Canberra Writers Festival

The Canberra Writers Festival returns with a sparkling program created by new Artistic Director, Beejay Silcox, featuring more than 120 local, national and international writers in 74 separate events. The festival will showcase more than 70 new books designed to stimulate an idea-hungry audience. And it is not just about listening – there will be 6 literary lunches, an opening night gala with Elizabeth Chong, “the Empress of Chinatown”, 12 writing masterclasses and, to round if off, a quintessentially-Canberra folk concert. The ensuring theme of Canberra Writers Festival is ‘Power Politics Passion’ - a theme that begs big questions: What do we value? Whose stories are heard? How do we reckon with the past and imagine the future? The festival promises to be a joyful collision of art-makers, big thinkers, big dreamers, and readers - in iconic buildings in the heart of Canberra/Kamberri. Explore campus novels on campus at ANU, art and fiction at the National Gallery of Australia, and controversies – political and otherwise – at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House. Celebrate the courageous women who, through the ages, have kicked down doors that blocked them. The festival continues presenting the best topical conversations in the country at the National Press Club. Don’t miss out.