With over 60 novels to his name, it's fair to say Garry Disher has storytelling in his DNA.

Sanctuary, his latest novel published in April 2024, is set in the dry, remote outposts of South Australia and is a gripping, page-turning read.  

Join us at Mornington Library for an engaging and dynamic talk from one of Australia's most-esteemed crime writers. 

Join us on Saturday 27 July at 2pm for the launch of The Sugarcane Kids and the Empty Cage, the second book in the award-winning Sugarcane Kids series. The book will be launched by CBCA Judge, Teacher Librarian and book reviewer, Kathryn Beilby. Books will be available for purchase and for signing. 

Charlie Archbold is an educator and an award-winning writer. Her first novel, Mallee Boys, was a CBCA older readers honour book. Her first book in the Sugarcane Kids middle-grade series, The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-bottomed Boat, was shortlisted for the Text Prize and went on to win the Readings Children’s Prize and the Davitt Children’s Novel Award and was a CBCA notable book.

In writing one’s life, where do you begin and what – if anything – is concealed? Join memoirists Kris Kneen, William McInnes and Nova Weetman for an intimate exploration of putting their life on the page with Alan Close.

Whether as pets, companions, aids, property, or food, animals are deeply linked to human beings. Join prize-winning novelists James Bradley (Deep Water), Laura Jean McKay (Gunflower) and ethicist Peter Singer (The Buddhist and the Ethicist) to discuss how we depict animals in literature and value them in our lives. 

Kids Big Day Out returns with a stellar line-up of stories and music, including Nova Weetman (Outlaw Girls). A perfect outing for the whole family, kids can get involved in interactive sessions in our workshop space.

Fat child, self-denying adolescent, hungry young woman. A body burgeoning uncontrolled into middle age. Kris Kneen (Fat Girl Dancing) has borne the usual indignities: the clothes that won’t fasten, the mirror that affronts, the stranger whose gaze judges and dismisses. Join Kris in conversation about this frank, beautiful and triumphant ode to self-respect. With Amy Lovat.

Do you like creating characters? Do you sometimes imagine what it was like to live in the ‘olden days’? Have you ever wanted to travel back in time?

Join Emily Gale and Nova Weetman, co-authors of Outlaw Girls and Elsewhere Girls, as they share where their story ideas come from, how they work together to create their novels and how the magic of time travel allows readers to learn about the past.

(Suitable for students in grade 4-7, ages 9-12 years old)

What happens when a veteran interviewer becomes the interviewee? Join historian and author Professor Clare Wright as she turns the spotlight on political journalist, podcaster and television presenter, Annabel Crabb in the Festival’s intimate opening event.

Includes special performances by acclaimed poets Jazz Money and Sara M Saleh.

Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University. In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for ‘services to literature and to historical research’. She is the author of four works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom, the first two instalments of her Democracy Trilogy. She is popular public speaker, panellist and interviewer and makes frequent appearances at literary festivals and on radio and television.

Animals can be companions and resources, cyphers and symbols. But who gets to speak for them, and how? Join a novelist, a farmer and an ethicist to explore the four-legged world of creatures great and small. Maggie McKellar (Graft), Chris Flynn (Here Be Leviathans), Professor Peter Singer (Animal Liberation Now, The Buddhist and the Ethicist) with Stephen Romei.

Australian philosopher Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and the recipient of the Berggruen Prize for ideas that shape human self-understanding. He is the author of more than twenty books, including The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and The Most Good You Can Do. Singer divides his time between Princeton and Melbourne.

Lorin Clarke (Would That Be Funny?) and Rob McHaffie join Bendigo Art Gallery Curator Emma Busowsky for a conversation about art, satire, and that great wellspring of creative inspiration – family.

Clarke’s idyllic, hilarious and deeply nerdy childhood in the family of beloved satirist John Clarke honed her own keen eye for social observation.

McHaffie’s lively narrative paintings depict his young family alongside a colourful cast of familiar characters, from super cool hipsters to mums and dads, dog walkers and latte drinkers.

Inspired by McHaffie’s solo exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery, this session will explore the value of autobiographical material, probe the fine balance of affection and sting in good satire, and celebrate the joys and challenges of family life.