Upcoming Events
Join Stuart Kells at Lyceum Club this November for a lively discussion surrounding his new book The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders.
This book is a fascinating and surprising journey through the real and imagined libraries throughout history: from the songlines of first Australians, to the library of Alexandria, the Bodleian and the Folger, to Umberto Eco’s mediaeval labyrinth in The Name of the Rose.
Stuart Kells is an author and book-trade historian. His 2015 book, Penguin and the Lane Brothers, won the Ashurst Business Literature Prize. An authority on rare books, he has written and published on many aspects of print culture and the book world. Stuart lives in Melbourne with his family.
Join Melanie Cheng at Paperback Bookshop for their Salon Series this November. The Salon Series brings together our community of writers and readers in a program of informal readings and discussions, right in the intimate setting of Paperback Bookshop.
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. Of Chinese-Australian heritage, she was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. In 2016 she won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Australia Day is her first book.
Join Brenda Niall at Readings for the launch of her new book Can You Hear the Sea?. This insightful and moving book will be launched by Kirsty Murray.
In Can You Hear the Sea?, Brenda Niall has turned her biographer’s eye to a personal subject—her grandmother, Aggie. She tells the story of a fiercely independent and intelligent woman who braved a new country as a single woman, teaching in a country school, before marrying a Riverina grazier, whose large powerful family was wary of the newcomer with ideas of her own.
Brenda Niall is one of Australia’s foremost biographers. She is the author of five award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family. In 2016 she won the Australian Literature Society’s Gold Medal and the National Biography Award for Mannix. She frequently reviews for the Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Book Review.
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Join Melanie Cheng at the Better Read Than Dead Newtown Festival this November!
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. Of Chinese-Australian heritage, she was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. In 2016 she won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Her first book, Australia Day, is a collection of short stories that offer a rich and new perspective on Australian life––unlike anything we’ve seen before.
Join Stuart Kells at the Eltham Library this November for a lively discussion surrounding his new book The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders.
This book is a fascinating and surprising journey through the real and imagined libraries throughout history: from the songlines of first Australians, to the library of Alexandria, the Bodleian and the Folger, to Umberto Eco’s mediaeval labyrinth in The Name of the Rose.
Stuart Kells is an author and book-trade historian. His 2015 book, Penguin and the Lane Brothers, won the Ashurst Business Literature Prize. An authority on rare books, he has written and published on many aspects of print culture and the book world. Stuart lives in Melbourne with his family.
Join Bram Presser at Avid Reader for a lively discussion about his novel The Book of Dirt.
Jakub Rand flees his village for Prague, only to find himself trapped by the Nazi occupation.
Back in the city, Františka Roubíčková picks over the embers of her failed marriage, despairing of her conversion to Judaism.
Decades later, Bram Presser embarks on a quest to find the truth behind the stories his family built around these remarkable survivors.
The Book of Dirt is a completely original novel about love, family secrets, and Jewish myths. And it is a heart-warming story about a grandson’s devotion to the power of storytelling and his family’s legacy.
Bram Presser was born in Melbourne in 1976. His stories have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Award Winning Australian Writing, The Sleepers Almanac and Higher Arc.
Join Text authors Tim Flannery, Mark Raphael Baker, Angela Savage, Brenda Niall and Maria Takolander at Word for Word, the national non-fiction festival.
Join Angela Savage at Word for Word for her masterclass ‘Writing Essentials and Developing Creative Practices’.
This practical introduction to creative writing will cover ways to develop a sustained and reflective writing practice, including revision and editing. Explore techniques including showing not telling and how to develop your voice to tell your story.
Angela Savage is a Melbourne-based crime writer, who has lived and travelled extensively in Asia. Her first novel, Behind the Night Bazaar won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. She is a winner of the Scarlett Stiletto Award and has twice been shortlisted for Ned Kelly awards.
Join Tim Flannery at Word for Word for the session ‘Reality Check: Sea-ing Our Future Change’ with Anna Krien and Brett Bryan. They will be discussing where we are now and what the possibilities may be for a positive future for us and our planet.
Tim Flannery is an acclaimed scientist who is investigating exciting new technologies currently being developed to address our most pressing environmental issues. He has published over thirty books including the award-winning The Future Eaters, The Weather Makers and Here on Earth and the novel The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish. His latest book is Sunlight and Seaweed.
Join Maria Takolander at Word for Word with Catharine Lumby and Frank Moorhouse for their panel discussion ‘Writing an Icon’.
In this session they will discuss both the pleasures and pitfalls of writing a rich and colourful life.
Maria Takolander is a senior lecturer in literature at Deakin University in Geelong. She is the author of a work of literary criticism and two poetry collections. Her poems have featured in annual best-of anthologies for the past seven years. This is her first book of fiction.
