Long-form journalism is having a moment, but the writers attempting it are often underpaid, under-resourced and facing unprecedented competition for audience attention. Join Richard Cooke as he shares his professional expertise and experience as an award-winning journalist and author. From ideas to note-taking, research to final edits, Richard’s workshop focuses on real-world examples and delivers one-on-one advice. It’s for anyone who wants to write the best possible long-form piece they can, but doesn’t want to take forever to do it.

The internet, computers and ebooks now infuse every part of reading and writing. In this practical workshop with Richard Cooke (US Correspondent and Contributing Editor, The Monthly), learn how to adjust your practice – and your thinking – to reflect this new reality and find success in the digital age of literature. With a focus on innovation, experimentation and the future of non-fiction, this workshop is best suited to writers looking for a new challenge.

The definitive collection of David Marr’s writing, My Country, confirms his place as one of Australia’s most unflinching reporters of political controversy, and one of its most subtle and eloquent biographers. Fixing his forensic gaze on an eclectic range of topics – from the 1978 Mardi Gras police bashings to Patrick White, Pauline Hanson and Cardinal George Pell – David elevates reportage and commentary into an art form. The perennial Festival favourite speaks about his storied career.

In the Writers on Writers book series, renowned authors pen long-form reflections on the Australian writers who intrigue and inspire them. ABC RN’s Kate Evans sits down with Nam Le and the award-winning Ceridwen Dovey to discuss their new contributions to the collection. Nam pays homage to the masterly prose of David Malouf and the complexities of ‘Australian-ness’ in his work, while Ceridwen draws on her family history to explore the work of Nobel Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics experts predict that in less than half a century, we will have built machines as intelligent as us. But what will this future look like? 2062: The World that AI Made is Toby Walsh’s gripping appraisal of the impact AI and automation will have on labour, war, economics and everyday life. Toby, one of the world’s foremost AI researchers, talks to ABC’s Carl Smith about how machines might blitz our own capabilities and even imperil humanity itself.

From Brexit to the debt crisis to a backlash against migration, the European project – once a model of democracy and prosperity – is increasingly under strain. International relations expert William Clapton speaks with a panel of the Festival’s most astute political thinkers about the future of the continent in the face of an ascendant far-right, growing isolationism, discontent over austerity and deep-rooted economic challenges. Featuring journalist for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz Anshel Pfeffer, Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran and editor of Australian Foreign Affairs Jonathan Pearlman.

James Baldwin famously wrote, “perhaps home is not a place, but an irrevocable condition.” Is it possible to sever all ties with one’s birthplace and start afresh in a new land, or will – as Baldwin suggests – the past follow us everywhere we go, like a shadow? Christos Tsiolkas poses the question to acclaimed authors Melanie Cheng (a guest Festival curator and author of Room for a Stranger), Moreno Giovannoni (The Fireflies of Autumn) and Ling Ma (Severance), who each explore themes of immigration and identity through their work.

Australian defamation law has been called a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ of poorly adapted legislation that offers insufficient protection for journalists and is ill-equipped to safeguard ordinary citizens in the digital age. Is it time we scrap the law or give it a dramatic rewrite? David Marr puts these questions to former Melbourne University Press CEO Louise Adler, Professor David Rolph, and the ABC Life’s Osman Faruqi (who sued Mark Latham in a high-profile defamation case).

My Country confirms David Marr’s place as one of Australia’s most unflinching and forensic reporters of political controversy, and one of its most subtle and eloquent biographers. This definitive collection of David’s writing spans from the 1978 Mardi Gras police bashings all the way to Patrick White, Pauline Hanson and Cardinal Pell. A perennial Festival favourite, David joins Sally Warhaft to share insights into his illuminating reportage and storied career. 

Bringing the latest news from the halls of power straight to Sydney Town Hall, a line-up of Australia’s best political commentators come together for a special edition of ABC’s Insiders. Host Barrie Cassidy joins ABC’s Annabel Crabb, David Marr, Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy and The Australian’s award-winning Niki Savva as they rake over the highs and lows of the year in politics and reveal their predictions for election day. Photographer Mike Bowers also hosts a ‘Talking Pictures’ segment with The Australian’s James Jeffrey and Jack the Insider.

Join the The Monthly’s US Correspondent Richard Cooke as he expands on his award-winning series of dispatches and essays about the United States under Trump. Written after visits to more than twenty states, Tired of Winning is an inimitable political thinker’s searing analysis of the schism and clamour of contemporary America. Richard talks to Sarah Krasnostein about a nation besieged by social estrangement, malign politics, dark money and the siren song of social media.

In the past of every great writer are reams of teenage embarrassment, a confusion of hormones and nascent talent. Hear as Andrew Sean Greer, Daisy Johnson, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Richard Cooke, Zoya Patel and others reconnect with that spirit and retell their best known works in the form of bad teenage poetry. Hosted and conceived by Erik Jensen.

Supported by the The Monthly and the University of Sydney.

