2019 Bendigo Writers Festival Program by Bendigo Venues and Events

2019 Bendigo Writers Festival All that glitters

9-11 August Est 2012

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All that There’s a galaxy of events for you to choose from at the Festival, and our ticketing options are designed to maximise your choice. If you choose a Festival three-day Pass, you get access to all the Pass-only events without needing to book individually for those sessions. Pass-only events are colour-coded GREEN.

Day passes are available for each day of the Festival too. Passes also give you access to Pass-or-Ticket events in Ulumbarra Theatre: pass holders do NOT need to make an extra booking for those sessions. Pass-or-ticket events are colour-coded YELLOW. Ticket-only events are available to all: you don’t need a Pass to book these sessions and Passholders need to book in addition to their Passes. Ticket-only events are colour-coded PINK.

All That Glitters

Three-day Festival Pass $120 / $108 concession

Friday Pass $45 / $40 concession

Saturday Pass $70 / $63 concession

Sunday Pass

Bookings Online: bendigowritersfestival.com.au By phone: (03) 5434 6100 Box office: The Capital, 50 View Street, Bendigo, Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. Please note: some pass sessions may reach capacity. Patrons are admitted to sessions at any time, but to ensure a seat, please arrive early. All information is correct at time of printing; please check the website for updates.

Contacts For ticketing and other inquiries, please contact The Capital Box Office on (03) 5434 6100 Festival Director: Rosemary Sorensen bendigowritersfestival2019@gmail.com Festival Manager: David Lloyd d.lloyd@bendigo.vic.gov.au Festival Marketing: David Stretch d.stretch@bendigo.vic.gov.au Festival Production: Stephen Henderson s.henderson@bendigo.vic.gov.au

$60 / $54 concession

Festival Communications: Cecile Shanahan bwfcomms@gmail.com

Ticketed Events

Capital Venues and Events: Julie Ashcroft, Justine Blacklock, Deborah Blake, Terrin Conley, Lorelle Henderson, James Mansfield, Elizabeth Simpson, Shelley Slade, Abe Watson, Tom Williamson

Ticket-only Feature Events $25 / $22 concession

Volunteer Coordinator Deborah Blake

Ticket-or-Pass Events $20 / $18 concession

Thanks to our volunteers, to the many friends who encourage us, to our sponsors and supporters, to the City of Greater Bendigo, La Trobe University Bendigo and to the Capital Venues and Events team. To all those who see the value in this annual community celebration, we salute you.

Quick Pick Ticket-only events in Strategem Studio $20 / $18 concession

Text Marks the Spot Schools Program Coordinator: Sarah Mayor Cox

Entrée Events on Friday 9 August $20 / $18 concession

Thanks to Jason at Good One Graphic Design.

Poetry Masterclass $120 / $108 concession

Bendigo Writers Festival takes place on Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung Country, whose ancestors and their descendants are the traditional owners. We acknowledge their living culture and their unique role in the life of this region.

Sunday Gastronomy Breakfast $80

Acknowledgement of Country

glitters You know the saying, about how gold isn’t the only thing that glitters? We’re inviting you to find the shine again this year, when you join a dazzling line-up of writers for brilliant discussions and sparkling events. We’re going just a little retro for our eighth festival, with the addition of a new venue in our Festival precinct. Bendigo Bowls Club is situated midway between The Capital on View Street and Ulumbarra Theatre on Gaol Road. The big venue room will host events each day, and the Bowls Club bar will become the Festival Club on Friday and Saturday nights. To help you find your way around the Festival Precinct, there will be an information stand at that midway junction on the pathway. It’s a short walk, and there will be motorised carts on the go between venues too. We hope Bendigo Writers Festival 2019 lifts your spirits, delights your senses, and engages your mind. The gold may be long gone, but we shine on in myriad ways.

Rosemary Sorensen, Director

On behalf of the City of Greater Bendigo, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the eighth Bendigo Writers Festival. May I invite you to enjoy our warmest hospitality for a weekend of adventurous thinking. Every Festival has built on what has come before. This year, you’ll be dazzled once more by a packed line-up of brilliant writers, who come from near and far to take part in our celebration of community and good thinking. We pride ourselves on our sense of place and our joy in sharing that with others. Working together, with courage and resourcefulness, this wonderful Festival epitomises our City and our people. Be amazed. Be delighted. And please do make the most of this exceptional weekend of discussion and inspiration.

Cr Rod Fyffe OAM, Festival Chair

La Trobe University has sponsored the Bendigo Writers Festival since its establishment in 2012. As the city of Bendigo has grown, so too has the Festival and the role the University plays in presenting some of the events and discussions. We live in a time when the way we discuss ideas is as important as ever. When the very concept of truth is being called into question, the Festival provides a dynamic intellectual setting to immerse ourselves in ideas with writers, readers and thinkers who share with us the wonders of the written word. I wish Rosemary Sorensen, the City of Greater Bendigo and the La Trobe academics, staff and students involved every success with the 2019 edition of this important Festival.

Professor John Dewar Vice-Chancellor bendigowritersfestival.com.au

2019 Bendigo Writers Festival All that glitters

GASTRONOMY AT THE FESTIVAL Bendigo Writers Festival, supported by the City of Greater Bendigo, is committed to sustainability and good health, and we enthusiastically back the bid for our strong regional city to become a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. You’ll find events about food and sustainability, farming and land, health and wellbeing, right throughout the program.

Friday Night Feature Event World of Food Maeve O’Meara Friday 9 August 8pm-9.15pm Ulumbarra Theatre Ticket-only $25 / $22 concession Maeve O’Meara’s wonderfully informative and deliciously taste-tempting adventures across a world of cuisines includes inspiration from earth, fire and water. Derek Guille hosts SBS’s Food Safari presenter and author for a conversation about the places, the people and the dishes that have delighted her in her quest for unique and exotic culinary cultures. This event is supported by the Regional Sustainability Unit of the City of Greater Bendigo.

Gastronomy Breakfast Jill Dupleix and Terry Durack Sunday 11 August 8.15am-9.45am Bendigo Bowls Club Ticket-only $80 Jill Dupleix and Terry Durack have had more hot breakfasts in more places than they can count. So we reckon they deserve something very special for their Bendigo visit. They’ll talk with hospitality consultant Kath Bolitho about the life of a food critic, and what makes a brilliant restaurant. Breakfast will be prepared and served by Bendigo’s own culinary star duo, Nick and Sonia Anthony from Masons of Bendigo.

All That Glitters

Food Fossickers Showcase Friday 9 August 5pm-7.45pm Ulumbarra Foyer Free, all welcome Food Fossickers is a passionate alliance of talented Central Victorian producers, committed to supporting the region’s food culture and sustainable development. Meet growers and producers, sample their wares, and find out more about what’s on offer. Producers on show include: McIvor Farm Foods, Salute Oliva, Squirrel Gully Saffron, Collins Honey, Simply Tomatoes, Bridgeward Grove Olives and Art Farm Gate, Teaporium, Pink Muesli, Michel’s Biscuits, Pud For All Seasons.

Good Thinking at the Festival The quality of life depends on how well we can think about who we are and what we value. Bendigo Writers Festival is proud to support the City of Greater Bendigo’s strategies for health and wellbeing.

The Silents Were Golden Dominic Smith Saturday 10 August 8pm-9pm Strategem Studio Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession Hidden in archive vaults in some of the greatest libraries of the world are superb silent films, and although many were lost, those that remain show the extraordinary birth of cinema. Dominic Smith, who grew up in Sydney and now lives in Seattle, discovered a passion for these celluloid gems, as he researched and wrote his novel, The Electric Hotel. Join Dominic and host David Lloyd, on this journey back in time, as he shows clips from forgotten films, and journey with him everywhere from a former nuclear bunker to a silent film festival in northern Italy, bringing to life the stories behind the history of film.

Saturday Night Feature Event What Is Life? Paul Davies Saturday 10 August 8pm-9.15pm Ulumbarra Theatre Ticket-only $25 / $22 concession How does life create order from chaos? And what is life? Paul Davies tackles these magnificent and terrifying questions with a new theory that reveals how biology and quantum physics might just unlock the secrets of life on Earth. Join this world-renowned scientist and writer as he unleashes this radical new vision for human understanding. Introduced by La Trobe University Fellow Elizabeth Finkel, Paul Davies will take us into a field of science so new and fast-moving that it still lacks a name, a domain where computing, chemistry, quantum physics and nanotechnology meet. The power of information to explain life and to unify biology with physics heralds a new scientific revolution poised to transform technology and medicine, and to answer the age-old question of whether or not we are alone in the universe.

Asking questions with Slido This year we’ve made it very easy to take part in question time at the end of a session. We’re using the interactive digital question-time platform ‘Slido’ during most sessions at Ulumbarra Theatre and the Capital Theatre. Using your phone, you can send your question to the session host at any time during the session, you can see what other people have asked and vote for questions you would most like to hear discussed. Slido will ensure that the questions most relevant to the audience will be heard, in a more efficient and effective manner. Anyone can use Slido, simply head to www.slido.com on your phone, and use the code #bendigowritersfestival to access our event. Look out for information about using this simple technology on your smartphone at sessions in Ulumbarra Theatre and the Capital Theatre each day.

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Meshel Laurie Michael Sharkey Sulari Gentill

Entrée events Bendigo Writers Festival takes place in the arts precinct, so it’s easy to get between all the venues. But we do like to get out and about to show off our city. Three Entrée Events take place on Friday morning, so you can add in one of these special events without missing out on any Friday sessions from the full program back in the Festival Precinct.

Hang on, Help Is On Its Way Meshel Laurie and Suzanne Donisthorpe Friday 9 August 11am-12pm Great Stupa of Universal Compassion Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession What’s the fastest growing faith in the world? It’s Buddhism, and Meshel Laurie says that’s because it is very well suited to our contemporary age. Too busy for organised religion? Too stressed to commit to the contemplative life? In Buddhism, you can find all kinds of help, and this comedy writer and tv personality wants to let you know just what goodies are in store for you when you take a look at this ancient philosophy. Laurie is joined by Suzanne Donisthorpe for this first-ever Festival event at Bendigo’s Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, for a discussion that promises to be most enlightening.

Many Such As She Michael Sharkey talks to Kirsten McKay, with readings by Kate Stones Friday 9 August 11am-12pm Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession Poet and critic Michael Sharkey began researching women poets’ responses to the First World War many years ago, keen to find out why so little had been collected and why it was so long neglected. After decades of discovery, and revelations about what kinds of writing was deemed acceptable to commemorate Australia at war, Michael’s book, Many Such As She presents a collection of women writing in the state of Victoria during and after the war. To celebrate the beautiful restoration of Bendigo’s Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum, Michael is joined in conversation by curator Kirsten McKay, with readings of a selection of the poems by actor Kate Stones.

