Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Saturday 06 September
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
If you had to choose, would you prefer non-fiction or fiction? Would you rather outlive your partner or be outlived? And which is worse: war or famine? Drowning at sea or indefinite detention?
The Wheeler Centre is bringing our unique social experiment, 20 Questions, to the Brisbane Writers Festival. Vote in our referendum of 20 divisive social questions and then join chair Rebecca Levingston, Jennifer Byrne, Matthew Condon, Caroline Overington and Nick Earls for an old-fashioned election party to analyse the results and celebrate democracy in action.
Not in Brisbane, or missed out on tickets? Keep an eye on proceedings with the live video stream.
Presented in partnership with Brisbane Writers Festival.
Featuring
Rebecca Levingston
Rebecca Levingston is presenter of the Drive program on 612 ABC Brisbane.
Rebecca was quite happily delivering daily traffic reports to ABC listeners, before she was dragged kicking and screaming into the producer’s seat for Richard Fidler. Her life hasn’t been the same since. Rebecca has produced every program at ABC local radio and presented a few too.
In 2012 Rebecca moved permanently into the presenter’s chair as the host of Queensland’s statewide Evenings.
Rebecca lives in Brisbane with her beloved boys, Jeremy (the man), Raphael (the toddler) and Tully (the dog).
Caroline Overington
Caroline Overington is the associate editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly.
Caroline has won the Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism twice, and she’s a former winner of the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for journalism, and of the Blake Dawson prize. She is also the author of the bestselling novels: Ghost Child, I Came to Say Goodbye, Matilda is Missing and Sisters of Mercy.
Nick Earls
Nick Earls writes long, short and medium-sized fiction, including thirteen novels and numerous shorter works, as well as works for children. His most recent novel, Analogue Men, was published by Random House Australia in July 2014. His novella series, Wisdom Tree, will be published worldwide, one novella per month, from May to September 2016.
Jennifer Byrne
Jennifer Byrne is a senior journalist and broadcaster who has worked in all arms of the media: print, radio and television.
Having done her cadetship at the Age and worked on UK’s Fleet Street, she was a founding reporter with Channel Nine’s Sunday programme and spent some 12 years traveling the world for 60 Minutes and as anchor for Foreign Correspondent. She was publishing director of Reed Books, morning presenter on ABC radio, won national awards as interviewer and columnist for the Bulletin and, in May 2006, returned to TV to create the country’s first televised Book Club, which ran on the ABC for 11 years until December 2019.
Alongside books, Jennifer’s favourite pastime – far too serious to be called a hobby – has since the age of two been the playing of games. Including quizzes, cards, board games, and crosswords (physical and electronic). To be invited to become the first Australian host of Mastermind – a show she grew up watching, of course – is the realisation of a dream she didn’t know she had. Jennifer hosted series two of Mastermind plus Celebrity Mastermind in 2020.
Matthew Condon
Matthew Condon is an award-winning writer and journalist.
Award-winning writer and journalist Matthew Condon is the author of more than ten highly acclaimed books, including novels, non-fiction and short-story collections. He has written for leading newspapers and journals including Brisbane's Courier-Mail, the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's Sunday Age.