia’s Biggest Book Club book for April 2024, presented by the Australia Institute.

Who is Peter Dutton, and what happened to the Liberal Party? In Bad Cop, Lech Blaine traces the making of a hardman – from Queensland detective to leader of the Opposition, from property investor to minister for Home Affairs. This is a story of ambition, race and power, and a politician with a plan.

Dutton became Liberal leader with a strategy to win outer-suburban and regional seats from Labor. Since then we have seen his demolition of the Voice and a rolling campaign of culture wars. What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies’ Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety, or will he collapse the Liberals’ broad church? This revelatory portrait is sardonic, perceptive and altogether compelling.

Join Lech Blaine for an in-depth discussion with Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director of the Australia Institute.

Date:   Friday 12 April

Time:   11:00am

Venue: Hosted by The Australia Institute [online only]

Price:   This is a free event

Lech Blaine

Lech Blaine in conversation with David Marr

Who is Peter Dutton, and what happened to the Liberal Party? In Bad Cop, Lech Blaine traces the making of a hardman – from Queensland detective to leader of the Opposition, from property investor to minister for Home Affairs. This is a story of ambition, race and power, and a politician with a plan.

Dutton became Liberal leader with a strategy to win outer-suburban and regional seats from Labor. Since then we have seen his demolition of the Voice and a rolling campaign of culture wars. What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies’ Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety, or will he collapse the Liberals’ broad church? This revelatory portrait is sardonic, perceptive and altogether compelling.

“Dutton doesn’t need to become prime minister to redraw the battle lines of Australian politics. His fight with Albanese over parochial voters was always going to drag the political conversation rightwards: on race, immigration, gender and the pace of a transition away from fossil fuels … Dutton’s raison d’être? Make Australia Afraid Again. Then he will offer himself as the lesser of two evils. A serious strongman for the age of anxiety.”—Lech Blaine, Bad Cop.

Date:   Wednesday 17 April

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW 2037

Price:   $12

Lech Blaine

Lech Blaine in conversation with Mark Kenny

Lech Blaine will be in conversation with Mark Kenny on his new quarterly essay Bad Cop. Peter Dutton's Strongman Politics. Who is Peter Dutton, and what happened to the Liberal Party? In Bad Cop, Lech Blaine traces the making of a hardman – from Queensland detective to leader of the Opposition, from property investor to minister for Home Affairs. This is a story of ambition, race and power, and a politician with a plan.

Dutton became Liberal leader with a strategy to win outer-suburban and regional seats from Labor. Since then we have seen his demolition of the Voice and a rolling campaign of culture wars. What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies’ Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety, or will he collapse the Liberals’ broad church? This revelatory portrait is sardonic, perceptive and altogether compelling.

“Dutton doesn't need to become prime minister to redraw the battle lines of Australian politics. His fight with Albanese over parochial voters was always going to drag the political conversation rightwards: on race, immigration, gender and the pace of a transition away from fossil fuels … Dutton’s raison d’être? Make Australia Afraid Again. Then he will offer himself as the lesser of two evils. A serious strongman for the age of anxiety.”—Lech Blaine,

Lech Blaine, an award-winning writer and journalist from Queensland, is the author of the critically-acclaimed Car Crash: A Memoir and the Quarterly Essay Top Blokes.Car Crash was shortlisted for the National Biography Award and two categories at the Queensland Literary Awards He was the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. His writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly

Mark Kenny is Professor at the Australian Studies Institute at ANU, where he hosts the popular podcast series 'Democracy Sausage' .Mark is the Canberra Times political analyst and a regular on the ABC's Insiders program, Sky News Agenda, and radio programs across the country.

The vote of thanks will be given by John Warhurst, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at ANU

Date:   Thursday 18 April

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: Tangney Rd T2, Cultural Centre Kambri (ANU Building 153) ACT Acton 2601

Price:   This is a free event.

Lech Blaine

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Digging Deep with Lech Blaine

Finding the courage to tell my story

Jan Cochrane-Harry, Robyn Davidson, Lech Blaine and Grace Tame with Sally Warhaft

Date:   Friday 26 April

Time:   9:00am

Venue: Sorrento Bowls Club

Paddy Manning

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Talking Politics 2024 with Paddy Manning

Our annual Political Lunch at The Baths

Paddy Manning, Amy Remeikis and Laura Tingle with Barrie Cassidy

Date:   Friday 26 April

Time:   12:00pm

Venue: The Baths, Sorrento

Joëlle  Gergis

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Climate, Crisis and Cop28 with Joëlle Gergis

Have we lost the war?