In the Bush, No One Can Hear You Scream Sulari Gentill and Robert Gott Friday 9 August 11am-12pm Blind Cow Pottery, 40 Indigofera Road, Marong Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession It’s edgy, out there just beyond the Bendigo city limits. Down a dirt track, you’ll be greeted by Deirdre and Ray, the artists whose Blind Cow Pottery is delightfully unconventional complete with a turret. With Dianne Dempsey, they’re hosting two very game crime writers, Sulari Gentill and Robert Gott, whose friendship may well be tested as they take each other on with a q&a challenge. They get to ask ten questions each — as surprising or challenging as they like. Come a little early for a cuppa and cake, then it’s on with the joust. For venue information, please contact the box office, on (03) 5434 6100. 6

All That Glitters

Poetry Masterclass Anthony Lawrence Friday 9 August 11am-3pm Strategem Studio Ticket-only $120 / $108 concession Join acclaimed Australian poet Anthony Lawrence for a masterclass designed to help writers tap into the marvellous that often runs below and through what appears to be ordinary or commonplace. This workshop will help you turn what you see into images that are at once original and captivating. You will find, through the poems on offer and the exercises Anthony takes you through, ways to look, methods to capture, and techniques to then imprint in words, alternatives to what we know of the world. This is an excellent opportunity to work in a small group with one of the best and most respected poets in the business.

Festival Closing Address Changing Lives Munjed Al Muderis Sunday 11 August 4.30pm-5.30pm Ulumbarra Theatre Ticket-only $25 / $22 concession The story of world-leading surgeon Munjed Al Muderis is truly inspiring: from boat refugee fleeing Iraq to mandatory detention, released to work in regional Victoria, before rising to become a world-leader in the life-saving surgery that allows victims of trauma to regain mobility after the loss of limbs. His return to Iraq to perform that surgery on victims of the war against ISIS is told in his recent book, Going Back. Hosted by Cr Rod Fyffe, this courageous and brilliant doctor shares with us an exceptional experience of hope and resilience.

Level: Advanced. Pitched for poets, however the workshop applies to all experienced writers.

A Room of One’s Own Friday 9 August 5pm, Saturday 10 August 1pm and 5pm Engine Room Book at gotix.com.au or box office (03) 5434 6100: $35 / $32 concession / $16 student Sentient Theatre’s energetic stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s classic essay on women and fiction celebrates the beautiful writing of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and her classic work, A Room of One’s Own. 60 minutes, no interval. Bendigo Writers Festival is delighted to welcome director Anna Kennedy and playwright Peta Hanrahan, who will talk about this hit production on Sunday at 10am (see Pass program).

Festival Club By day, Bendigo Bowls Club is part of our Festival venue network, hosting pass-session events in the big function room. At night, the BBC bar becomes the Festival Club, welcome to all. The Club will open from around 8pm, and stay open until late.

Crime at the Club

Bendigo’s Best Bits at the Club

Friday 9 August 9.30pm-10.30pm

Saturday 10 August 9.30pm-10.30pm

A gang of crime writers walks into a bar… what happens when they pick the best bits from their books and are invited to strut their stuff? Will it be edge-of-the-seat, or laidback? Will they choose grisly or genteel? Whose detective has the most laconic line? Join host Andrew Nette for this first-time reading event in our Festival Club bar.

This might get a bit competitive. Publisher and writer Amy Doak has compiled a brilliant new collection of short stories in Goldfields, and we’ve invited some of the contributors to read their work at the Club. Join host Em Burgess-Gilchrist to discover the best bits of Bendigo through the eyes of those who know it and mostly love it.

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Friday 9 AUGUST Sessions

coded GREEN are Pass-only events.

Sessions

coded YELLOW are pass-or-ticket events.

12.30pm-1.15pm Ulumbarra Theatre Does My Face Fit Here? Randa Abdel-Fattah with Santilla Chingaipe

Randa Abdel-Fattah’s first novel, Does My Head Look Big in This? proved young readers wanted to read about race, human rights, multiculturalism and about coping with school, family and friends as you’re growing up. Randa talks to Santilla Chingaipe about her books, and her new edited collection, Arab Australian Other. Friday or Festival Pass or ticket $20 / $18 concession: session includes school groups

1.45pm-2.30pm Ulumbarra Theatre The Idea of Home Alice Pung with Fiona Parker

Alice Pung’s debut memoir, Unpolished Gem, brilliantly challenged conventional history, telling us about what it was like to grow up Chinese-Australian in a working-class Melbourne suburb. Alice talks to Fiona Parker about her own idea of home, how the places we live and the connections we make shape the people we become. Friday or Festival Pass or ticket $20 / $18 concession: session includes school groups

1.45pm-2.30pm Capital Theatre JUDGING A BOOK Fred, Susan Green, Lorraine Marwood, Sarah Mayor Cox

Do you judge a book by its cover? Favourite author or illustrator? Title? Reviews? Prizes? Lorraine Marwood, Susan Green and 10-year-old Inky Judge Fred along with a 12-year-old Shadow Inky Judge join host Sarah Mayor Cox for a discussion about judging, with tips about how to get your writing out there, noticed and awarded. Friday or Festival Pass: session includes school groups

1.45pm-2.30pm La Trobe Art Institute Brain Food Felice Jacka with Chris Kelly

Felice Jacka’s book about how diet affects your mood unfolds the exciting new research about diet and health, including the health of that all-important organ, your brain. Friday or Festival Pass

1.45pm-2.45pm Bendigo Bowls Club Women Kind Kirstin Ferguson and Catherine Fox with Margaret O’Rourke

3pm-3.45pm La Trobe Art Institute Telling It Tough Megan Blandford and Benjamin MacEllen with John Richards

Two tough memoirs about revealing what it takes. How much did these writers rely on notes and diaries? Did they talk to people around them about their experiences? Did they write for themselves, or was it as much about helping others with similar experiences. And how close did they get to telling it tough? Friday or Festival Pass

3.15pm-4.15pm Ulumbarra Theatre Curing Cancer Paul Davies with Natasha Mitchell

What if, rather than treating cancer as a disease of cell mutation, we think of it as a reversion to an ancestral phenotype, a cell’s way of coping with stress? Paul Davies talks to Natasha Mitchell about this new theory and why he chose to pursue it. Where’s the work taken him in the past few years? What’s next? Friday or Festival Pass or ticket $20 / $18 concession

Kirstin Ferguson and Catherine Fox wrote Women Kind when online global movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp were taking the world by storm. Is the shared clout of collaborative women changing society? Bendigo Mayor Margaret O’Rourke hosts a timely discussion about how women are making change happen. Friday or Festival Pass

Sue McPherson, RA Spratt

Bendigo Writers Festival free program for schools is proudly supported by Capital Venues & Events and La Trobe University

Sessions begin at 9.45am and run through the school day, finishing at 2.30pm. Writers include: RA Spratt on writing for laughs. Fleur Ferris on writing mystery. Kindred Voices with Michael Earp, Nevo Zisin and Erin Gough. Chris Kennett on illustrating. Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson on Indigenous language. Local writing legends Lorraine Marwood and Glenda Millard. Teen Voices with Sue McPherson. Randa Abdel-Fattah on fitting in. Alice Pung on the idea of home.

School bookings are essential for all sessions. For a detailed program and to book your school group: bendigowritersfestival.com.au 8

All That Glitters

Pass and Pass-or-Ticket Sessions 3.15pm-4.15pm Capital Theatre The Voice Jane Caro, Ginger Gorman talk to Lawrie Zion

Lawrie Zion asks Jane Caro and Ginger Gorman - both of whom have strong opinions and distinctive voices did it take time to get their style matching their thoughts? Do they have a different voice for different needs? Can you disguise your voice and still sound authentic? Friday or Festival Pass

3.15pm-4.15pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Fire People Chloe Hooper and Stephen Pyne with Sian Gard

There are those who light them and those who fight them. Stephen Pyne and Chloe Hooper talk about the way fire changes lives, and about finding ways to describe those experiences. Can writing get close to explaining both the fire and the people whose lives are marked indelibly by it? Friday or Saturday Pass

3.15pm-4.15pm Bendigo Bowls Club Writing Victoria Kate Cuthbert hosts Jarad Henry, Lee Kofman, Fiona Lowe and Anna Snoekstra Writers Victoria heads to town to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Kate Cuthbert hosts four very different writers, whose work proves the extraordinary range of voices within this creative community. Friday or Festival Pass

4.30pm-5.15pm La Trobe Art Institute The Cost of Caring Christine Cummins and Lucy Mayes with Tamara Marwood

How do people working in stressful professional roles cope? Does it sap positive energy or help build resilience? A conversation about caring and its cost, for individuals and for communities. Friday or Festival Pass

4.45pm-5.45pm Ulumbarra Theatre Good Thinking Rob Stephenson hosts David Astle, Felice Jacka and Julia Shaw

How do you keep your brain fit and well - and what can you do when things start going heywire? Time to talk about the health of the mind, why things go wrong, and what to do about it when they do. Friday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

5.30pm-6.30pm Ulumbarra foyer Launch: Sludge John Brumby, Peter Davies, Susan Lawrence

Sludge exposes the dirty big secret of Victoria’s mining history – the way it transformed the state’s water and land; and also how the battle against sludge helped to lay the ground for the modern environmental movement. La Trobe University Chancellor John Brumby launches a book that will make us all see our landscape in a totally new light. Free, all welcome

4.45pm-5.45pm Capital Theatre I Just Snapped Beatrice Alba hosts Jess Hill and Bri Lee

Beatrice Alba talks to two writers who have reported on crimes to find out their reactions to the defence, “I just snapped”, what they discovered about why violence happens and how the law deals with it. Is it possible to understand both the victim and the perpetrator’s point of view? Friday or Festival Pass

4.45pm-5.45pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Gastronomical Jill Dupleix and Charles Massy with Trevor Budge

Gastronomy is a hot topic. City of Greater Bendigo’s manager of regional sustainability, Trevor Budge, is joined by food writer Jill Dupleix and transformational farming advocate Charles Massy for a discussion about cultivating for nutrition and good taste in sustainable ways. Do we have the information we need to bring about a gastronomy revolution? Friday or Festival Pass

4.45pm-5.45pm Bendigo Bowls Club Home and Heart Min Jin Lee and Alice Pung

Min Jin Lee says every person — no matter what race, gender or class — contains within themselves “historical multitudes”. For Alice Pung, growing up Asian in Australia, blending in was the goal, to escape notice. Join these two gifted writers as they consider how growing up Asian shaped their ideas and fuelled their writing. Friday or Festival Pass

6.15pm-7.15pm Capital Theatre Working Women Megan K Stack and Marilyn Waring with Anne Manne

Have workplaces adjusted to gender equality? Do we have the information as well as the will to understand what has changed and what now needs to change? A discussion about making women’s work count. Friday or Festival Pass

6.30pm-7.30pm Ulumbarra Theatre Democracy Nevo Zisin hosts Jennifer Clement, Richard Cooke, AC Grayling, Clare Wright

Despite the hand-on-heart nationalism that claims democracy as the best of all possible systems, history has shown that “people” means different things, according to who is eyeing off the power. Is it still the best possible system? What is threatening it? Who, now, are “the people” and who best represents them? Friday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

6.30pm-7.30pm Bendigo Bowls Club Perfect Imperfect Lindy Burns hosts Jon Kudelka, Greg Fleet and Jessica Rowe

There’s what you aspire to be. And there’s what you are. There’s best intentions. And then there’s what happens next. Lindy Burns asks these writers about their ideal selves, their real selves, and whether those two selves have much in common. Friday or Festival Pass

6.15pm-7.15pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Out of the Ordinary Karen Corr hosts Gabrielle Chan, Stuart Coupe, Clare Press We’re told people are disaffected by politics and that cynicism is rife. And yet, when you go out talking to so-called ordinary people, you find dedication and know-how that interest groups can tap into. These writers talk about how they sought out people who aren’t always heard in the mainstream. Friday or Festival Pass

6pm-7pm La Trobe Art Institute Sisters Tishani Doshi and Karen Viggers with Penelope Curtin

In India, Grace learns about a family that will test her very being. In remote Tasmania, Mikaela’s family has shattered, leaving just her and a secretive brother to make a life. Two novels about courage and freedom, set in two very different cultures and landscapes. A conversation about finding stories in extraordinary landscapes. Friday or Festival Pass

Tishani Doshi, Stephen J Pyne bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Saturday 10 AUGUST Sessions

coded GREEN are Pass-only events.

