Adelaide Writers' Week

Full title: No Enemies, No Friends: Restoring Australia's Global Relevance

Chair: Paul Barclay

Brought to you by The Australia Institute in partnership with Adelaide Writers’ Week

How should Australia recalibrate its national security settings to deal with global disruption? Rather than lamenting why Australia has become so good at getting things so bad, how might we learn sure-footedness in our international affairs in a new and less predictable world?

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 1:15pm on the North Stage

Chair: Paul Barclay

Brought to you by The Australia Institute in partnership with Adelaide Writers’ Week

Democracy thrives on high expectations. The less faith people have in government, the more people shun the project of democracy. The idea that government spending, regulation and ownership can significantly improve the lives of most Australians is so derided it’s almost never seriously discussed. But during the pandemic, and now with wages, inflation and climate action, we see that’s exactly what Australians want: for the role of Government to go BIG.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 12:00pm on the North Stage

Chair: Paul Barclay

Brought to you by The Australia Institute in partnership with Adelaide Writers’ Week

Australia is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, at the wealthiest time in human history, so why do so many of us feel like we still can’t get ahead? Skyrocketing inflation and plummeting real wages have put households and hip pockets under serious pressure. In our modern, neoliberal economy, is this a bug or an intentional design feature? Australia’s leading thinkers in the industrial relations and workers’ rights space come together to discuss how we can make the future of life and work better for all Australians.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 10:45am on the North Stage

When the Fourth Estate is doing its job properly, it acts as a watchdog on the government of the day and is a guardian of the public interest. That’s why Insiders – the ABC’s flagship political discussion program – is vital viewing for citizens who care about the democratic process.

Join David Speers and a couch full of the country’s most astute analysts, including Laura Tingle, Jack Latimore and Samantha Maiden, to dissect the week in politics at this special live Insiders event. The Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, will be Speers’ special guest as the political interview of the week. Mike Bowers of Talking Pictures fame will be joined by one of our finest cartoonists to remind us why laughter is essential.

Join us for an evening of political analysis and insight.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 6:30pm on the West Stage

Chair: David Sly / 2023 MUD Literary Prize Winner: Tracey Lien

Inaugurated by the passionate readers who comprise Adelaide’s MUD Literary Club – the only philanthropic organisation in the country exclusively supporting literature – the MUD Literary Prize has established an impressive pedigree over its short life. Founded in 2018 to celebrate a debut novel of literary fiction, past winners are Sarah Schmidt (See What I Have Done), Trent Dalton (Boy Swallows Universe), Sienna Brown (Master of My Fate), Pip Williams (The Dictionary of Lost Words) and in 2022, Diana Reid for Love and Virtue. Be the first to hear from the 2023 winner.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 5:00pm on the West Stage

Chair: Sarah Kanowski

Renowned British novelist Esther Freud is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, daughter of painter Lucien Freud and niece of British politician Clement Freud, but it was her mother who inspired her latest, captivating novel, I Couldn’t Love You More. Freud talks to Sarah Kanowski about the perils of family secrets, motherhood and love.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 3:45pm on the West Stage

Chair: Michaela Kalowski

Sally Hepworth is probably the only Australian author who has been featured on a billboard in New York’s Times Square. As a New York Times bestselling author whose domestic thrillers have been translated into 20 languages, she is one of Australia’s most successful exports. In conversation with Michaela Kalowski, Hepworth reflects on her eight novels, meeting comedian Amy Poehler and writing as an Australian for an international audience.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 2:30pm on the West Stage

Chair: Caroline Overington

At a certain point in our lives, we turn to thinking about ageing and its logical conclusion – death. What constitutes a good experience of growing older? The Hon Jill Hennessy, former Minister for Health and Attorney-General, and Nicci Gerrard, author of What Dementia Teaches Us About Love and the bestselling Nicci French books, share their reflections on what it means to die well.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 1:15pm on the West Stage

Chair: Jack Latimore

Journalist Paul Daley has long been preoccupied by the myths of white Australia and the collective amnesia when it comes to our shameful national past. His latest novel, Jesustown, set in the mid-20th century in a remote Aboriginal community, is a study of the multi-generational effects of Australian colonial violence. He talks to Jack Latimore about why Jesustown had to be a novel and what fiction can contribute to truth.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 12:00pm on the West Stage

Chair: Michaela Kalowski

Holly Ringland’s childhood was divided between a tropical garden in Australia and a campervan travelling through America’s national parks. The experience left her with a deep passion for the natural world that has wound its way through her writing and her work as co-host of ABC’s Back to Nature series. Ringland’s debut novel, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, is being made into a seven-part TV series for Amazon Prime and she recently published a second novel, The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding.

Event details: Mon 06 Mar, 10:45am on the West Stage