Peter Christoff, Joelle Gergis and John Hewson with Natasha Mitchell

Date:   Friday 26 April

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Ellen Grant Hall

David Marr

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Other People’s Lives (ii) with David Marr

Three writers discuss their approach to biography

Troy Bramston, Kate Fullager and David Marr with Sarah L’Estrange

Date:   Friday 26 April

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Sorrento Bowls Club

Paddy Manning

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Understanding Rupert with Paddy Manning

The influence and legacy of media proprietor Rupert Murdoch

Ranald Macdonald, Paddy Manning, Walter Marsh and Sally Young with Corrie Perkin

Date:   Friday 26 April

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: The Ballroom, The Continental

Dennis Glover

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Cripes, You Can’t Say That! with Dennis Glover

What is free speech and what are we afraid of?
Dennis Glover and Lucinda Holdforth with Hannie Rayson

Date:   Friday 26 April

Time:   4:30pm

Venue: The Barlow Room, The Continental

Paddy Manning

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Other People’s Lives (iii) with Paddy Manning

Three writers discuss their approach to biography

Julia Baird, Catherine Lumby and Paddy Manning with Jamila Rizvi

Date:   Saturday 27 April

Time:   9:00am

Venue: Sorrento Community Centre

Joëlle  Gergis

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: After Attenborough, Who or What Will Save Our Planet? with Joëlle Gergis

Peter Christoff, Joelle Gergis and Kylie Soanes with Amanda Smith

Date:   Saturday 27 April

Time:   12:00pm

Venue: Portsea Surf Life Saving Club

Lech Blaine

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: The Good, The Bad and The Underwhelming with Lech Blaine

What does good political leadership look like

Lech Blaine, Troy Bramston and Niki Savva with Brendan Donohoe

Date:   Saturday 27 April

Time:   12:00pm

Venue: Sorrento Community Centre

David Marr

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Creating Real Change Through Truth-telling, Songlines and Shared Knowledge with David Marr

David Marr, Thomas Mayo and Margo Neale with Natasha Mitchell

Date:   Saturday 27 April

Time:   1:30pm

Venue: Halcyon Hall, The Continental

Dennis Glover

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Inspired by Real Events with Dennis Glover

How novelists weave fact into their fiction

Melissa Ashley, Dennis Glover and Kate Grenville with Irma Gold

Date:   Saturday 27 April

Time:   1:30pm

Venue: Portsea Surf Life Saving Club

David Marr

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: The Art of the Essay with David Marr

Sarah Krasnostein, David Marr and Laura Tingle with Ramona Koval

Date:   Saturday 27 April

Time:   4:30pm

Venue: Sorrento Community Centre

Erik Jensen

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: The Morning Feed with Erik Jensen

Join our chat about the news of the day

Erik Jensen and Amy Remeikis with Tom Wright

Date:   Sunday 28 April

Time:   8:15am

Venue: Halcyon Hall, The Continental

Lech Blaine

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Australian Politics with Lech Blaine and Erik Jensen

Toward the 2025 election

Lech Blaine, Erik Jensen, Amy Remeikis and Niki Savva with Brendan Donohoe

Date:   Sunday 28 April

Time:   10:30am

Venue: Sorrento Community Centre

David Marr

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: David Marr in conversation with Barrie Cassidy

Date:   Sunday 28 April

Time:   10:30am

Venue: Halcyon Hall, The Continental

Dennis Glover

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: Writers on Writing with Dennis Glover

Three authors discuss their work, their writing journey and their creative process

Dennis Glover, Gail Jones and Myfanwy Jones with Laura Macdonald

Date:   Sunday 28 April

Time:   10:30am

Venue: The Barlow Room, The Continental

Erik Jensen

Sorrento Writers Festival 2024: The Power of Editorials with Erik Jensen

Do people still listen? Should they listen?

Eric Beecher, Erik Jensen and Laura Tingle with Jon Faine

Date:   Sunday 28 April

Time:   1:30pm

Venue: Sorrento Bowls Club

Anne Manne

Anne Manne in conversation with Tanya Wilks OAM

For many years, Newcastle was the centre of an extensive paedophile network run by members of the Anglican church – and protected by parishioners and community members who looked the other way. 

In this gripping book, author Anne Manne reveals how this network was able to avoid detection for so long, and how its ringleaders were finally exposed and brought to justice. At the centre of the story is a survivor, Steve Smith, who endured years of childhood abuse but refused to be silenced. 

Join us on Sunday, 28 April for the offical book launch of Crimes of the Cross, led by chair speaker Tanya Wilks OAM in conversation with author, Anne Manne and survivor, Steve Smith. 