Sessions

coded YELLOW are pass-or-ticket events.

10am-11am Capital Theatre Regret Sarah Lawrence hosts Ginger Gorman, Lee Kofman and Alice Pung From the trivial to the life-changing, the funny to the tragic, let’s talk about how best to deal with the need to about-face. Sarah Lawrence hears from three writers whose recent work has dealt with mistakes and their aftermath. Saturday or Festival Pass

10am-11am Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital There It Is Again Don Watson with Prue Mansfield From weasel words to America, from the bush to Paul Keating, what are the ideas that have fuelled Don Watson’s writing? He talks about the precision of words and the power of nature to inspire them. Saturday or Festival Pass

10am-11am Bendigo Bowls Club What I Have Written Kate Cuthbert with Sulari Gentill, Jock Serong and Anna Snoekstra Where does the idea for story come from? Kate Cuthbert interrogates three novelists about the impetus for a new project, and whether it springs forth fully formed or is a stubborn starter. Saturday or Festival Pass

10.15am-11.15am Ulumbarra Theatre Pachinko: A Family Epic Min Jin Lee with Sarah L’Estrange Min Jin Lee’s grand Korean diaspora novels are, like Dickens, Tolstoy and Zola, sweeping stories that also bring to life individual characters. When she started out, was there a readership for such cross-cultural stories? Saturday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

10.15am-11am La Trobe Art Institute Better Memory Lynne Kelly with Ann Lansberry Join memory expert, Lynne Kelly, for a memorable conversation. What first led Lynne to focus on memory and what works best for her? What did she discover about Indigenous cultures and history as she worked to unlock memory “codes”? Saturday or Festival Pass

All That Glitters

11.30am-12.30pm Capital Theatre Breaking Bad Chloe Hooper and Julia Shaw with Natasha Mitchell

1pm-1.45pm La Trobe Art Institute Deadly Wisdom Sue McPherson with Jenny Mitchell

Can we understand acts of evil? Is it possible to anticipate who among us will respond to events in ways that have dire consequences? Natasha Mitchell talks with Chloe Hooper and Julia Shaw about why they have written about the dark side of human nature. Does a writer need sympathy in order to understand? Saturday or Festival Pass

In her latest coming-of-age novel, Sue McPherson gives voice to four boys on the edge, chronicling their lives as they unfold a gripping story. Jenny Mitchell talks to Sue about Brontide and writing for younger readers, and about her deadly debut novel Grace Beside Me, and its development into a television series. Has being a visual artist influenced her writing? Saturday or Festival Pass

11.30am-12.30pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Two Steps Forward Marilyn Lake and Sarah Maddison with Tony Birch

1.15pm-2.15pm Capital Theatre Fieldwork Paul Barclay with Gabrielle Chan, Kim Mahood and Stephen J Pyne

Tony Birch hosts a much-needed conversation to ask, are even the most progressive policies stuck in retrogressive mindsets? Do racist attitudes entrench the same policy and social failures into the future? Saturday or Festival Pass

11.30am-12.15pm La Trobe Art Institute Nganga: To See and Understand Sue Lawson and Aunty Fay Muir with David Astle Through the words of Australia’s indigenous languages we have gradually been introduced to a culture that was disregarded by most of settler Australia. Now, through projects such as the Nganga dictionary of words and phrases, important ideas have reached many people, young and old. Aunty Fay Muir and Sue Lawson talk about the reception of their first book of Nganga. Saturday or Festival Pass

11.30am-12.30pm Bendigo Bowls Club Sharing Difference Kelly Gardiner hosts Claire G Coleman, Michael Earp, Erin Gough and Nevo Zisin What if differences were celebrated? What if they highlighted the ways we are the same? What if the voices of minorities were heard? Enter Michael Earp’s ground-breaking LGBTQ+ collection of short stories for younger readers. Find out what it means to be a queer teen, in this discussion about the anthology, Kindred. Saturday or Festival Pass

11.45am-12.45pm Ulumbarra Theatre Democracy and Its Crisis AC Grayling with John Brumby Democracy – why did it go wrong? And are there solutions? Where is the will to fix it to be found? John Brumby talks with AC Grayling about where it’s failed and how to put it right. Saturday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

Paul Barclay is joined by three “fieldwork” writers to ask about where they go, how they travel, what they take with them and what they bring back Saturday or Festival Pass

1.15pm-2.15pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Growing Up African Rachel le Rossignol hosts Santilla Chingaipe, Magan Magan and Ahmed Yussuf Growing Up African in Australia is about the ordinary, extraordinary, joyous and devastating – the diverse lives of those whose roots are in the African diaspora. Rachel Le Rossignol hosts three of the contributors to share their own stories. Saturday or Festival Pass

1.15pm-2.15pm Bendigo Bowls Club Rebels and Trailblazers Clare Wright talks to Billy Griffiths They were energetic and committed, and outraged by the tyranny of a system that excluded them from politics and power. What kind of women were the suffragettes? How did their own lives play out against this monumental achievement of winning the vote? Clare Wright talks about her “Daughters of Freedom” and what their role in history means for the Australian nation. Saturday or Festival Pass

1.30pm-2.30pm Ulumbarra Theatre Money and Ethics Stuart Kells and Alan Kohler with Sharon Kemp Sharon Kemp is joined by two money wizards to sort out the black magic from the good spells. What are the basic rules of decent dealing and is it merely greed that undermines them? Saturday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

Pass and Pass-or-Ticket Sessions 2.15pm-3.15pm La Trobe Art Institute On Japan Barry Hill and Meredith McKinney with Emerald King Why do Japanese aesthetics attract writers, artists and translators? A discussion about the nuance of the language through the work of some of the most celebrated Japanese authors as well as how the landscape is reflected in the culture. Do we understand the differences? Saturday or Festival Pass

2.45pm-3.45pm Capital Theatre Rise and Resist Bhakthi Puvanenthiran hosts Jennifer Clement, Claire G Coleman and Clare Press

4.30pm-5.30pm Ulumbarra Theatre Trumped: America Today Julie Rudner with Richard Cooke, Min Jin Lee, Megan K Stack, Don Watson

What kind of place is America today? Has the current president changed the way the country operates or has he been able to understand and benefit from the zeitgeist. Julie Rudner hosts a discussion about President Trump’s America, and what it means for that nation, for its allies and for global power. Saturday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

4.30pm-5.30pm Capital Theatre Inspirational Landscapes Gemma Rayner hosts Peter Doherty, Kim Mahood and Charles Massy

What makes someone decide to take on an issue? Bhakthi Puvanentiran hosts a discussion about social change via people power, who it inspires and how effective it is. Saturday or Festival Pass

Gradually, as the Australian population changed and indigenous culture began to be heard, writers found inspiration in the subtle, enigmatic, delicate landscapes of this country. Where have these writers found inspiration? Do different landscapes inspire different kinds of writing? Saturday or Festival Pass

2.45pm-3.45pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital History Is a Conversation Jill Giese and Tom Griffiths with Emma Robertson

4.30pm-5.30pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Sludge: A Filthy Bendigo Story Peter Davies and Susan Lawrence with Chris Pedler

How has our understanding of the past evolved? Can we ever get history right? What happens when the conversation falters and fails? Do historians make good dinner party guests? Saturday or Festival Pass

2.45pm-3.45pm Bendigo Bowls Club The Artist’s Role Astrid Edwards hosts Jane Caro, Stuart Coupe, Ben Eltham and Greg Fleet Entertainers or philosophers? Workers or dilettantes? Wise or whimsical? Astrid Edwards hosts a conversation about how writers and other creative people are valued. Is it fair to expect artists to be the conscience of the community? Saturday or Festival Pass

3pm-4pm Ulumbarra Theatre Reporting Pell Louise Milligan with Lawrie Zion Lawrie Zion talks to the author of Cardinal about what such a story meant for the journalist. How did she deal with the unfolding trauma as she documented it? And in the aftermath of the trial, how does she now remember the process of writing such a powerful book? Saturday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

3.45pm-4.30pm La Trobe Art Institute Poetic Impulse Anthony Lawrence with Tru Dowling What are the “headwaters” of poetic inspiration. How does a poet learn to unlock the words to best capture the meaning? Do emotions dictate form? Is there ever a perfect poem? Saturday or Festival Pass

The gold mining that made Victoria rich was disastrous for the land, causing environmental devastation that still affects our rivers and floodplains. Why has the story of contamination and destruction not been told before? It’s a filthy secret, which also shows us all kinds of interesting things about the landscape we now inhabit. Saturday or Festival Pass

4.30pm-5.30pm Bendigo Bowls Club Kudelka’s Way Jon Kudelka, Lindy Burns

6pm-7pm Capital Theatre Leading Mary Crooks hosts Troy Bramston, Bri Lee, Kerry O’Brien and Marilyn Waring

Have the qualities necessary for leadership changed? Is leading the same as having power? Are leaders born or made? A conversation about the successes and failures of leadership. Saturday or Festival Pass

6pm-7pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Crossing the Great Divide Rod Moss and Raimond Gaita

Raimond Gaita talks with artist Rod Moss about the travel that also enabled him to cross the great divide between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. What does it mean to Rod to have found acceptance in his life with the Arrernte people of the Northern Territory? Saturday or Festival Pass

6pm-7pm Bendigo Bowls Club Are We There Yet? Nicole Ferrie hosts Jane Caro, Tishani Doshi and Jess Hill

What’s the future for girls? Three writers on changing the world and about feminism 2019-style. Gains? Losses? Where to from here? Saturday or Festival Pass

6.15pm-7pm La Trobe Art Institute Shakespeare’s Books Stuart Kells with Dianne Dempsey

Stuart Kells knows about book collecting, but even he couldn’t have predicted the gloriously intricate paths his sleuthing in search of Shakespeare’s elusive library would take him down. Saturday or Festival Pass

Jon Kudelka is best-known for his political cartoons, but he’s also an artist and writer, with a passion for publishing. Before his Wonk’s Dictionary, he published 101 uses for a John Howard, a book about his hometown Hobart, and a book about whisky. Lindy Burns meets this adaptable man, to find out how he launched himself into self-publishing and came out profitably, and whether he still finds politics funny. Saturday or Festival Pass

5pm-5.45pm La Trobe Art Institute The Damage Done Tony Birch with Claire Flanagan-Smith

Tony Birch talks about how he came to write his new novel, White Girl, about the need for such Indigenous characters to tell their stories, and about the evolution of his own writing. Saturday or Festival Pass

6pm-7pm Ulumbarra Theatre Growing Up Queer in Australia Benjamin Law with Abe Watson

Much has changed in the past 50 years for those who grew up queer. Benjamin Law has gathered memories written by those who are veterans of the fight for rights, and young people whose wit and wisdom is set free in this astonishing collection. Saturday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

Bri Lee, Benjamin Law bendigowritersfestival.com.au

SUNDAY 11 AUGUST Sessions

coded GREEN are Pass-only events.

