‘Time is what makes everything OK. How it flows forward and circles round itself, both; how life, suspended, zero gravity, in time consists of so many things repeating.’

Maria Tumarkin is one of Australia’s foremost writers of creative non-fiction. With Axiomatic, her fourth book – seven years in the making – she explores the limits of stories and of…

‘Twenty years ago, when I first arrived on the plains, I kept my eyes open. I looked for anything in the landscape that seemed to hint at some elaborate meaning behind appearances.'

The famous opening lines of Gerald Murnane's The Plains might describe the author's own approach to his work as much as that of the story's unnamed narrator. Murnane…

In The Power of Hope, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre founder Kon Karapanagiotidis describes how he prevailed over a childhood of racism, bullying and isolation – and went on to create one of Australia’s largest and most influential human rights organisations. ‘Hope is only exhausted if we forsake ourselves,’ he writes. ‘It is both our sanctuary and our destiny to…

A highly infectious disease that started in the tropics of Southern China is sweeping the globe, with a rapidly rising death toll. The World Health Organisation warned us about Disease X – a previously unknown pathogen – and now it’s here. We knew it was coming, but we didn’t know what form it would take. So, how does Australia protect…

What role can art play in transforming democracies? How can theatre and performance act as a vehicle to test drive new realities? And what happens when children are not students – but researchers and collaborators?

Sibylle Peters is the founder of Fundus Theatre in Germany, where children, artists, researchers and citizens of all ages meet to explore and change the…

How might a philosopher frame the problem of climate change? What can philosophers learn from environmentalists and vice versa?

In this conversation, we bring together a prominent philosopher and a prominent climate-change activist who just happen to be from the same family: Raimond and Katerina Gaita. Raimond is the author of many books including Romulus, My Father and is a…