Date:   Sunday 28 April

Time:   5:00pm

Venue: The Lock-Up, 90 Hunter St, Newcastle NSW 2300

Price:   This is a free event.

Anne Manne

Anne Manne in conversation with David Marr

A searing expose of institutional child abuse, and the remarkable story of the survivors who would not be silenced

For many years, Newcastle was the centre of an extensive paedophile network run by members of the Anglican church – and protected by parishioners and community members who looked the other way.

In this gripping book, Anne Manne reveals how this network was able to avoid detection for so long, and how its ringleaders were finally exposed and brought to justice. At the centre of the story is a survivor, Steve Smith, who endured years of childhood abuse but refused to be silenced.

Drawing on extensive research and interviews with survivors, clergy, police and others, Manne explores how the network operated and how it became entrenched in the upper echelons of Newcastle society. She offers deep insights into the minds and strategies of abusers, and pays tribute to the victims and their tireless struggle for justice. Child sexual abuse has previously been thought of as an individual crime; Manne pioneers an examination of it as part of a network.

This is an unforgettable study of courage and faith in the face of unthinkable evil.

Date:   Monday 29 April

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road Glebe, NSW 2037 Australia

Price:   $12

Alecia Simmonds

Alecia Simmonds in conversation with Stephanie Wood

Join award-winning author Alecia Simmonds as she uncovers a hidden history of love and heartbreak in the archives of law.

Until well into the twentieth century, heartbroken men and women in Australia had a legal redress for their suffering; jilted lovers could claim compensation for ‘breach of promise to marry’. Hundreds of people, mostly from the working classes, came before the courts, and their stories give us a tantalising insight into the romantic landscape of the past – where couples met, how they courted, and what happened when flirtations turned sour. In packed courtrooms and breathless newspaper reports, love letters were read as contracts and private gifts and gossip scrutinised as evidence.

Date:   Thursday 2 May

Time:   6:30pm

Venue: Ashfield Town Hall, 260 Liverpool Road Ashfield, NSW 2131

Price:   This is a free event.

Ariane Beeston

Ariane Beeston in conversation with Daisy Turnbull

Because I'm Not Myself, You See: A Memoir of Motherhood, Madness and Coming Back From the Brink.

It is a frank, hopeful and darkly funny memoir of postpartum psychosis and recovery. Ariane Beeston is a child protection worker and newly registered psychologist when she gives birth to her first child – and very quickly begins to experience scary breaks with reality.

This will be a raw and intimate evening, Ariane will be joined by Daisy Turnbull, friend, fellow author, teacher and director of wellbeing.

Ariane will be available for a signing after the event. Books will be available for purchase on the night. Tickets include a welcome drink and shared grazing boards.

Doors open from 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start, seating is unallocated so arrive early to secure your spot!

Date:   Tuesday 21 May

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: East Village Sydney, Level 2 (Athletic Club), 243 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Price:   $25

Sam Roggeveen

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Australia's Place in the World with Sam Roggeveen

In the wake of a shift in the global power balance, how can Australia best protect itself?

Two of Australia’s most interesting foreign policy thinkers take a fresh look at Australia’s place in the world and come to some surprising conclusions. Clinton Fernandes (Sub-Imperial Power) and Sam Roggeveen (The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace) tackle the big questions about the US alliance, the threat of China, and underneath it all, what kind of country Australia really is.

Listen as Sam and Clinton reshape Australia’s understanding of itself in the international arena, in conversation with Verity Firth.

Date:   Thursday 23 May

Time:   11:00am

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 19, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $25

Lech Blaine

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: On Peter Dutton with Lech Blaine

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. 

What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies’ Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety? Or will he collapse the Liberals’ ‘broad church’?

Car Crash author Lech Blaine’s recent Quarterly EssayPeter Dutton and the Forgotten People, situates the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian suburbs his campaign targets. After the Liberal Party’s electoral coalition splintered in 2022, influential conservatives urged Dutton to pursue outer-suburban and regional seats held by Labor – a tactic he’s used in response to the Voice to Parliament referendum, mortgage crunch and housing crisis.

Reflect on Dutton’s political strategy and where he will lead the Coalition next.

Date:   Thursday 23 May

Time:   2:15pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 24, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   This is a free event.

Stephanie Smee

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Found in Translation with Stephanie Smee

Translators are the publishing industry’s unsung heroes, uniting authors with readers beyond the borders of their native language.

Award-winning polyglots Jennifer Croft, Daniel Hahn and Stephanie Smee have introduced Anglophone audiences to some of the most celebrated writers in French, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian, including Nobel Laureates such as Olga Tokarczuk and José Saramago.

