The Wheeler Centre

At Melbourne City Conference Centre, Ian Rankin – the king of tartan noir and creator of Rebus – talks mystery, mythology and literary cities with Shane Maloney.

What, if anything, is the responsibility of the writer? Is it to change minds? Or even the world? George Saunders, Brit Bennett, Roxane Gay and John Safran – whose work traverses overt provocation, subtle subversion and radical inclusion – get down to the nitty gritty of the politics and purpose of the act of writing, hosted by Michael Williams.

In 2008, when Kevin Rudd made his historic apology to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australians, he envisaged ‘a future where this parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.’ Since that speech, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care has surged by an appalling 65 per cent. With host Mat Tinkler, Muriel Bamblett, Andrew Jackomos and Natalie Lewis discuss the attitudes and policies that lead to child removals, and the thinking behind these practices. How does systemic discrimination lead to child removal? How are Indigenous leaders shaping the conversation and bringing change? Are governments willing to listen to, and empower, Aboriginal communities and people to direct solutions? The panel talk about the importance of a Treaty that has specific provisions for Aboriginal kids, and of developing national guidelines rather than state-specific policies and organisations, in this discussion of a critical issue for all Australians.

Having moved from field geophysicist to doorman, roofer and slaughterhouse worker before arriving at writing, George Saunders is as shape-shifting as his writing (Lincoln in the Bardo, Tenth of December). For the first time in Australia, he talks to Don Watson about his hyper-real prose, his simple, methodical approaches to writing, and his renewed commitment to the profundity of art.

Anne Enright is a brilliant and funny prose stylist, known for exploring the complexity and banality of family with a deft eye. With New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul, she discusses Irish families, motherhood, different types of love and the choices we have (or, in the case of family, don't) in who we love.

Tracey Spicer's funny and candid new book, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, starts with her early life in suburban Brisbane, traces the highs and lows her career in journalism and touches on many other subjects – from anxiety to class warfare to the beauty myth. In conversation with her friend and contemporary Virginia Trioli, and with a special performance from Candy Bowers, Spicer talks about work, life and feminism today.

At this celebration of Joan Lindsay’s iconic novel (and its enduring myth), Helen Withycombe hosts a conversation between Lindsay's biographer Janelle McCulloch, theatremaker Tom Wright (who adapted the play for Malthouse Theatre in 2016) and Helen Morse, who played the French teacher in Peter Weir's film version of the story. They discuss the true story (and the mysticism) that inspired Lindsay, the book's refractions of nature and time, the troubling history of Hanging Rock itself and why Lindsay’s tale continues to haunt and provoke Australian storytellers today.

In this Question Time discussion, hosted by Madeleine Morris, our audience pose questions to three fascinating panellists, each with a different take on the notion of family in 2017. Chloe Shorten is a public affairs specialist, mother in a blended family with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and the author of Take Heart: A Story of Modern Stepfamilies. Caroline Baum is a journalist and the author of Only, a literary memoir about being an only child. Alyena Mohummadally is a lawyer, primary teacher and queer activist raising two boys. Are notions of ‘average’ and ‘ordinary’ oppressive and limiting when it comes to ideas around family? What, if anything, are we losing with the decline of the nuclear family? And, if it truly takes a village to raise a child, do we need to expand our ideas of family even further?

In a special millennial-focussed edition of Griffith Review, guest edited by Jerath Head, writers including Briohny Doyle, Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Timmah Ball deal with the question of how millennials can find their place in a time of massive change, and a fraught, difficult world. In this episode, they join us for a chat about writing and coming of age in the 21st Century.

In conversation with Tony Birch, Bruce Pascoe discusses the writing, research and reception of his groundbreaking, celebrated book Dark Emu – which won Book of the Year at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. What does challenging the past of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people mean for the present?