By Jason Steger
After a slightly rocky run-in, it is at last time for what will be artistic director Michaela McGuire’s final Melbourne Writers Festival after four years steering it deftly through the pandemic and other disruptions.
For 2024 the theme is Ghosts, and while there might be a slightly smaller offering this year, it’s notable for the careful curating of the sessions and the imaginative pairing of authors. Yes, it runs for six days, but the bulk of events are on Saturday and Sunday, with only a few in the days before and after.
Christos Tsiolkas will be in conversation with Bryan Washington. Credit: John Tsiavis
An Evening with Michael Cunningham
Melbourne Town Hall, May 8, 6pm
When Covid reared its ugly head, Michael Cunningham, the author of The Hours, knew he had to abandon the family saga he had been working on and write a pandemic novel. The acclaimed Day is his first novel in 10 years, and he discusses how it came about. The festival opening night also features the presentation of the 42nd Age Book of the Year awards.
Viet Thanh Nguyen: A Man of Two Faces
Athenaeum Theatre, May 11, 12pm
Viet Thanh Nguyen won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, The Sympathizer (now screening on Binge), which sprang out of his own complex sense of belonging as a Vietnamese refugee living in the US. Since then he’s completed a sequel, The Committed, and now a memoir, A Man of Two Faces, telling his own remarkable story.
Ghosted: Bryan Washington and Christos Tsiolkas
The Capitol, May 11, 1.30pm
Two writers who shine both in the short and long forms of fiction discuss their latest, acclaimed novels – Family Meal and The In-Between, respectively – and their approaches to writing relationships, intimacy, food and all that modern living entails in a globalised world. A meeting of minds from the US and Australia.
Poet and novelist Sara Saleh will speak at Let It Bring Hope.
Let It Bring Hope
Athenaeum Theatre, May 11, 1.30pm
The initial description of this event prompted the MWF deputy chair to resign from the board and caused considerable controversy. In it, we will hear Aboriginal and Palestinian poets such as Tony Birch, Sara Saleh, Samah Sabawi and Jeanine Leane read “original works in affirmation of commitment and solidarity”.
Aqua Profunda
Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, May 11, 1.30pm
Three novelists – Katherine Brabon, Nadine J. Cohen and Myfanwy Jones – discuss their new novels, which feature the healing qualities of water as a balm for grief and the hangovers of events of the past. Nadia Bailey will be steering a fascinating conversation.
Ghost Cities and Ghost Futures
State Library Theatrette, May 11, 1.30pm
Siang Lu’s first novel, The Whitewash, was a sharp satire of Hollywood racism; Laura Jean McKay is best known for her remarkably prescient The Animals in That Country. In keeping with the overall theme of the festival they discuss their latest novels, Ghost Cities, which features the vast uninhabited cities in China, and Gunflower, stories that continue McKay’s interest in blurring the line between human and animal consciousness.
Lauren Groff and Charlotte Wood: Silence is Golden
The Capitol, May 11, 12pm
How do you go about creating fiction that demands your characters to be isolated, silent or at the very least contemplative? Bestselling American author of Fates and Furies and The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff, and prize-winning Australian writer Charlotte Wood (Stone Yard Devotional) share their creative methods and conjuring of character.
Alexis Wright will be in conversation about her Stella Prize-winning novel, Praiseworthy.Credit: Simon Schluter
The Stella Prize: Meet the Winner
State Library Theatrette, May 11, 4.30pm
All praise to Alexis Wright, a very worthy winner of this year’s Stella for writing by Australian women and non-binary writers. Praiseworthy is an epic about climate change, Indigenous life, feral donkeys, butterflies and family and a pestilential haze lurking threateningly above the eponymous town. It’s also very funny.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi: Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Athenaeum Theatre, May 12, Noon
Toshikazu Kawaguchi first wrote what turned into his bestselling novel as a play. The idea is customers at a cafe called Funiculi Funicula can go back in time but have to return … well, the title spells it out. There’s a fifth book in the hugely popular series due out in English later this year, and a TV adaptation in the works. Kawaguchi discusses his work with Daniel Hahn.
A.C. Grayling: Who Owns the Moon?
Conversation Quarter, State Library Victoria, May 12, 1.30pm
It’s a good question, but who will decide and how can any decision be enforced? The British philosopher poses the question in his latest book and argues that our current conventions governing interplanetary property are woefully inadequate and worries about what he sees as an inevitable cosmic land grab.
Paul Lynch celebrates his novel Prophet Song winning the Booker Prize.Credit: Kate Green/Getty Images
Leslie Jamison: Splinters
Conversation Quarter, State Library Victoria, May 12, 3pm
The American novelist, essayist and now memoirist reveals how she wrote Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story, which chronicles her divorce, being a mother to her daughter, and entering a new relationship. She told Vanity Fair she had to double down on her belief that an experience doesn’t have to be extraordinary to be illuminating.
An Afternoon with Andrew O’Hagan
Athenaeum Theatre, May 12, 4.30pm
The Scottish writer tells plenty of good stories – in novels such as Mayflies and his latest, Caledonian Road – and in his long-form journalism in The London Review of Books. He’ll be revealing the scandals, the characters and the corruption, real and imagined, in this conversation with The Monthly editor Michael Williams.
Paul Lynch: Prophet Song
Athenaeum Theatre, May 20, 6.30pm
But wait, if all that’s not enough for you, there’s more – albeit a week after MWF officially ends. Last year’s Booker Prize winner, Irish novelist Paul Lynch, gives the lowdown on his dystopic novel, Prophet Song, his vision of Ireland under the boot of totalitarianism and one woman’s attempts to keep her family alive.
Sold Out
Plenty of the festival sessions are already sold out, but it’s worth checking the festival website mwf.com.au for new ticket releases.
The Age is a partner of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
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