Sessions

coded YELLOW are pass-or-ticket events.

9.45am-10.30am La Trobe Art Institute A Pilgrim’s Progress Barry Hill and Tom Griffiths

This conversation between two influential and admired writers will be both a tribute to Barry Hill’s unusual place in Australian letters as well as a celebration of curiosity and the life of the mind. Sunday or Festival Pass

9.45am-10.30am Engine Room Adapting Woolf Peta Hanrahan and Anna Kennedy

Writer Peta Hanrahan talks to producer and actor Anna Kennedy about the adaptation of A Room of One’s Own (performed on Friday and Saturday at Bendigo Writers Festival) and the impact of this performance on audiences. Sunday or Festival Pass

10am-11am Ulumbarra Theatre Parenting John Marsden with Cecile Shanahan

Part memoir, part treatise, all heart, John Marsden’s new book about parenting is both confronting and challenging. Join this wise and compassionate writer as he talks about education, parenting and the human condition. Sunday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

10am-11am Capital Theatre The Really Big News Kerry O’Brien with Steve Kendall

There has been no more respected and influential journalist than Kerry O’Brien. He talks with Steve Kendall about what he has witnessed, about the role of the journalist, about lessons learned and joys shared. Sunday or Festival Pass

10am-11am Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Electric Hotel Dominic Smith with Sarah L’Estrange

Researching his novel, The Electric Hotel, Dominic Smith discovered many silent films were extraordinary works of art. Many were later lost, and foraging in the archives, pondering those silent masterpieces, led Smith to create his romantic and exciting story. Sunday or Festival Pass

11am-12pm Bendigo Bowls Club What’s New in Crime? Andrew Nette with Fleur Ferris, Sulari Gentill and Robert Gott Tough crime, psychological thrillers, true crime, devious procedurals, detective series. How is the genre changing and what do crime writers think is the next big thing? Spend an hour with the experts to find out what’s making waves in crime writing. Sunday or Festival Pass

John Marsden, Clementine Ford, Kerry O’Brien, Marilyn Waring 12

All That Glitters

11.15am-12pm La Trobe Art Institute Found in Translation Meredith McKinney with Simon Patton

One of our most distinguished translators of Japanese literature, Meredith McKinney, talks with Chinese translator Simon Patton about what drew her to translation, whether her approach has changed over the years and what she thinks makes a good translation. Sunday or Festival Pass

11.15am-12pm Engine Room The Language of Flowers Penelope Curtin and Jacqueline Millner

Penelope Curtin teamed up with her daughter Tansy to create a book illustrating Australian floral art from the colonial to the contemporary. Does floral art continue to attract in an era over-saturated with colour? Why are the emotional responses to flowers so strong? Sunday or Festival Pass

11.30am-12.30pm Ulumbarra Theatre Boys Will Be Boys Clementine Ford with Sarah Mayor Cox

Clementine Ford says hard-line masculinity is as toxic for boys as it is for girls, as dangerous for young men as it is for young women, and divisive for all society. How has screen culture influenced gender inequality? Can we change the roles in ways that benefit both women and men? She talks about how she sees the future for girls and boys, and what writing this book has meant for her own life. Sunday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

11.30am-12.30pm Capital Theatre Counting the Cost Mary Crooks, Richard Denniss, Marilyn Waring With mutual respect and a great deal in common, when a former NZ politician and a thinktank economist get together, there is energy in the way the ideas develop. Mary Crooks hosts these informed and lucid thinkers as they discuss the economics of labour policies. Sunday or Festival Pass

11.30am-12.30pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Menzies and the Art of Politics Troy Bramston and Annika Smethurst

Robert Menzies remains Australia’s longest-serving prime minister and the only one in the past 50 years to leave office at a time of his own choosing. Troy Bramston talks to Annika Smethurst about the man who created the Liberal Party and who continues to cast a long shadow over it. Sunday or Festival Pass

12.30pm-1.15pm La Trobe Art Institute Mad Melbourne Jill Giese with Penny Davies

Was it the antipodean sun, gold mania, excessive masturbation, the heady pace of modern life? These are the questions posed by clinical psychologist Jill Giese about why Melbourne was once the “maddest place on earth”. Did digging in the archives change her own ideas about what it means to be sane? Sunday or Festival Pass

Pass and Pass-or-Ticket Sessions 12.30pm-1.15pm Engine Room Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods Tishani Doshi with Dan Bendrups

Tishani Doshi danced for 15 years with the acclaimed Chandralekha troupe, performing around the world. Now, as a poet, she presents her work in performance, combining the discipline of movement with powerful words. This short performance will be followed by a conversation about how the body can be used in concert with words, to fully express ideas and emotions. Bendigo Writers Festival thanks the Australia Council for this opportunity to include Indian writer Tishani Doshi on our program. Sunday or Festival Pass

12.30pm-1.15pm Bendigo Bowls Club Mining the Past Kate Forsyth and Ilka Tampke with Kelly Gardiner

You can tell when a writer enjoys researching the past. The history embeds itself not only in fictional events but in the minds and manners of the characters they create. What happens once writers find themselves falling headlong into a past time and place? How do they go about gathering what they need to ensure authenticity? Can they make things up? Sunday or Festival Pass

1.15pm-2.15pm Ulumbarra Theatre Making Evil Julia Shaw with Paul Barclay

How similar is your brain to a psychopath’s? How many people have murder fantasies? Can A.I. be evil? Do your sexual proclivities make you a bad person? Who becomes a terrorist? Paul Barclay talks with this criminal psychologist about understanding evil, from bloody murder to corporate corruption, from everyday evil to the heinous plot. Sunday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

1.15pm-2.15pm Capital Theatre Shake or Stir? Jane Caro, Gabrielle Chan, Sarah Maddison and Jess Hill

Is it a writer’s role to stir things up or to settle things down? Have the days when there was time to slowburn an idea, turn it into a book, long gone? When things crowd in, how does the writer clear a space to think and develop an idea? A conversation about whether there’s a line between the personal and the public. Sunday or Festival Pass

1.15pm-2.15pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Australia Felix Marilyn Lake and Jock Serong

Optimistic and radical, Australia’s political culture was once especially influential among fellow Progressive reformers in the new world democracy of the United States of America. But this ideal of political equality was also one of racial exclusion. Why has it taken so long for us to recognise and challenge the ways in which progressive politics incorporated the racism of evolutionary thinking? Sunday or Festival Pass

1.45pm-2.30pm La Trobe Art Institute Professor at Large Peter Doherty with Sian Gard

3.15pm-4pm La Trobe Art Institute Tricky Brain David Astle with Elspeth Kernebone

1.45pm-2.30pm Engine Room On the Road Again Don Walker and Stuart Coupe with Em Burgess-Gilchrist

3.15pm-4.15pm Engine Room Women Write Blak Blak Brow Collective

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Doherty takes us on an armchair ride around the globe, with plenty of stops along the way to consider food, art and the quest for a perfect sentence. The question behind it all? What am I doing here? Sunday or Festival Pass

David Astle has been tormenting us for years with his wordplay and now he wants us to believe that it’s good for us! David shares the research that suggests you can boost the power and agility of your brain, and keep memory loss at bay, with a cryptic crossword a day. Sunday or Festival Pass

The rock’n’roll road tour is hyped-up adrenalin-surging bursts of activity. It’s extreme highs and hard comedowns. And the personal costs can be great. Music writer Stuart Coupe and performer Don Walker talk to Em Burgess-Gilchrist about memories of music on the move. Have audiences evolved? Sunday or Festival Pass

Women celebrate and share their First Nations lineage, though poetry, art and writing. Honest, funny and real, the collective output of such projects is both an acknowledgement of those gone before and a track-making for those to come. With Paola Balla, Kimberley Kruger and Sissy Austin. Sunday or Festival Pass

1.45pm-2.45pm Bendigo Bowls Club Humour’s Edge Ginger Gorman, Erin Gough, Jon Kudelka with Fiona Parker

3.15pm-4.15pm Bendigo Bowls Club Active Online Bhakthi Puvanenthiran hosts Ben Eltham, Bri Lee and Clare Press

You can get away with saying all kinds of things if you make a joke of it. Or can you? A discussion about the things that matter when you are trying to be funny. Can bad taste be confused with humour? Is there a place and a time for having a laugh? Sunday or Festival Pass

3pm-4pm Ulumbarra Theatre A Better Death Ranjana Srivastava, Robert Blum

Online influencers are now very much part of the media landscape. What works for activists? Does the medium shape the message? Who pays and is it controllable? Should it be? Writers talk about how they use social media, what works and why, and when they know that they’ve hit the mark. Sunday or Festival Pass

To find peace, kindness and gratitude for what has gone before, and acceptance of what is to come. That’s what it means to die well, says oncologist Ranjana Srivastava. How can we lead a meaningful life and prepare well and with dignity for the end of that life? Where do people find the necessary courage and grace? Sunday or Festival Pass or Ticket $20 / $18 concession

3pm-4pm Capital Theatre Over It Jennifer Clement, Greg Fleet and Karen Viggers with Leo D’Angelo Fisher

There’s an old saying: you make your bed, you lie in it. That’s not going to get things changed - and it doesn’t make for an interesting plot either. Three novelists talk about getting fed up, getting mad, and getting even. Are their characters victims or heroes? Sunday or Festival Pass

3pm-4pm Bendigo Bank Theatre at The Capital Truth to Power Annika Smethurst with Steve Kendall

Annika Smethurst’s Canberra home was raided by the Australian Federal Police in June this year, after she reported on a top secret government proposal to give Australia’s cyber spies unprecedented powers. News Corp called the raid a “dangerous act of intimidation”. Annika talks with Steve Kendall about what happened, why it happened, and what this means for the future of journalism. Sunday or Festival Pass

Jennifer Clement, Julia Shaw bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Strategem Studio QUICK PICKS The intimate Strategem Studio at Ulumbarra Theatre is the venue for our Quick Pick series of conversations these

are ticket-only events, not included in Passes.

