We are delighted to bring the Sydney Writers’ Festival to Mudgee, Live & Local in the Town Hall Theatre, over three big days! Join us on Friday 30 April, Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 May for select SWF sessions live on the big screen.
Entry is by gold coin donation at the door, and please note that COVID safety measures will be in place.
Friday 30 April
Barrie Cassidy & Friends: Biden’s America
10:00—11:00am
Barrie’s back! Festival favourite and celebrated journalist Barrie Cassidy presents four big conversations on the issues of the day. Joined by a range of experts and colleagues, this is smart, analytical and challenging live journalism from one of the best.
Evan Osnos, New Yorker journalist and award-winning author of the biography Joe Biden: American Dreamer, has spent years studying the newly minted 46th President of the United States. Based on hundreds of interviews – with Biden and his political peers, allies and opponents – Evan appears live via video to offer his insights into the man taking the presidency in a time of extraordinary turmoil.
Following Barrie’s interview, former premier and foreign minister Bob Carr and the United States Studies Centre’s Gorana Grgic will reflect on what to expect next from Biden and America.
Are You There, Sydney? It’s Me, Judy Blume
12:00—1:00pm
For generations of readers, Judy Blume is an icon. Beginning in the late 1960s, her celebrated novels were formative for young readers and future writers alike. Her children’s stories, including Fudge and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, were funny, irreverent and riotous precursors to the blockbuster kids’ series of today. And her young adult books were beloved – and sometimes banned – for their free and frank depictions of puberty and sexuality. Join Judy appearing live via video as she talks with Sophie Black about her body of work, which exceeds some 85 million in sales, and on her life now happily running a bookstore on an island in Florida.
But Not Forgotten
2:00—3:00pm
When a beloved author dies, there is consolation in knowing that their books – the culminated words of a lifetime in letters – outlive them and tether us to their memory. However the beauty of those words isn’t simply a static point in time; it continues to evolve in the minds of the writers and thinkers who follow them. Four Festival guests reflect on the powerful work of four writers taken from us in the past year. A session of reflection, tribute and celebration featuring Michelle de Kretser on Sydney literary great Elizabeth Harrower; Kerry O’Brien on legendary political reporter Mungo MacCallum; Michael Robotham on spy master John le Carré; and Sally Warhaft on Jan Morris.
The Larrikin Lie
4:00—5:00pm
One of the enduring beliefs of Australian identity is the idea that we as a nation embody the larrikin spirit, that our population are easy going, anti-establishment, laissez-faire. But arguably, our success in responding to COVID-19 points to a different truth. Perhaps, behind our ‘she’ll be right’ veneer, we’re an anxious, obedient, state-regulated people. David Marr and Rebecca Huntley separate the shit-stirrers from the boot-lickers, with ABC’s Laura Tingle.
Saturday 1 May
Barrie Cassidy & Friends: Opposition and Dissent
10:00—11:00am
Barrie’s back! Festival favourite and celebrated journalist Barrie Cassidy presents four big conversations on the issues of the day. Joined by a range of experts and colleagues, this is smart, analytical and challenging live journalism from one of the best.
What does it mean to live your politics? Is a life of protest and dissent good for the soul or is it soul destroying? Former deputy leader of the Australian Greens Scott Ludlam was a senator from 2008 to 2017. Scott speaks to Barrie about his new book Full Circle, which explores a new approach to political and environmental change.
Barrie and Scott are then joined by Magda Szubanski to discuss the triumphs and disappointments of activism and advocacy, and Sally McManus to share the challenges and advantages of expressing dissent from an institutional base.
Isabel Wilkerson: Caste – The Lies That Divide Us
12:00—1:00pm
Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Lies that Divide Us fast became one of the world’s most talked about books this past year for its clear-eyed survey of the unspoken social hierarchy that pervades history and our lives today. Drawing parallels between America, India and Nazi Germany, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author argues that race and class divisions are largely informed by a powerful, unacknowledged caste system that everyone knows in their bones. Join Isabel, who will appear live via video, in conversation with [MODERATOR] about the myths of meritocracy, the endurance of white supremacy and what we can do to dismantle the corrosive social hierarchy that persists throughout the world today.
Sarah Krasnostein & Helen Garner
2:00—3:00pm
After the runaway success of Sarah Krasnostein’s debut The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster, Sarah spent time in Australia and the US talking to six extraordinary people who held fast to a belief even though it rubbed against the grain of conventional wisdom. Her research culminated in The Believer: Encounters with Love, Death & Faith, a deeply humane and deftly drawn enquiry into the power of belief. Sarah is joined by fellow observer of human nature, Helen Garner, to explore what we believe in and why – from ghosts and UFOs to God and the devil, to dying with autonomy and beyond.
Richard Flanagan & Laura Tingle
4:00—5:00pm
Richard Flanagan’s latest book The Living Sea of Waking Dreams offers a tender, haunting portrait of a world disappearing around us. With Laura Tingle, he reflects on capturing in words the things we’re losing.
Sunday 2 May
Barrie Cassidy & Friends: The Canberra Bubble
10:00—11:00am
Barrie’s back! Festival favourite and celebrated journalist Barrie Cassidy presents four big conversations on the issues of the day. Joined by a range of experts and colleagues, this is smart, analytical and challenging live journalism from one of the best.
Political biography gives us insights into the individuals behind the politics, but it can also play an integral role in shaping how our political leaders are more widely understood. Peter van Onselen’s new book {How Good is Scott Morrison?} kicks off a conversation with Barrie about how to write about our leaders beyond their carefully cultivated images.
Christine Wallace and Niki Savva, both authors of significant political biographies, join the chat to see how deep dives into the lives of the people running the show allow us to better understand what’s really going on in Canberra.
George Miller: Beyond Thunderdome
12:00—1:00pm
George Miller AO is a legend of cinema. From Mad Max to Babe to the recent triumph of Fury Road (with a Happy Feet or two along the way), it’s hard to think of a more revolutionary creative figure in Australia today.
Jan Fran & Judith Lucy
2:00—3:00pm
Walkley Award–winning reporter Jan Fran and much-loved comedian Judith Lucy (Turns Out, I’m Fine) talk about humour and memoir, coping and not coping, and what it means to be fine.
Great Adaptations: Margaret and David Return
4:00—5:00pm
"Greatly missed on TV screens, the nation’s favourite film critics Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton reunite in a special event discussing movie adaptations of Australian books. The famously sparring duo settle back into their critics’ chairs to offer their top five for which standout movies do justice to the original text, the five-star films that bested the books and the flops that lost their lustre when transposed from page to screen.