‘Just one scribbled note from Marcie Muir led us to this amazing discovery … If we hadn’t had that serendipitous moment where Belinda [Murrell] was discovering in one book that Charlotte [Waring Atkinson] had written more than one published work, and then I almost simultaneously found this note, we would never have put the two things together and made that amazing discovery … It was a series of astonishing, serendipitous findings that led us to many of our most exciting insights.’ - Kate Forsyth.

Join bestselling authors Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell for the second installment of their pre-recorded, two-part author talk – a discussion about researching and finding collection material at the National Library, as they had to do when writing their new book, ‘Searching for Charlotte’.

Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell are the sisters behind the latest NLA Publishing title, ‘Searching for Charlotte’.

Join the bestselling authors as they discuss the process of writing a book and what ‘Searching for Charlotte’ means to them in part one of this two-part author talk.

Join The Australian National University Lecturer and author of Goodna Girls, Adele Chynoweth, and National Library of Australia Director of Indigenous Engagement, Marcus Hughes, as they reflect on the lives and stories of the women of Goodna and the role of cultural institutions in preserving the stories and experiences of marginalised communities.

Goodna Girls tells the story of children incarcerated in Wolston Park Hospital, an adult psychiatric facility in Queensland. It contains the personal testimonies of women who relate—in their own no-holds-barred style and often with irreverent humour—how they, as children, ended up in Wolston Park and how this affected their adult lives.

Join National Library Exhibition Curator Dr Grace Blakeley-Carroll, and Director of Exhibitions Dr Guy Hansen, for an online tour of our latest exhibition, Birds of Paradise: Ellis Rowan in New Guinea.

Best known for her striking wildflower paintings, Ellis Rowan also had an interest in birds and produced a stunning collection of New Guinea's Birds of Paradise (Paradisaeidae) in circa 1917.

This must-see exhibition is on now and also viewable online, showcasing 13 of Ellis Rowan’s most exquisite watercolour paintings of Birds of Paradise. Also on display are a selection of plate designs featuring smaller representations of the Birds of Paradise and other biographical items relating to Ellis Rowan.

Explore the exhibition online

Stalin's Wine Cellar is billed as 'the Raiders of the Lost Ark of wine'. It is a wild treasure hunt from Double Bay in Sydney to Tbilisi in Georgia, following the search for a cellar full of wine believed to be that of former Georgian revolutionary and Ruler of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin. 

Join Stalin's Wine Cellar authors John Baker and Nick Place in conversation with Genevieve Jacobs. John recounts the intriguing tale of cracking the code of a historic wine list, having business meetings with men with guns, and accidentally dropping a particular bottle of wine.

Rich with history and flavour, this is a great dinner party tale about the search for a secret multimillion dollar wine collection.

Grab your helmet and join long-time cycling enthusiast Daniel Oakman alongside National Library curator Susannah Helman as they talk about Daniel’s latest book, Wild Ride: Epic Cycling Journeys Through the Heart of Australia, and the collection material that tells the stories of the people behind these great cycling adventures.

Australia is home to breath-taking landscapes, as rugged as they are beautiful. Some are driven to explore these places on foot, some from the air, but this book tells the story of the courageous men and women who explored this beautiful country on two wheels.

Join us as we celebrate the release of internationally bestselling author Kate Grenville’s first novel in nearly a decade - A Room Made of Leaves.

In this special online event, Kate Grenville appears in conversation with award winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator Professor Clare Wright OAM.

This event is delivered in partnership with Text Publishing.

Are you still a liar?

From its first icy scenes in the Arctic Circle, Felicity Volk’s new novel tells an epic story of a compulsive, unconventional love that spans decades and crosses continents.

Desire Lines sets its exploration of truth and lies against society’s uneasy relationship with its own truth-telling in history, war and politics. Canberra’s coming of age, the construction of its institutional landmarks and milestones in Indigenous relations are the backdrop for the novel’s moving reminder that even truths that seem lost forever can find their way home.

Join award-winning author Felicity Volk and Karen Viggers for the launch of Volk’s latest novel, Desire Lines.

Join Chet Van Duzer, Cartographic Historian and Board member of the Lazarus Project at the University of Rochester, as he explores the early modern belief that there had to be a substantial landmass in the south to counterbalance the continents in the north.

This hypothetical landmass was depicted on many maps beginning from c.1508, when such a continent appeared on a world map by Francesco Rosselli. Rosselli’s map showed a very large island at the South Pole, yet many maps from the sixteenth century illustrate a remarkable variant of this geographical myth: a continent-sized landmass that forms a ring of land around the South Pole, with open water at the pole itself.

Chet will discuss the sources of this unusual view of the Southern Polar Regions found in classical, medieval, and Renaissance hydrographical theories and geographical texts.

Join Paul Sharrad as he explores some of the delights found while researching Thomas Keneally's papers, including the forgotten highlights from his career.

Paul will explore the conditions under which writers in the 1960’s and 1970’s worked to survive, and how writers fit within the drive to create a national culture. How does a writer attempting to create a living from his work assemble a long-lasting career in negotiations with editors, agents, reviewers and markets?

He will also question what the place of the writer who becomes a public celebrity is, and how 'middlebrow' writing is valued.