Saturday 10 August 10am-10.45am Make ‘Em Laugh RA Spratt with Sarah Mayor Cox There’s so much energy in the books Rachel Spratt writes for younger readers, it’s no surprise that this best-selling author also writes comedy for television. Sarah Mayor Cox meets the creator of Nanny Piggins and The Peski Kids, to find out how she got started, the connections between writing political satire for tv and stories for kids, and what makes her - and her readers - laugh. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Saturday 10 August 11.15am-12pm Truth, Love and Clean Cutlery Jill Dupleix with Jennifer Alden Travelling the length and breadth of the country to find the best restaurants and cafes, Jill Dupleix has a dream job. What could possibly go wrong? She talks with Jennifer Alden about how she went about this mammoth task, what she was looking for, and whether she thinks our culinary standards are up to scratch. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Saturday 10 August 12.45pm-1.30pm Farm Futures Charles Massy with Claire Flanagan-Smith Ten thousand sheep can’t be wrong. Over 40 years’ experience running sheep and cattle in New South Wales have built Charles Massy’s knowledge about transformation and innovation in not just the sheep industry but also in regenerative landscape management. His book, Call of the Reed Warbler, was a revelation for many readers, searching for ways forward, in collaboration with Aboriginal knowledge, for sustainable farming. Claire Flanagan-Smith talks to Charles about his life, his learning and his quest to help others find hope on the land. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Saturday 10 August 2pm-2.45pm Houseproud (not) Jessica Rowe with Suzanne Donisthorpe Wiped the benchtops? Scrubbed the toilet? Arranged fresh flowers in elegant vases glimpsed through sparkling windows? Crap, says Jessica Rowe. It’s not the clean surfaces that count in a woman’s life, it’s the lovely messy imaginative self underneath. She talks to Suzanne Donisthorpe about how she learnt to go easy on herself in the housework department and enjoy life more everywhere else. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

All That Glitters

Saturday 10 August 3.15pm-4pm Backyard Habitat AB Bishop with Kieran Christopherson

A garden – whether it’s a few square metres or many hectares – is so much more than a place that looks good. According to horticulturalist AB Bishop, when you start to look at a garden as a place that is home to local fauna, there are so many benefits. It’s good for diversity, but also wonderful for your own health and wellbeing. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Saturday 10 August 4.45pm-5.30pm Songs Sung Don Walker with Jenny Valentish

Sunday 11 August 3pm-4pm Planning for the Pyrocene Stephen J Pyne and Tom Griffiths

Does controlled burning help or hinder? What have we learnt from the devastating deadly fires of recent years? Stephen J Pyne has written many books on fire management, including A Fire History of Australia and Fire on Earth. He talks with Tom Griffiths about how communities can plan with confidence by understanding their environments and how they are changing. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

For over 40 years, Don Walker’s songwriting has aimed to capture what it is to be Australian. Walker’s words are poetic, moving and incisive. He talks with Jenny Valentish about classics such as “Khe Sanh”, “Flame Trees”, “Cheap Wine” and “Harry was a Bad Bugger”, to reveal what has driven him and how he makes the words fit the music. Was there a highpoint for lyrics? Are we still attuned to the words and the music? Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Sunday 11 August 10am-11am Romancing The Rose Kate Forsyth with Bryley Savage and Amy Doak

Readers describe falling headlong into the glorious romance and magic of Kate Forsyth’s novels. She talks to Bryley Savage and Amy Doak about her very special new novel, years in the making and vintage Forsyth. What was the origin of this tale of forbidden love that takes us from revolutionary France to Imperial China in search of a blood-red rose? Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Sunday 11 August 11.30am-12.30pm The Fifth Estate: Women’s Work Megan K Stack and Sally Warhaft

Forthright and relentless, this American journalist focuses her skills on her own experience of parenting. Living in the United States, China and India, she asks: “Why was it that, whatever you desired, you could find a poor woman to sell it?” Stopping work to have children, and anticipating more time to write, she discovered that her own new life forced her to understand the economy of women’s work. Presented in partnership with the Wheeler Centre. Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Sunday 11 August 1.15pm-2.15pm It’s Your Money Alan Kohler with Yvonne Wrigglesworth

Alan Kohler is here to tell us to stop worrying and take control. He talks about financial planning, investment and superannuation, to show that it’s practical wisdom you need. In his own career, what has been the best advice Alan has received? Ticket-only $20 / $18 concession

Kate Forsyth, Jessica Rowe

strategem STUDIO

I JUST SNAPPED

Maeve O’Meara, Derek Guille

WORLD OF FOOD

Jennifer Clement, Richard Cooke, AC Grayling, Clare Wright, Nevo Zisin

DEMOCRACY

With a Festival Pass, you get access to all the Pass-only events without needing to book individually for those sessions. Pass-only events are colour-coded GREEN.

Meshel Laurie, Suzanne Donisthorpe

11am-12pm THE GREAT STUPA OF UNIVERSAL COMPASSION HANG ON, HELP IS ON ITS WAY

5.30pm - 6.30pm John Brumby, Peter Davies, Susan Lawrence

LAUNCH of SLUDGE

Ulumbarra foyer

Ulumbarra Foyer David Astle, Felice Jacka, Julia Shaw, Rob Stephenson FOOD FOSSICKERS ON SHOW from 5pm to 7.45pm, all welcome

FIRE PEOPLE

BENDIGO BANK THEATRE

Passes also give you access to Pass-or-Ticket events in Ulumbarra Theatre: pass holders do NOT need to make an extra booking for those sessions. Pass-or-ticket events are colour-coded YELLOW.

Sulari Gentill, Robert Gott

11am-12pm BLIND COW POTTERY IN THE BUSH, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM

Gabrielle Chan, Karen Corr, Stuart Coupe, Clare Press

OUT OF THE ORDINARY

WORKING WOMEN Megan K Stack, Marilyn Waring, Anne Manne

Jill Dupleix, Trevor Budge, Charles Massy

Jess Hill, Bri Lee, Beatrice Alba

GASTRONOMICAL

Ginger Gorman, Jane Caro, Stephen J Pyne, Chloe Lawrie Zion Hooper, Sian Gard

GOOD THINKING

Paul Davies, Natasha Mitchell

THE VOICE

CURING CANCER

Judging a Book

capital theatre

Lorraine Marwood, Susan Green Sarah Mayor Cox

Anthony Lawrence

Poetry Masterclass

Alice Pung, Fiona Parker

THE IDEA OF HOME

Randa Abdel-Fattah, Santilla Chingaipe

DOES MY FACE FIT HERE?

ulumbarra THEATRE

Entrée Events

11.00 11.15 11.30 11.45 12.00 12.15 12.30 12.45 1.00 1.15 1.30 1.45 2.00 2.15 2.30 2.45 3.00 3.15 3.30 3.45 4.00 4.15 4.30 4.45 5.00 5.15 5.30 5.45 6.00 6.15 6.30 6.45 7.00 7.15 7.30 7.45 8.00 8.15 8.30 8.45 9.00 9.15

WOMEN KIND

Kirstin Ferguson, Catherine Fox, Margaret O’Rourke

BENDIGO bowls club

Ticket-only events are available to all: you don’t need a Pass to book these sessions and Pass-holders need to book in addition to their Passes. Ticket-only events are colour-coded PINK.

Michael Sharkey, Kirsten McKay, Kate Stones

hosted by Andrew Nette. All welcome

9.30pm at the Festival Club: Crime Readings

PERFECT IMPERFECT

Jon Kudelka, Greg Fleet, Jessica Rowe, Lindy Burns

HOME AND HEART

Min Jin Lee, Alice Pung

11am-12pm SOLDIERS MEMORIAL INSTITUTE MILITARY MUSEUM MANY SUCH AS SHE

Karen Viggers, Tishani Doshi, Penelope Curtin

SISTERS

Christine Cummins, Lucy Mayes, Tamara Marwood

THE COST OF CARIING

Megan Blandford, Benjamin WRITING VICTORIA Kate Cuthbert, Jarad MacEllen, John Richards Henry, Anna Snoekstra, Lee Kofman, Fiona Lowe

TELLING IT TOUGH

Felice Jacka, Chris Kelly

BRAIN FOOD

latrobe ART INSTITUTE

Friday All Sessions Planner

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

All That Glitters

TRUMPED: AMERICA TODAY Richard Cooke,

Louise MIlligan, Lawrie Zion

REPORTING PELL

Stuart Kells, Sharon Kemp, Alan Kohler

MONEY AND ETHICS

AC Grayling

DEMOCRACY AND ITS CRISIS John Brumby,

Min Jin Lee, Sarah L’Estrange

PACHINKO

Min Jin Lee, Julie Rudner, Megan K Stack, Don 5.15 Watson 5.30 5.45 6.00 GROWING UP QUEER 6.15 Benjamin Law, 6.30 Abe Watson 6.45 7.00 7.15 7.30 8.00 WHAT IS LIFE? 8.15 Paul Davies, Elizabeth 8.30 Finkel 8.45 9.00

12.15 12.30 12.45 1.00 1.15 1.30 1.45 2.00 2.15 2.30 2.45 3.00 3.15 3.30 3.45 4.00 4.15 4.30 4.45 5.00

12.00

10.00 10.15 10.30 10.45 11.00 11.15 11.30 11.45

ulumbarra THEATRE

David Lloyd

THE SILENTS WERE GOLDEN Dominic Smith,

Jenny Valentish, Don Walker

SONGS SUNG

AB Bishop, Kieran Christopherson

BACKYARD HABITAT

Suzanne Donisthorpe, Jessica Rowe

HOUSEPROUD (NOT)

FARM FUTURES

Claire Flanagan-Smith, Charles Massy

Troy Bramston, Mary Crooks, Bri Lee, Kerry O’Brien, Marilyn Waring

LEADING

Peter Doherty, Kim Mahood, Charles Massy, Gemma Rayner

INSPIRATIONAL LANDSCAPES

Jennifer Clement, Claire G Coleman, Clare Press, Bhakthi Puvanenthiran

RISE AND RESIST

Paul Barclay, Gabrielle Chan, Kim Mahood, Stephen J Pyne

FIELDWORK

Chloe Hooper, Natasha Mitchell, Julia Shaw

BREAKING BAD

TRUTH LOVE AND CLEAN CUTLERY Jennifer Alden,

Jill Dupleix

Sarah Lawrence, Lee Kofman, Alice Pung

REGRET Ginger Gorman,

capital theatre

RA Spratt, Sarah Mayor Cox

MAKE ‘EM LAUGH

strategem STUDIO

Raimond Gaita

Dianne Dempsey, Stuart Kells

9.30pm at the Festival Club: Bendigo’s Best Bits hosted by Em-Burgess Gilchrist. All welcome.

Nicole Ferrie, Jess Hill

ARE WE THERE YET? SHAKESPEARE’S BOOKS Jane Caro, Tishani Doshi,

CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDE Rod Moss,

Liindy Burns, Jon Kudelka

KUDELKA’S WAY

Jane Caro, Stuart Coupe, Astrid Edwards, Ben Eltham, Greg Fleet

THE ARTIST’S ROLE

THE DAMAGE DONE Tony Birch, Claire Flanagan-Smith

POETIC IMPULSE

Tru Dowling, Anthony Lawrence

Barry Hill, Emerald King, Meredith McKinney

Billy Griffiths, Clare Wright

REBELS AND TRAILBLAZERS

Claire G Coleman, Michael Earp, Erin Gough, Kelly Gardiner, Nevo Zisin

SHARING DIFFERENCE

Peter Davies, Susan Lawrence, Chris Pedler

SLUDGE

Jill Giese, Tom Griffiths, Emma Robertson

HISTORY IS A CONVERSATION

ON JAPAN

DEADLY WISDOM

David Astle, Aunty Fay Muir, Sue Lawson

NGANGA: TO SEE AND UNDERSTAND

WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN

BENDIGO bowls club

Kate Cuthbert, Sulari Lynne Kelly, Ann Lansberry Gentill, Jock Serong, Anna Snoekstra

BETTER MEMORY

latrobe ART INSTITUTE

Sue McPherson, Santilla Chingaipe, Rachel Jenny Mitchell Le Rossignol, Magan Magan, Ahmed Yussuf

GROWING UP AFRICAN

TWO STEPS FORWARD

Tony Birch, Marilyn Lake, Sarah Maddison

Prue Mansfield, Don Watson

THERE IT IS AGAIN

BENDIGO BANK THEATRE

5.30 5.45 6.00 6.15 6.30 6.45 7.00 7.15 7.30 8.00 8.15 8.30 8.45 9.00

5.15

12.15 12.30 12.45 1.00 1.15 1.30 1.45 2.00 2.15 2.30 2.45 3.00 3.15 3.30 3.45 4.00 4.15 4.30 4.45 5.00

12.00

10.00 10.15 10.30 10.45 11.00 11.15 11.30 11.45

SATURDAY All Sessions Planner

Clementine Ford, Sarah Mayor Cox

BOYS WILL BE BOYS

John Marsden, Cecile Shanahan

PARENTING

Munjed Al Muderis, Rod Fyffe

CHANGING LIVES: CLOSING ADDRESS

A BETTER DEATH

Ranjana Srivastava, Robert Blum

Tom Griffiths, Stephen J Pyne

PLANNING FOR THE PYROCENE

Alan Kohler, Yvonne Wrigglesworth

IT’S YOUR MONEY

Megan K Stack, Sally Warhaft

FIFTH ESTATE: WOMEN’S WORK

Kate Forsyth, Bryley Savage, Amy Doak

ROMANCING THE ROSE

strategem STUDIO

With a Festival Pass, you get access to all the Pass-only events without needing to book individually for those sessions. Pass-only events are colour-coded GREEN.