Explore the fine art of literary translation and the joys of reading diverse fiction from around the globe.

Date:   Thursday 23 May

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 19, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $25

David Marr

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: SWF Great Debate with David Marr and Toby Walsh

Humankind stands at a crossroads: will artificial intelligence make us superhumanly productive, liberating us from life’s most mundane tasks? Or have we opened Pandora’s box, unleashing sentient technology that will eventually destroy us?

In a colossal contest of persuasion and wit, two teams of our best and brightest debate whether artificial intelligence is better than the real thing.

Decide once and for all with team captains Annabel Crabb and David Marr, as they duke it out alongside teammates Matilda Boseley, Rhys Nicholson, Tracey Spicer and Toby Walsh. Adjudicated by Yumi Stynes.

Date:   Thursday 23 May

Time:   8:00pm

Venue: Sydney Town Hall, 483 George St, Sydney NSW 2000

Price:   $35

Robert Skinner

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Your Favourites' Favourites with Robert Skinner

In Your Favourites’ Favourites, our most loved writers introduces one of their favourite authors.

South Australian-born broadcaster Annabel Crabb says she picked up Robert Skinner’s I’d Rather Not thinking he was a fellow countryman from the Adelaide Plains. By the time she realised he grew up in the suburb of Magill, she was already hooked.

Annabel describes Robert’s rollicking memoir as “an absolute bag of lollies”, bursting with tales about endless jobs, escape and thwarted searches for a richer life.

Laugh along with Annabel and the funniest new voice in Australian letters.

Date:   Friday 24 May

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Track 12, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $25

David Marr

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Colonial Truths with David Marr

Two icons of Australian writing, novelist Melissa Lucashenko and journalist David Marr, confront our nation's horrific past.

Melissa follows up her Miles Franklin–winning Too Much Lip with Edenglassie, a multigenerational epic beginning in Brisbane when First Nations people still outnumber the colonists.

David's soul-searching history Killing for Country grapples with politics and power in the colonial world, after discovering that his forebears served with the brutal Native Police.

Unpack the legacies of Australia's frontier wars with Melissa and David, discussing these groundbreaking books with journalist Matthew Condon.

Date:   Friday 24 May

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 20, The ARA Stage, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $40

David Baker

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: History of Sex with David Baker

How did sex begin? How did it evolve to become so varied and complex in humans? And what could sex look like for future generations? 

Hosted by evolutionary biologist Rob Brooks, this blush-worthy panel discussion features sex historian Esmé Louise James and historian David Baker. Esmé adapted her wildly popular TikTok series into a book, Kinky History: The Stories of Our Intimate Lives, Past and Present, and David’s Sex: Two Billion Years of Procreation and Recreation charts sex’s evolution from early life to sexbots.

Bone up on carnal knowledge across the centuries and find out what the future of fornication holds, in conversation with evolutionary biologist Robert Brooks.

Date:   Friday 24 May

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Track 8, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $25

David Marr

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Dicey Topics with David Marr and Benjamin Law

Each week in Good Weekend, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die.

The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given: money, sex, death, religion, bodies, or politics. Join us for a special live edition of Dicey Topics at SWF with David Marr.

Date:   Saturday 25 May

Time:   12:00pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 24, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   This is a free event.

Samantha Faulkner

Book Launch: Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia

Join us with editor Samantha Faulkner to celebrate the release of Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia! Samantha will be joined by Sydney writers and contributors Tetei Bakic-Tapim, Aaliyah-Jade Bradbury and Rhett Loban.

Ticket proceeds will go to Mura Kosker, an Indigenous not-for-profit organisation that advocates for human rights and improves family and kinship wellbeing in the Torres Strait, through tailored services and programs.

What makes Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait unique? And what is it like to be a Torres Strait Islander in contemporary Australia? Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia, compiled by poet and author Samantha Faulkner, showcases the distinct identity of Torres Strait Islanders through their diverse voices and journeys.

Date:   Saturday 25 May

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown NSW 2042

Price:   $5

Lech Blaine

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: The Secret Lives of Politicians with Lech Blaine

What goes on behind the scenes of Australia’s most public figures?

Under the spotlight of public scrutiny, the names and faces of Australian politics have fallen in and out of favour in recent years. Who are the people behind the politics? How did they get to be where they are, and where will they go next?

Join key political commentators Lech Blaine, Margot Saville and Niki Savva as they examine the rise and fall of the Coalition, and dare to ask the question – what comes next?

Date:   Saturday 25 May

Time:   3:00pm

Venue: Ashfield Town Hall, Ashfield NSW 2131

Price:   This is a free event.

