Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 28 November
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Location
The Edge, Fed Square
The Atrium Flinders Street Federation Square Melbourne Victoria 3000
Get directions
The anniversary celebrations kick off with a gala night of readings and storytelling at Deakin Edge. Hear from ten brilliant writers – both established and emerging – who have made Melbourne home for either a short time or a lifetime. Where, for them, does Melbourne come alive on the page? Which classic stories and scenes of Melbourne are part of our literary DNA, and how are a new generation of writers remaking the city with words?
Presented in partnership with the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature Office.
Readings will be our bookseller for this event.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Featuring
Tony Birch
Tony Birch is the author of four novels, five short fiction collections, and two poetry books. His most recent book is the novel, Women and Children (UQP).
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Jane Rawson
Jane Rawson writes novels, essays and stories, mostly about climate change and animals. Her latest novel is From the Wreck. She lives in Tasmania's Huon Valley and works for a conservation organisation.
Alice Pung
Alice Pung OAM is the author of the bestselling memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson ...
Sumudu Samarawickrama
Sumudu Samarawickrama is from Werribee. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, Overland, Meanjin and the Lifted Brow. She co-produced Sidekicked 2017 Melbourne Fringe Category Award Winner 'Best Words and Ideas'. She was a Witness Performance New Critic in 2018. She wants to use art to powerfully challenge the status quo of the structures that underpin our society. As part of FCAC’s West Writer's Group, she is interested in how anger can be a tool towards community. She is on a journey to decolonise her soul.
Her first chapbook, Utter the Thing, is published by Vagabond Press as part of its deciBels 3 project.
She is currently writing a collection of surrealistic sci-fi, and trying to write a play.
Jennifer Down
Jennifer Down is a writer and editor. Her debut novel, Our Magic Hour, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. The story collection Pulse Points won the 2018 Readings Prize and the 2018 Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Literary Awards. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Novelist of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Bodies of Light, her second novel, won the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
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Moreno Giovannoni
Moreno Giovannoni was born in San Ginese but grew up in a house on a hill, on a tobacco farm at Buffalo River in north-east Victoria. He is a freelance translator of long standing. The Fireflies of Autumn: And Other Tales of San Ginese is his first book.
Eloise Grills
Eloise Grills is a writer and visual artist living on Dja Dja Wurrung land. Her collection of illustrated nonfiction, big beautiful female theory, was shortlisted for the 2023 Stella Prize and the Indie Book Award for Illustrated Nonfiction.
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Andy Griffiths
Andy Griffiths started having adventures the moment he was born, and has been having them (and writing about them) ever since. You can find out more at www.andygriffiths.com.au
Alexis Wright
Alexis Wright is a member of the Waanyi nation of the southern highlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, Wright has published three works of non-fiction ...
Patricia Cornelius
Patricia Cornelius is a founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. She’s a playwright, novelist and film writer. She’s the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize and the 2019 Green Room award for Life Achievement. She’s been awarded the Victorian, NSW and Queensland Premiers' Prizes, the Patrick White Fellowship and the Mona Brand Award for playwriting, as well as numerous AWGIE awards.
She has written over 35 plays, including Runt, Shit, Big Heart, Savages, Do not go gentle…, Slut, Love and The Call.
Patricia’s novel, My Sister Jill (Random House) was published in 2002.
She’s currently developing a feature film, Stolen, with director and co-writer, Catriona McKenzie.
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