2.30 2.45 3.00 3.15 3.30 3.45 4.00 4.15 4.30 4.45 5.00 5.15 5.30

2.15

2.00

1.15 MAKING EVIL 1.30 Paul Barclay, 1.45 Julia Shaw

1.00

12.00 12.15 12.30 12.45

11.45

9.45 10.00 10.15 10.30 10.45 11.00 11.15 11.30

ulumbarra THEATRE

Steve Kendall, Annika Smethurst

TRUTH TO POWER

Marilyn Lake, Jock Serong

AUSTRALIA FELIX

Troy Bramston, Annika Smethurst

MENZIES AND THE ART OF POLITICS

Sarah L’Estrange, Dominic Smith

ELECTRIC HOTEL

BENDIGO BANK THEATRE

engine room

David Astle, Elspeth Kernebone

TRICKY BRAIN

Peter Doherty, Sian Gard

BENDIGO bowls club

2.30 2.45 3.00 3.15 3.30 3.45 4.00 4.15 4.30 4.45 5.00 5.15 5.30

2.15

2.00

1.15 1.30 1.45

1.00

Ticket-only events are available to all: you don’t need a Pass to book these sessions and Pass-holders need to book in addition to their Passes. Ticket-only events are colour-coded PINK.

ACTIVE ONLINE

Ben Eltham, Bri Lee, Blak Brow Collective Clare Press, Bhakthi Puvanenthiran

WOMEN WRITE BLAK

Em Burgess-Gilchrist, Jon Kudelka, Erin Gough, Ginger Stuart Coupe, Don Gorman, Fiona Parker Walker

Kate Forsyth, Kelly Gardiner, Ilka Tampke

MINING THE PAST

12.00 12.15 12.30 12.45

9.45 10.00 10.15 10.30 10.45 WHAT’S NEW IN CRIME 11.00 Fleur Ferris Sulari 11.15 Gentill, Robert Gott, 11.30 Andrew Nette 11.45

Jill Dupleix, Terry Durack, Kath Bolitho

THE GASTRONOMY BREAKFAST:

8.15AM-9.45AM

PROFESSOR AT LARGE ON THE ROAD AGAIN HUMOUR’S EDGE

GIRLS ARE COMING

Penelope Curtin, Jacqueline Millner

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS

Peta Hanrahan, Anna Kennedy

Penny Davies, Jill Giese OUT OF THE WOODS Tishani Doshi, Dan Bendrups

MAD MELBOURNE

Meredith McKinney, Simon Patton

FOUND IN TRANSLATION

Tom Griffiths, Barry Hill

A PILGRIM’S PROGRESS ADAPTING WOOLF

latrobe ART INSTITUTE

Passes also give you access to Pass-or-Ticket events in Ulumbarra Theatre: pass holders do NOT need to make an extra booking for those sessions. Pass-or-ticket events are colour-coded YELLOW.

Jennifer Clement, Leo D’Angelo Fisher, Greg Fleet, Karen Viggers

OVER IT

SHAKE OR STIR?

Gabrielle Chan, Jane Caro, Jess Hill, Sarah Maddison

Richard Denniss, Marilyn Waring, Mary Crooks

COUNTING THE COST

Steve Kendall, Kerry O’Brien

THE REALLY BIG NEWS

capital theatre

SUNDAY All Sessions Planner

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

LOOK WHO’S TALKING Randa Abdel-Fattah is the award-winning author of 11 novels and is published in over 15 countries. Randa is currently working on the film adaptation of Does My Head Look Big In This? Fri 12.30pm Beatrice Alba is a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University focusing on the health and well-being of older LGBTI Australians. Fri 4.45pm Jennifer Alden is a health and wellbeing advocate and a City of Greater Bendigo councillor. Sat 11.15am Munjed Al Muderis is a world-renowned limb replacement surgeon, who arrived in Australia as a refugee. His books about his life are Walking Free and Going Back. Sun 4.30pm David Astle is a word nerd, word games guru and ABC radio presenter. David’s books include Rewording the Brain, Riddledom, Cluetopia and Wordburger. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 11.30am, Sun 3.15pm Paul Barclay is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and broadcaster who hosts ABC RN’s Big Ideas. Sat 1.15pm, Sun 1.15pm Dan Bendrups is a musicologist at La Trobe University. Sun 12.30pm Tony Birch is the author of the new novel, The White Girl. He also wrote Common People, Ghost River, Blood, Shadowboxing, and two short story collections, Father’s Day and The Promise. Sat 11.30am, Sat 5pm AB Bishop is a horticulturist, conservationist, writer and habitat consultant. She co-authored The Australian Native Garden with Angus Stewart, and her new book is Habitat. Sat 3.15pm Megan Blandford is a country Victorian writer, whose new memoir is I’m Fine (and other lies). Fri 3pm Robert Blum is an oncologist with Bendigo Health. Sun 3pm Kath Bolitho runs Tough Cookie marketing company in Bendigo, specialising in hospitality. Sun 8.30am Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian, and a contributor to Sky News, author or editor of nine books, including Paul Keating: the big-picture leader. Sat 6pm, Sun 11.30am John Brumby, former Victorian State Premier, is Chancellor of La Trobe University. Fri 5.30pm, Sat 11.45am Trevor Budge is manager of Regional Sustainable Development, City of Greater Bendigo. Fri 4.45pm Em Burgess-Gilchrist is a poet, writer and occasional songstress, co-host of The Write Stuff: Bendigo. Sat 9.30pm, Sun 1.45pm Lindy Burns was the host of ABC Victoria Evenings program and now lives in Newcastle and works for ABC Training. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 4.30pm Jane Caro is an author, novelist, broadcaster, columnist, advertising writer and social commentator. She was awarded the 2018 Walkley for Women’s Leadership. She is the author of Accidental Feminists. Fri 3.15, Sat 2.45pm, Sat 6pm, Sun 1.15pm Gabrielle Chan is a political journalist and politics live blogger at Guardian Australia and has written history books, biographies and even a recipe book. Her book Rusted Off is about the gap between city and country and how to bridge it. Fri 6.15pm, Sat 1.15pm, Sun 1.15pm Santilla Chingaipe is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, formerly with SBS World News, creator of the Africa Talks series in partnership with the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Fri 12.30pm, Sat 1.15pm Kieran Christopherson is a Bendigo-based strategy consultant with an interest in small-scale organic farming. Sat 3.15pm Jennifer Clement is President of PEN International, author of the internationally acclaimed Prayers for the Stolen, and now the new novel, Gun Love. She lives in Mexico City. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 2.45pm, Sun 3pm Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman. She writes fiction, essays and poetry and is the author of the award-winning novel, Terra Nullius. Sat 11.30am, Sat 4.30pm Richard Cooke is US Correspondent for The Monthly. His book about Trump’s America is Tired of Winning. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 4.30pm Karen Corr is a Bendigo-based social entrepreneur, who runs Make a Change consultancy. Fri 6.15pm Stuart Coupe is an author, music commentator, independent artist publicist and radio broadcaster, author of The New Music, The New Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Promoters, Gudinski and Tex. His latest is a history of Australian roadies. Fri 6.15pm, Sat 2.45pm, Sun 1.45pm Mary Crooks is executive director of the Victorian Women’s Trust. Sat 6pm, Sun 11.30am Christine Cummins is a refugee advocate and author of Dignity in a Teacup, True Stories of Courage and Sacrifice from Christmas Island. She spent five years working as a torture and trauma counsellor. Fri 4.30pm Penelope Curtin is a freelance editor who works mainly in the area of art publications. With her daughter Tansy, she wrote a survey of Australian floral art, Blooms and Brushstrokes. Fri 6pm, Sun 11.15am Kate Cuthbert was managing editor at an imprint of Harlequin Australia. She now works at Writers Victoria and is writing a PhD examining rural settings in Australian popular fiction. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 10am Leo D’Angelo Fisher is a journalist, writer and commentator, a former columnist with BRW and the Australian Financial Review. Sun 3pm Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, author and broadcaster. He is the author of 25 books including The Demon in the Machine, The Mind of God and How to Build a Time Machine. His awards include the Templeton Prize, The Royal Society’s Michael Faraday Prize for science communication and a Glaxo Science Writers’ Fellowship. He is now based at the University of Arizona where he is researching cancer cures. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 8pm Penny Davies is a Bendigo-based historian. Sun 12.30pm Peter Davies is a research fellow in archaeology at La Trobe University, co-author of Sludge: Disaster on Victoria’s Goldfields. Fri 5.30pm, Sat 4.30pm Dianne Dempsey is a journalist with the Bendigo Weekly, a book reviewer, and author of Girls In Our Town, a novel set in Bendigo. Sat 6.15pm Richard Denniss is chief economist at the Australia Institute. His books include Curing Affluenza, Econobabble and he co-authored Affluenza. Sun 11.30am Amy Doak is a Bendigo writer and publisher, creator of new book of short stories, Goldfields. Sun 10am Peter Doherty shared the 1996 Nobel Medicine Prize. His books include Sentinel Chickens, The Knowledge Wars and most recently, The Incidental Tourist. Sat 4.30pm, Sun 1.45pm Suzanne Donisthorpe is a fomer ABC radio producer and presenter, who now runs the community radio station in Castlemaine. Fri 11am, Sat 2pm Tishani Doshi is an Indian poet, performer and dancer based in Chennai. Her first book, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and her debut novel, The Pleasure Seekers, was shortlisted for the Hindu Literary Prize. Fri 6pm, Sat 6pm, Sun 12.30pm Tru Dowling is a Bendigo poet and writer. Sat 3.45pm Jill Dupleix is a food writer and cook, columnist and restaurant critic, whose new book is the Australian edition of her international guide, Truth Love and Clean Cutlery: A New Way of Choosing Where to Eat. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 11.15am, Sun 8.30am 18