While our politicians continue to use members of the African diaspora as political footballs, the Growing Up African in Australia anthology tells us what it’s really like. Its editor, award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, talks to contributors Effie Nkrumah, Sefakor Aku Zikpi and Santilla Chingaipe about their diverse, humorous and hopeful stories of family, identity and belonging that paint portraits of lives lived beyond the headlines.

The Desert Island Books series asks a distinguished line-up to share what eight books would keep them company if they were castaways. A bookish homage to the similarly named BBC show, this session features award-winning author Ceridwen Dovey in conversation with Wheeler Centre Director Michael Williams. Ceridwen (In the Garden of the Fugitives and Only the Animals) reflects on her most well-thumbed books, the elusive factor that makes a text re-readable and how these seminal works made their way into her life.

Join us to hear award-winning Australian writer Richard Cooke discuss his debut book, Tired of Winning, in which he takes a close-up look at the state of the United States. Entertaining and terrifying in equal measure, Tired of Winning reveals the schisms and the clamour of contemporary America. This event is free, but please book here.

Join author and University of Melbourne alumnus Nam Le in conversation with Christos Tsiolkas, discussing his new book, Nam Le on David Malouf, the fifth in the Writer on Writers series, released on 6 May 2019.

Writers on Writers is a series of six short books where leading writers reflect on another Australian writer who has inspired and influenced them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. The series is a collaboration between independent publisher Black Inc, the University of Melbourne and State Library Victoria.

“Who do writers read? The Writers on Writers series introduces some intriguing and talented Australian authors who shed light on what writers learn from each other and how the craft of writing develops and changes”. ­– Associate Professor Sara Wills, Associate Dean of Engagement, Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne.

Queenscliffe Literary Festival presents two of Melbourne's brightest minds, Jamila Rizvi (The Motherhood) and Meshel Laurie (Bad Buddhist) share their wisdom.

Facilitator: Maria O'Shaughnessy

Charles Kingsford Smith was the most commanding flyer of the golden age of aviation, and the world fell in love with this charming Australian. Only those close to him knew the anxious, troubled individual who pushed himself to the edge of sanity. Ann Blainey, author of award-winning I am Melba, discusses her latest biography.

David Malouf and David Marr share more than the same initials. The body of their work is vast and rich with treasure, their contribution to the cultural landscape of Australia beyond measure.

This event is a rare opportunity to hear the voices of two great men of the arts in conversation with ABC Radio’s Sarah Kanowski.

David Malouf is one of Australia’s most revered authors. He has published poetry, novels, short stories, essays, opera librettos and a play, and has been widely translated.

David Marr is one of Australia’s most recognisable contemporary public intellectuals. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian and The Monthly; been a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of ABC TV’s Media Watch.

Riverbend Books will be selling copies of David Malouf and David Marr’s books on the night.

Writers+ Ideas is supported by EY and O’Neill Architecture.

The childhood homes of Alice Pung (Close to Home) and Rick Morton (One Hundred Years of Dirt) are planets apart but distinctly Australian.

Facilitator: David McCooey

Vivid Art After Hours brings you free music, talks and art experiences over three Wednesday nights at the Art Gallery of NSW. We have invited some of Australia’s brightest creative sparks to share their journeys on finding belonging and meaning in a fractured and distracting world. On the agenda: inner life and concepts of spirituality, cultural identity, and social diversity. 
 
Author and radio and TV personality Meshel Laurie confesses to being a bad Buddhist, but every day she puts her energy into improving. She works in television, creates podcasts, writes books and parents twins, so she knows a thing or two about the mad juggle of modern life. In this talk with Benjamin Law, she offers a snapshot of her life and the speed bumps and detours on the path to enlightenment. Meshel may not be a beacon of Buddhist Zen...yet. However, as the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Or a shuffle to the instant coffee machine at five am.

How true to you is your online self? We live in an age of digital distraction. We feel bereft without our phones and curate our lives on social media. The blinks, beeps and notifications are incessant. It’s time to consider the price we pay for this ever-connected life.
 
Throughout history, artists and thinkers have cultivated a deep sense of self and found solace in solitude and reflection. Pulitzer Prize winner, art critic and author of the Quarterly Essay 72: Net Loss Sebastian Smee leads an esteemed panel to explore the value of an ‘inner life’ in the internet age. Considering everything from Facebook to Chekhov, Sebastian asks, if we relinquish the inner life, what do we lose of ourselves? 

Sebastian is joined by psychologist Jocelyn Brewer who is an expert in the fast-evolving realm of cyberpsychology. She has a special interest helping people to stay human in the digital age. Jocelyn investigates what online information overload is doing to our attention and memory, suggesting it contributes to record levels of loneliness and chronic sleep debt. She outlines her case for ‘digital nutrition’ as an alternative to ‘digital detoxing’ and advocates for more conscious online consumption and ethically designed apps and games.  
 
Musician and author Holly Throsby also joins the panel and shares some of the poetic insights that make her music so memorable and her novels so compelling. Holly knows well the need to nurture an inner life. Find out how she cultivates her creativity and what it takes to be a singer, songwriter, author and a soulful being in a demanding world. If we’re lucky, she’ll also grace us with a song or two.