Opening Night: Visions & Revisions - Don Watson at Melbourne Writers Festival

Join us to open the 2026 Festival and celebrate 40 years of Melbourne Writers Festival.

Hear original readings and performances responding to this year’s theme, Visions & Revisions, from a lineup of extraordinary festival guests.

Featuring novelist, visual artist and poet Omar Musa, author and former political advisor Don Watson, poet, playwright and performing artist Ariana Reines, musician, composer and curator Sophia Brous, and the 2026 MWF First Nations curators: author Anita Heiss, journalist and broadcaster Daniel James, poet Evelyn Araluen and interdisciplinary artist and novelist Jessica Johns. 
 
Plus, The Age presents its Book of the Year awards for fiction and nonfiction. 
 
Come together to celebrate many visions and infinite revisions.