Experience Anu

Jess Hill was in conversation with Hayley Boxall on Jess's new Quarterly Essay Losing It Can We Stop Violence Against Women and Children?

Vincent Fantauzzo was in conversation with Helen Musa on his memoir Unveiled, the incredible true story of how a street-fighting petty criminal, who was kicked out of school at fourteen, became one of Australia’s most celebrated and successful portrait artists.

Best-selling author and TV historian Bettany Hughes was in conversation with Caillan Davenport on her book The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a revelatory new history of the ancient world told through its seven greatest monuments.

Robert Dessaix was in conversation with Andrew Leigh on his new book Chameleon: A memoir of art, travel, ideas and love. Robert Dessaix’s Chameleon is about everything that matters, a book of memories that flow so freely they seem to happen as we read. Cartwheeling from story to story, Dessaix describes an identity in flux: his beginnings as an adopted child named Thomas Robert Jones, his youthful interest in religious thinking, his obsession with all things Russian, his marriage to Lisa and divorce, his discovery of travel.

Stan Grant was in conversation with Mark Kenny on his book Murriyang.Song of Time. Stan Grant is talking to his country in a new way. In his most poetic and inspiring work yet, he offers a means of moving beyond the binaries and embracing a path to peace and forgiveness, rooted in the Wiradjuri spiritual practice of Yindyamarra – deep silence and respect.

Geraldine Brooks was in conversation with Alex Sloan on her new book Memorial Days, a heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey toward peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse.

Misha Ketchell was moderating a discussion with Frank Bongiorno, Michelle Grattan and Mark Kenny, contributors to the new collection of essays, How Australian Democracy Works. And why we need it more than ever, edited by Amanda Dunn, a book in which The Conversation‘s best authors reveal the real story of how power works in Australia.

Juno Gemes was in a conversation with Linda Burney, moderated by Ann McGrath, on her new book Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of The Movement for Indigenous Rights.

George Megalogenis was in conversation with Niki Savva on his new quarterly essay Minority Report The New Shape of Australian Politics Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and another minority government is a real possibility in the future. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many voters.

Best-selling author, Peter FitzSimons was in conversation with Mathew Trinca on his new book The Legend of Albert Jacka: From the brutal shores of Gallipoli to the battlefields of France, the epic story of the first Australian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross in WW1.

David Marr, one of Australia's foremost writers and thinkers, was in conversation with Andrew Leigh on the updated edition of his book, My Country: Stories, Essays and Speeches David Marr is the rarest of breeds: one of Australia’s most unflinching, forensic reporters of political controversy, and one of its most subtle and eloquent biographers. In Marr’s hands, reportage and commentary are elevated to artful and illuminating chronicles of our time.

John Safran was in conversation with Kim Rubenstein on his new book Squat, in which he recounts his time squatting in a Hollywood celebrity’s abandoned mansion..With the celebrity’s promotion of Hitler as a kick-off point, Safran explores threads of Jewishness, identity and belonging – topics that couldn’t hit closer to home.

Best-selling Italian author Paolo Giordano was in conversation with Marco Lazzarino on his semi-autobiographical novel Tasmania, which captures the fear, anxiety, wonder, and beauty of this time of uncertainty and upheaval, exploring how we can create and maintain relationships with other people when it feels increasingly difficult to connect.

Benjamin Stevenson was in conversation with Jack Heath on his new novel Everyone this Christmas has a Secret, a Christmas addition to his bestselling Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe...

Shaun Micallef was in conversation with Andrew Leigh on his new book Slivers, Shards and Skerricks. “A one-man anthology by one of Australia's most intelligent and more handsome Renaissance men.”

Canberra Writers Festival, in partnership with ANU Meet the Author and Canberra Times, and Penguin Books Australia, were proud to welcome Tim Winton to Canberra to discuss his new novel, JUICE. An epic novel of determination, survival, and the limits of the human spirit. This is Tim Winton as you’ve never read him before.

Andrew Leigh was in conversation with Lin Hatfield Dodds on his new book Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia. Is Australia fair enough? And why does inequality matter anyway? From egalitarian beginnings, Australian inequality rose through the nineteenth century. Then we became more equal again, with inequality falling markedly from the 1920s to the 1970s. Now, inequality is returning to the heights of the 1820s. The housing and cost-of-living crises we face are some of the defining issues of our time.

Gina Chick was in conversation with Kate Grarock on her memoir We Are the Stars, a misfit's story of love, connection and the glorious power of letting go.

Dr Karl was discussing his memoir A Periodic Tale: My Sciencey Memoir, supplemented by audiovisual images of his remarkable life. How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl? The only child of Holocaust survivors who fled to Australia in 1950, Karl has always forged his own destiny in an idiosyncratic way. Before he became one of the world's favourite scientific storytellers, he ambled through a convoluted cacophony of a career.

Virginia Trioli was in conversation with Allan Behm discussing her new book A Bit on the Side: Reflections on What Makes Life Delicious. Virginia Trioli knows that enduring joy is often found not in the big moments but in the small. And as a dedicated, almost obsessive, foodie, she believes that food gives us the perfect metaphor for how to devour the real flavour of life. When the main course is unappetising, the 'bits on the side' make life really delicious. The sweet and the sour; the salty, the bitter - our small, meaningful selections are the ones that make life glorious.