Melbourne Writers Festival
Jacinda Ardern and Booker Prize winner lead Melbourne Writers Festival line-up
The festival, which is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary, will welcome the former New Zealand prime minister as well as a number of decorated authors.
- Kerrie O'Brien
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How Adelaide’s writers’ week collapse is shaping Australia’s major literary festivals
The rancour surrounding the implosion of Adelaide Writers’ Week has meant all upcoming festivals in 2026 are risk-checking their programs.
- Kerrie O'Brien and Linda Morris
Google translate? No thanks, these writers prove their human worth
This Melbourne Writers Festival event aims to remind us that literary translation is an art, and to protect it from becoming the next victim of AI.
- Nell Geraets
A late-career marvel and an enriching memoir: The Age Book of the Year winners
The winners have been announced at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
- Kylie Northover
How a Japanese book about a woman who murders her lovers became a global phenomenon
Met with a muted reception in her native Japan, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter won fanfare around the world.
- Thomas Mitchell
Torrey Peters went off-grid and came back speaking lumberjack
And she doesn’t just talk the talk. Peters can walk the walk, or in this case, fell the trees.
- Melanie Kembrey
‘Audacious, enthralling’: The Age Book of the Year shortlists announced
From a suburban Melbourne home to the rocky surface of the moon, these are the books vying for The Age Book of the Year.
- Kylie Northover
Festivals have ‘privileged literary works’ over popular, commercial fiction: Veronica Sullivan
As the new director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, Veronica Sullivan has tried to create a program with broad appeal.
- Kylie Northover
‘I could feel the cold’: the dreams that told Hannah Kent what to write
Drawn to snowy Iceland as a teenager, the award-winning author found the country calling her again.
- Suzie Keen
What did women ever do for Melbourne? Walk with me while I explain...
One of the highlights of this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival is a celebratory stroll with our unsung heroines.
- Sita Sargeant