Alan  Kohler

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: The Housing Crisis with Alan Kohler

Australia, a land of sweeping plains, has one of the lowest population densities on the planet. So, how did we end up with a housing shortage?

Veteran finance journalist Alan Kohler’s new Quarterly EssayThe Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Crisis and How to Fix It, investigates where things went wrong at the start of the 21st century with escalating property prices leading to a rental crisis, a dearth of public housing and a mortgage crunch.

Unpack the high price of housing with one of Australia’s most trusted voices in finance news, in conversation with economist and author Richard Holden.

Date:   Saturday 25 May

Time:   5:00pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 19, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $25

Toby Walsh

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Dark Technologies with Toby Walsh

Machines lead the charge on today’s battlefields, but what does this mean for the people caught in the crossfire?

Learn from journalist Antony Loewenstein, whose Walkley Award–winning investigation, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World, uncovered the widespread commercialisation and global deployment of Israeli weaponry tested in Palestinian territories. Antony is joined by AI expert Toby Walsh, whose new book, Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a Human World, explores how AI impersonates human intelligence.

Join them in this vital conversation with host Michael Richardson about the intersection of technology, conflict, occupation and surveillance.

Date:   Sunday 26 May

Time:   3:30pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Track 8, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $25

David Marr

Sydney Writers' Festival 2024: Killing for Country with David Marr

David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police during the bloodiest years on the frontier.

The esteemed journalist and non-fiction writer turns his unflinching eye on this personal reckoning in Killing for Country: A Family Story. A feat of scholarship, The Age’s Frank Bongiorno lauded this soul-searching history of politics and power in the colonial world as “a timely exercise in truth-telling”.

Join David and host Laura Tingle to reckon with the violence of colonisation – and a war that is still unresolved in Australia today.

Date:   Sunday 26 May

Time:   4:30pm

Venue: Carriageworks, Bay 20, The ARA Stage, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh NSW 2015

Price:   $40

Ariane Beeston

Ariane Beeston in conversation with Kerri Sackville

Join us with Ariane Beeston to celebrate the release of Because I'm Not Myself, You See! Ariane will be joined by Kerri Sackville, with opening remarks from Dr Nicole Highet.

 

 

A frank, hopeful and darkly funny memoir of postpartum psychosis and recovery.

'How strange to be the observed and not the observer.'

Ariane Beeston is a child protection worker and newly registered psychologist when she gives birth to her first child – and very quickly begins to experience scary breaks with reality. Out of fear and shame, she keeps her delusions and hallucinations secret, but as the months pass Ariane gets worse. Much worse. Finally admitted to a mother and baby psychiatric unit, the psychologist is forced to learn how to be the patient.

With medication, the support of her husband, psychotherapy and, ultimately, time, Ariane rebuilds herself. And she also begins a new chapter working in perinatal mental health, developing resources to support other new mothers.

Because I'm Not Myself, You See is a candid, often humorous memoir of motherhood and madness, interwoven with research and expert commentary. It's the story of the impossible pressures placed on new mothers and how quickly things can go wrong during 'the happiest time of your life'. It's also about life on the other side of serious illness, trying to make sense of what doesn't make sense, and finding humour, beauty and joy when things don't go according to plan.

Date:   Thursday 30 May

Time:   6:30pm

Venue: Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia

Price:   This is a free event.

Ariane Beeston

Ariane Beeston in conversation with Carly-Jay Metcalfe

Join us for a conversation between Ariane Beeston and Carly-Jay Metcalfe for the book Because I'm Not Myself, You See. 

Ariane Beeston is a child protection worker and newly registered psychologist when she gives birth to her first child – and very quickly begins to experience scary breaks with reality. Out of fear and shame, she keeps her delusions and hallucinations secret, but as the months pass Ariane gets worse. Much worse. Finally admitted to a mother and baby psychiatric unit, the psychologist is forced to learn how to be the patient.

With medication, the support of her husband, psychotherapy and, ultimately, time, Ariane rebuilds herself. And she also begins a new chapter working in perinatal mental health, developing resources to support other new mothers.

Because I'm Not Myself, You See is a candid, often humorous memoir of motherhood and madness, interwoven with research and expert commentary. It's the story of the impossible pressures placed on new mothers and how quickly things can go wrong during 'the happiest time of your life'. It's also about life on the other side of serious illness, trying to make sense of what doesn't make sense, and finding humour, beauty and joy when things don't go according to plan.

Date:   Friday 28 June

Time:   6:00pm

Venue: Avid Reader Bookshop, 193 Boundary Street, West End QLD 4101

Price:   $15