All That Glitters

All that glitters

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Michael Earp is a children’s and young adult bookseller and writer. He is the editor of Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories and a contributor to Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories. Sat 11.30am Astrid Edwards is director and host of The Garret podcast. Sat 2.45pm Ben Eltham is a writer, journalist, academic and New Matilda’s National Affairs Correspondent. Sat 2.45pm, Sun 3.15pm Kirstin Ferguson is a company director, named as one of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence. She is the co-author of Women Kind: Unlocking the power of women supporting women. Fri 1.45pm Chris Ferrie is a researcher, who has written 27 books for very young children, introducing them to ideas in mathematics and science. Sat 11am Nicole Ferrie is editor of the Bendigo Advertiser. Sat 6pm Fleur Ferris is the author of four crime thrillers for younger readers and a new picture book for middle-grade readers. Sun 11am Claire Flanagan-Smith is an agribusiness consultant and a foundation member of Bendigo Writers Festival support group. Sat 12.45pm, Sat 5pm Greg Fleet is an actor, comedian, broadcaster and author of the memoir, These Things Happen, and the novel The Good Son. His book Thai Die is based on his award-winning comedy show. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 2.45pm, Sun 3pm Clementine Ford is a freelance writer, broadcaster and public speaker based in Melbourne. She writes on feminism, pop culture and social issues. Sun 11.30am Kate Forsyth has sold more than a million copies of her books around the world. They include Bitter Greens, The Wild Girl, and The Beast’s Garden. Sun 10am, Sun 2.30pm Catherine Fox is a leading commentator on women and the workforce and an award-winning journalist, author and presenter. She is the co-author of Women Kind: Unlocking the power of women supporting women. Fri 1.45pm Raimond Gaita is Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne Law School and Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at King’s College London. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Sat 6pm Sian Gard is a radio producer and presenter, manager of ABC Central Victoria. Fri 3.15pm, Sun 1.45pm Kelly Gardiner writes historical fiction and teaches at La Trobe University. She is co-ordinator of the student course embedded in the Festival, Writers in Action. Sat 11.30am, Sun 3.15pm Sulari Gentill is the author of 13 novels. Crossing the Lines was the winner of the Ned Kelly Award 2018: Best Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award 2018. Fri 11am, Sat 10am, Sun 11am Jill Giese is a clinical psychologist and author of the book The Maddest Place on Earth. Jill was awarded the 2018 Victorian Premier’s History Award. Sat 2.45pm, Sun 12.30pm Ginger Gorman is the author of Troll Hunting. She is an award-winning print and radio journalist based in the Australian Capital Territory. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 10am, Sun 1.45pm Robert Gott is the author of the William Power series of crime-caper novels. He is also the author of the Detective Joe Sable series. The Autumn Murders is his latest book. Fri 11am, Sun 11.15am Erin Gough is a fiction writer whose novel for young adults, The Flywheel, won Hardie Grant Egmont’s Ampersand Prize. Erin’s second novel, Amelia Westlake, won the Readings Young Adult Book prize. Sat 11.30am, Sun 12.45pm AC Grayling has written and edited over 30 books including The Good Book, Ideas That Matter, Liberty in the Age of Terror and To Set Prometheus Free. He is a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was a Man Booker Prize judge and chairman. His latest books are War: An Enquiry and Democracy and its Crisis. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 11.45am Billy Griffiths is the author of the award-winning history, Deep Time Dreaming. Sat 1.15pm Tom Griffiths is the author of Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica, Forests of Ash: An Environmental History and The Art of Time Travel. His books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics and journalism, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. Sat 2.45pm, Sun 9.45am, Sun 3pm Derek Guille was on radio for 30 years, including breakfast presenter and station manager in Bendigo. Passionate about music and performance, he also has a keen appreciation of fine food and dining. Fri 8pm Peta Hanrahan adapted and directed Virginia Wolfe’s classic essay, A Room of One’s Own into a theatre production for Sentient theatre. Sun 9.45am Jarad Henry has worked in the criminal justice system for a decade, and is currently with the Police Drug Strategy Unit in Melbourne. His debut crime novel, Head Shot, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 6pm Barry Hill is an essayist, critic and poet. His poetry includes Ghosting William Buckley and Naked Clay: Drawing from Lucian Freud. His new book of essays is Reason and Lovelessness. Sat 2.15pm, Sun 9.45am Jess Hill has been writing about domestic violence since 2014. She was a producer for ABC Radio, a Middle East correspondent, and an investigative journalist for Background Briefing. Her new book is See What You Made Me Do. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 6pm, Sun 1.15pm Chloe Hooper won the Victorian, New South Wales, West Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, as well as the John Button Prize for Political Writing, and a Ned Kelly Award for crime writing for The Tall Man. The author of two novels, Chloe’s latest book is The Arsonist. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 11.30am Felice Jacka is the author of Brain Food and director of the Food and Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia, president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research, and immediate past-president of the Australian Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders. Fri 1.45pm, Fri 4.45pm Stuart Kells is Adjunct Professor at La Trobe University’s College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce and an antiquarian bookseller. The Library was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s literary award and the NSW Premier’s literary prize. His latest book is Shakespeare’s Library. Sat 6.15pm, Sun 1.15pm Chris Kelly is manager Community Wellbeing, City of Greater Bendigo. Fri 1.45pm Lynne Kelly is a science writer and an Honorary Research Associate at La Trobe University. Her new book is The Memory Craft. Sat 10am Sharon Kemp is a journalist with a finance background. She is news reader and reporter for Triple M and Hit FM in Bendigo and Gippsland. Sat 1.30pm Steve Kendall is chief of staff at the Bendigo Weekly. Sun 10am, Sun 3pm Anna Kennedy is the Creative Producer of She Said Theatre, and Company Manager of Rollercoaster Theatre. Sun 9.45am Elspeth Kernebone is a journalist at the Bendigo Advertiser. Sun 3.15pm Emerald King is a lecturer in Japanese at La Trobe University. Sat 2.15pm Lee Kofman is a Russian-born Israeli-Australian author and editor of Split, True Stories of Leaving, Loss and New Beginnings. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 10am Alan Kohler is a financial commentator and author, founder of The Constant Investor, business editor-at-large of The Australian, finance presenter on ABC News and adjunct professor in the business faculty of Victoria University. Sat 1.30pm, Sun 1.15pm bendigowritersfestival.com.au

LOOK WHO’S TALKING Jon Kudelka is a freelance cartoonist based in Hobart. His work appears in The Australian, the Hobart Mercury and on his website. He won a Walkley award for best cartoon and a Stanley award for best political cartoonist. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 4.30pm, Sun 1.45pm Sarah L’Estrange is a producer on RN’s Books and Arts. Sat 10.15am, Sun 10am Marilyn Lake has held academic positions and fellowships at Monash

University, The University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Stockholm University, ANU, University of Sydney, the University of Western Australia and the University of Maryland. Her most recent book is Progressive New World. Sat 11.30am, Sun 1.15pm Ann Lansberry launched the local campaign to save Bendigo’s Discovery Centre and is now their Vice President and is President of the Bendigo Community Farmers Market. Sat 10am Meshel Laurie works in TV and radio, podcasts, and writes columns and books, including Bad Buddhist. Fri 11am Benjamin Law writes books, TV screenplays, columns, essays and feature journalism. He’s the author of the memoir The Family Law, the travel book Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East, and has edited the new collection, Growing Up Gay in Australia. Sat 6pm Anthony Lawrence has published 15 books of poetry and won the Prime Ministers Literary Award for Poetry, the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Award, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal, and the Blake Poetry Prize. His most recent books are Headwaters and 101 Poems. Fri 11am, Sat 3.45pm Sarah Lawrence is Senior Reporter in the Central Victorian bureau of Nine News. Sat 10am Susan Lawrence is a professor of archaeology at La Trobe University and has spent thirty years studying the goldfields. Fri 5.30pm, Sat 4.30pm Sue Lawson is an awardwinning author of 20 books. Together with Aunty Fay Muir she has published Nganga: To see and understand. Sat 11.30am Bri Lee is a writer and Founding Editor of the quarterly print periodical Hot Chicks with Big Brains. Her first book, Eggshell Skull, won the People’s Choice Award at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 6pm, Sun 3.15pm Min Jin Lee is a New York-based author and journalist. Her debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, was named one of the Top 10 Novels of the Year. Pachinko, the second Korean diaspora novel, was an international bestseller, and she is now working on a third. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 10.15am, Sat 4.30pm Fiona Lowe writes novels about family and relationships set in small country towns. Fri 3.15pm Benjamin MacEllen lives in Bendigo, and published a memoir, A Cut Closer to Whole, about the self-discovery of gender transformation. Fri 3pm Sarah Maddison is Professor of Politics at the University of Melbourne, co-director of the Indigenous-Settler Relations Collaboration. She is author of Black Politics and Beyond White Guilt. Her latest book is The Colonial Fantasy. Sat 11.30am, Sun 1.15pm Magan Magan is a writer and poet. His latest book is From Grains to Gold. Sat 1.15pm Kim Mahood is a writer and artist based in Wamboin, near Canberra, whose memoir, Craft for a Dry Lake, won the NSW Premier’s Award for non-fiction and the Age Book of the Year. Position Doubtful was shortlisted for the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award and the National Biography Award. Sat 1.15pm, Sat 4.30pm Anne Manne is a writer and social commentator who has written widely on feminism, motherhood, childcare, family policy and fertility. Fri 6.15pm Prue Mansfield has worked at local and state government level in planning and community development and is now a consultant in Bendigo working on strategies for liveable communities. Sat 10am John Marsden is the best-selling author and editor of over 30 books. His YA series Tomorrow When the War Began has sold more than 3 million books. John is the principal of the school, Candlebark, which he established in 2006. Sun 10am Tamara Marwood is director of Bendigo consultancy, Create Business. Fri 4.30pm Charles Massy developed the Merino sheep stud ‘Severn Park’. He has served on national and international review panels in sheep and wool research and development and genomics, and has written books on the Australian sheep industry, including Breaking the Sheep’s Back. Call of the Reed Warbler is about revolutionary sustainable farming. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 12.45pm, Sun 3pm Lucy Mayes is a leadership, community and organisational development consultant and author of Beyond the Stethoscope: Doctors’ Stories of Reclaiming Hope, Heart and Healing in Medicine. Fri 4.30pm Sarah Mayor Cox is an expert in children’s literature book illustration and literacy education. She coordinates the Text Marks the Spot schools program at the Festival. Fri 1.45pm, Sat 10am, Sun 11.30am Kirsten McKay is curator and manager at the Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum in Bendigo. Fri 11am Meredith McKinney translates Japanese literature ranging from the classics to contemporary works, including The Pillow Book and Essays in Idleness. Her new anthology of classical Japanese travel writing will span 100 years. Sat 2.15pm, Sun 11.15am Sue McPherson is a visual artist living in Eumundi, Queensland. Born in Sydney to a woman from Wiradjuri country, she was adopted into a family of landowners from the Batlow area in New South Wales. Her first young adult novel, Grace Beside Me, won the kuril dhagun Indigenous Writing Competition. Her second novel is Brontide. Sat 1pm Louise Milligan is an investigative reporter for ABC TV Four Corners. She covered the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse. Her exclusive stories for the ABC TV 7.30 program on the allegations against George Pell won the Gold Quill for best story of the year. Milligan is Irish-born and was raised a devoted Catholic. Sat 3pm Jacqueline Millner writes on the history and theory of contemporary art. She is the discipline coordinator of Visual Arts at La Trobe University, Bendigo. Sun 11.15am Jenny Mitchell is a Bendigo resident, active within the community, and a Bendigo Writers Festival volunteer with responsibilities that include organising Sam the Story Tram. Sat 1pm Natasha Mitchell is an ABC RN presenter and science reporter. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 11.30am Rod Moss has lived in Alice Springs since the early 1980s, lecturing in the Arts at Charles Darwin University. His memoirs about the experience of friendship with the first peoples of Central Australia have won national book awards. Sat 6pm Aunty Fay Muir is an Elder and Traditional Owner of Boon Wurrung Country. She is the senior linguist at the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages in Melbourne. Sat 11.30am Andrew Nette is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, reviewer and pulp scholar. Fri 9.30pm, Sun 11am Kerry O’Brien has interviewed presidents and prime ministers across the world with more than 30 years in public broadcasting, including Four Corners, Lateline and 7.30 Report. His book about former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating was followed by his best-selling memoir. Sat 6pm, Sun 10am Maeve O’Meara is an award-winning food and cooking author, journalist, broadcaster, television producer and presenter. She is the co-author of 12 books on food and co-created, presented and produced all five series of the acclaimed Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia. She created Gourmet Safaris which runs a range of tours in Sydney, Australia and overseas. Fri 8pm 20

