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Literary Death Match

When

Event Status

Who will be Literary Death Match champion? For the first time ever, the global literary sensation arrives in Melbourne featuring a stellar line-up of local writers and performers.

About

4 writers. 3 judges. 2 finalists. 1 champion.

Literary Death Match is a refreshing and hilarious spectacle that has electrified audiences in over 60 cities around the world. Now, this global sensation arrives in Melbourne for the first time.

Part literary event, part comedy show, part game show, Literary Death Match brings together four top writers to compete in an edge-of-your-seat read-off critiqued by three all-star judges in the categories of literary merit, performance and intangibles. The raucous event concludes with a comical showdown to decide who will be the ultimate champion.

Hosted by Literary Death Match creator Adrian Todd Zuniga, this special Melbourne iteration features writers Laniyuk, Zoya Patel, Alex Skovron and Nevo Zisin, and will be judged by Celia Pacquola (Intangibles), Vidya Rajan (Performance) and Sami Shah (Literary Merit).

Join us at the Wheeler Centre this March to see who will take home Melbourne’s Literary Death Match crown.

Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible

Accessible toilets available

Please notify us of all access requirements when booking online so we can assist you with your visit. If you require further information, please contact reception on 03 9094 7800 or ticketing@wheelercentre.com.

Featuring

Laniyuk

Laniyuk is a Larrakia, Kungarakan, Gurindji and French writer and performer. She has been published nationally and internationally in poetry collections such as Solid Air (2019) and Fire Front (2020), in the 2022 speculative fiction anthologies Unlimited Futures and This All Come Back Now as well as... Read more

Celia Pacquola

Celia Pacquola is a chameleon – a stand up comedian, writer and actor who springs effortlessly between stage and screen and has become one of our best-loved and most in-demand performers in any genre. Celia has been nominated twice for the Melbourne Comedy Festival Award and won the Amused Moose a... Read more

Zoya Patel

Zoya Patel is the author of No Country Woman (Hachette, 2018), and Once A Stranger (Hachette, 2023). She is co-host of The Guardian’s Book It In podcast, and the Margin Notes podcast alongside Yen Eriksen. Zoya is a columnist for the RiotACT, and regular books critic and writer for The Guardi... Read more

Vidya Rajan

Vidya Rajan is a writer and performer currently based in Australia working across screenwriting, theatre, comedy, and digital space. A former writer-in-residence at the Malthouse Theatre, graduate of the VCA, and a recipient of Screen Australia’s Developer Program, her work has often been describe... Read more

Sami Shah

Sami Shah is a multi-award winning comedian, writer, journalist and broadcaster. Sami’s comedy has won the Best Local Act at the 2013 Perth International Comedy Festival, and Best Comedy at 2016 Fringe World. He’s performed multiple sold-out runs at comedy festivals across Australia, as well... Read more

Alex Skovron

Alex Skovron is an editor and writer, the author of seven collections of poetry, a prose novella and a book of short stories. He was born in Poland, lived briefly in Israel, and emigrated to Australia aged nearly ten. His most recent collection is Letters from the Periphery (2021); his earlier volum... Read more

Nevo Zisin

Nevo Zisin (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Jewish writer, performer, activist and public speaker based in Naarm/Birraranga/Melbourne. They run workshops in schools and professional development training in workplaces around transgender identities. Author of award-winning Finding Nevo (2017), a me... Read more

Adrian Todd Zuniga

Adrian Todd Zuniga is the host and creator of Literary Death Match (now in 72 cities worldwide); the Foreword Prize Award-nominated novelist of Collision Theory (2018); the WGA Award nominated screenwriter of EA Sports’s Longshot (which features Mahershala Ali), and writer-director of the multi-aw... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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Acknowledgment of Country

The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to the people of the Kulin Nation and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, past and present.