All That Glitters

All that glitters

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Margaret O’Rourke

is Mayor of the City of Greater Bendigo. Fri 1.45pm Fiona Parker presents the breakfast program on ABC Central Victoria. Fri 1.45pm, Sun 1.45pm Simon Patton is a translator of Mandarin and Cantonese with a particular interest in poetry. Sun 11.15am Chris Pedler is a journalist with the Bendigo Advertiser. Sat 4.30pm Clare Press is the presenter of the Wardrobe Crisis podcast and Australian VOGUE’s Sustainability Editor-at-Large. Clare’s third book, Rise and Resist, How to change the world is about activism. Fri 6.15pm, Sat 2.45pm, Sun 3.15pm Alice Pung won the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award for her memoir, Unpolished Gem. Father’s Daughter, won the Western Australia Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction. She edited Growing Up Asian in Australia. Her new book of essays is The Idea of Home. Fri 1.45pm, Fri 4.45pm, Sat 10am Bhakthi Puvanenthiran is Associate Editor of Crikey, writing mainly on politics and the media. She co-hosted the podcast Hard Bargain, is a regular media commentator and sits on the board of the National Young Writers’ Festival. Sat 2.45pm, Sun 3.15pm Stephen J Pyne is an emeritus professor at Arizona State University. He has published 35 books, and his fire histories include surveys of America, Australia, Canada, Europe and the Earth. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 1.15pm, Sun 3pm Gemma Rayner is Goldfields Libraries Community Based Services Coordinator. Sat 4.30pm John Richards is a Bendigo-based comedy writer. Fri 3pm Emma Robertson is an historian who teaches at La Trobe University Bendigo. Sat 2.45pm Jessica Rowe is a journalist, television presenter and best-selling author. She was news presenter on Network Ten for 10 years. Her books include The Best of Times, The Worst of Times, and Is This My Beautiful Life? Her new book is Diary of a Crap Housewife. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 2pm Julie Rudner is a La Trobe University academic, in the Community Planning and Development Program on the Bendigo campus. Sat 4.30pm Bryley Savage runs Friendly Savage, a communications and marketing agency in Bendigo. Sun 10am Jock Serong is the author of Quota, winner of the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, The Rules of Backyard Cricket, and On the Java Ridge. His new novel is Preservation. Sat 10am, Sun 1.15pm Cecile Shanahan is an editor and teacher, coordinator of the Vox Bendigo Young Writers Anthology and communications officer for the Writers Festival. Sun 10am Michael Sharkey is a Castlemainebased poet, and editor of the anthology of First World War women’s poetry, Many Such as She. Fri 11am Julia Shaw is a scientist in the Department of Psychology at University College London. Dr Shaw consults as an expert on criminal cases, delivers police-training and military workshops, and has evaluated offender diversion programs. She is the author of The Memory Illusion and Making Evil. Fri 4.45pm, Sat 11.30am, Sun 1.15pm Annika Smethurst is the National Political Editor for the Sunday Herald and Sunday Telegraph. Sun 11.30am, Sun 3pm Dominic Smith grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of four novels, including The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, which was a New York Times bestseller. Sat 8pm, Sun 10am Anna Snoekstra studied Creative Writing and Cinema at Melbourne University, followed by Screenwriting at RMIT University. Her debut novel was Only Daughter and her latest novel is Little Secrets. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 10am R.A. Spratt is a best-selling author and television writer. She is known for the Nanny Piggins and Friday Barnes series of books and has written for dozens of different television shows. Sat 10am Ranjana Srivastava OAM is an oncologist, internationally published and award-winning author, broadcaster and Fulbright scholar. She is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and works in the public hospital system. Sun 3pm Megan K. Stack is the author of Women’s Work and Every Man in This Village Is a Liar. She reported on war for the Los Angeles Times from 22 countries, and was most recently Moscow bureau chief. She was a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. Fri 6.15pm, Sat 4.30pm, Sun 11.30am Rob Stephenson is Campus Director, La Trobe University Bendigo. Fri 4.45pm Kate Stones is an actor, based in Central Victoria. Fri 11am Ilka Tampke teaches fiction at RMIT University. Her first novel, Skin, was nominated for the Voss Literary Prize and the Aurealis Awards in 2016. Her latest novel is Songwoman. Sun 3.15pm Jenny Valentish is a journalist and writer, author of Woman of Substances. Sat 4.45pm Karen Viggers is the author of four novels: The Orchardist’s Daughter, The Stranding, The Lightkeeper’s Wife and The Grass Castle. She writes contemporary realist fiction set in Australian landscapes. Fri 6pm, Sun 3pm Don Walker is an Australian musician, songwriter and author known for writing many of the hits for Australian pub rockband Cold Chisel. He has since continued to record and tour. In 2012 he was inducted into the Australian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Sat 4.45pm, Sun 1.45pm Sally Warhaft presents the Fifth Estate, a series of interviews about journalism run by The Wheeler Centre. Sun 11.30am Marilyn Waring is a feminist, political economist, and author. In 1975, at 22, Marilyn became the youngest Member in the New Zealand Parliament. At 24, she became Chairperson of the Public Expenditures Committee, where she discovered international accounting systems do not count many things, most notably the work that women do. Fri 6.15pm, Sat 6pm, Sun 11.30am Abe Watson is Team Leader - Front of House Services at Capital Venues and Events. Sat 6pm Don Watson is the author of the multi-award-winning Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: Paul Keating Prime Minister. American Journeys won The Age Book of the Year and Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the Walkley Non-Fiction Award. His essays are collected in There It Is Again. Sat 10am, Sat 4.30pm Yvonne Wrigglesworth is a councillor, City of Greater Bendigo. Sun 1.15pm Clare Wright is an award-winning historian and author who has worked as an academic, political speechwriter, historical consultant and radio and television broadcaster. The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, won the 2014 Stella Prize. Her new book is You Daughters of Freedom. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 1.15pm Ahmed Yussuf is a writer and journalist who’s worked with ABC Radio National’s RN Drive program and international broadcaster TRT World. He co-founded the race and culture podcast Race Card. Sat 1.15pm Nevo Zisin is a Jewish, Queer, non-binary activist, public speaker, performer and author of Finding Nevo: How I Confused Everyone, a memoir on gender transition. Fri 6.30pm, Sat 11.30am Lawrie Zion is Professor of Journalism at La Trobe University and leads the ARC-funded research project, New Beats, investigating the aftermath of mass redundancies of journalists. Fri 3.15pm, Sat 3pm bendigowritersfestival.com.au

explore bendigo Bendigo Visitors Centre Built in 1887, the former Bendigo Post Office building is now home to Bendigo Visitor Centre, which includes the Living Arts Space and Post Office Gallery. The Living Arts Space showcases work by the region’s artists. The Post Office Gallery tells the story of Bendigo’s history. Open all weekend, 9am-5pm, 51-67 Pall Mall, Bendigo.

Bendigo Art Gallery This beautiful gallery on View Street is renowned for its curatorial excellence. The new contemporary wing, bordering on Rosalind Park, enhances its capacity to showcase art from Australia and around the world. Free entry. Open all weekend 10am-5pm.

Bendigo Community Farmers Market

Bendigo Blues Tram One of Bendigo’s iconic fleet of heritage trams hosts some of the Bendigo Blues and Roots Music Festival finest talents, on a leisurely journey to the Tram Depot and on to the Joss House, then back to the mine. Enjoy a drink, sit back and listen to Alawishus Jones and the Outright Lies, plus Liz Frencham. Departs Central Deborah Gold Mine on Saturday 10 August at 2pm, returns 4.30pm. Bookings bendigotourism.com.

Discovery Centre The Bendigo Discovery Centre, right next door to the Railway Station, is a treasure trove of displays and interactive science exhibits. On Saturday 10 August at 11am, Bendigo Writers Festival is delighted to be partnering with Discovery Science and Technology Centre to present Chris Ferrie, author of many delightful science books for pre-schoolers. Book at Discovery Centre, 7 Railway Place, Bendigo, on (03) 5444 4400.

For other ideas about what to see and do in the Bendigo region, as well as accommodation options, tours, attractions and maps, the Bendigo Visitors Centre is open every day on 1800 813 153 or online at bendigotourism.com

W RITE on the Fringe FEST IVAL 22

All That Glitters

Something for everyone writeonthefringe

AUGUST

2-10

Short St

Connect with real food and those who grow it at this bustling, friendly market in the heart of Bendigo, a short walk across Rosalind Park from the Festival venues in View Street and Ulumbarra Theatre. Saturday 10 August 9am-4pm. You can also get a taste of the market at the Foodfossickers Showcase, on Friday 9 August, from 5pm-7.45pm, in the Ulumbarra foyer.

Festival Landmarks Barnard St

5 BENDIGO BOWLS CLUB FESTIVAL CLUB

Rowan St

Gaol Rd

Ulumbarra Theatre (former Bendigo Gaol)

Park Rd

Poppet Head Lookout & Bendigo Heritage Mosaic

Mackenzi e St

Rosalind Park

Forest St E

High St

ss Cro ing r a Ch

BENDIGO CREEK

St dge Bri

Sidney Myer Place

Farmers Lane LAKE WEEROONA

Pall Mall

Alexandra Fountain

McCrae St

Vintage Talking Tram Route

Chapel St

Mundy St

Bull St

Chancery Lane

Williamson St

Mitchell St

Hargreaves St

Fernery

View St

MELBOURN

Park Rd Hall

Hargreaves Mall

Civic Gardens

2019 Bendigo Writers Festival

All program information, and session scheduling, is available at bendigowritersfestival.com.au

Book via the website or phone (03) 5434 6100

#bendigowritersfestival

The Capital Festival HQ, Box Office, Bookshop,

Bendigo Bank Theatre, Capital Theatre and coffee shop

2 4 6

La Trobe Art Institute Engine Room Camp Junction Pop-up Festival Info Stand Bendigo Bowls Club Festival Club Ulumbarra Theatre Strategem Studio, Pop-up Bookshop and Ulumbarra CafĂŠ

bendigowritersfestival.com.au

2019 Bendigo Writers Festival All that glitters

9-11 August All program information, and session scheduling, is available at bendigowritersfestival.com.au Book via the website or phone (03) 5434 6100 #bendigowritersfestival

Mercedes-Benz Bendigo

Media PARTNERS

Accommodation AND TRANSPORT PartnerS Mercedes-Benz Bendigo

Mercedes-Benz Bendigo

SUPPORTERS

Mercedes-Benz Bendigo

The information in this brochure is correct at time of printing. Event details may change due to circumstances beyond our control.

All That Glitters

Mercedes-Benz