The Wheeler Centre Gala 2012: Stories to Believe In
Taking the lead from George Bernard Shaw, who claimed ‘It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief’, we open our brand new year of programming by dedicating our annual tradition – The Wheeler Centre Gala Night – to that thorniest and most topical of themes: belief.
Eleven writers take to the stage to explore the concept of belief from whichever angle they choose – be it a polemic on their unshakeable commitment to our inalienable rights as humans, a personal account of being in the presence of God, or a tirade on the existence of hobbits.
Spanning poets and playwrights, working for children and adults across numerous genres, our merry band of storytellers are guaranteed to spark empathy, recognition, perhaps fear and possibly even outrage, as we begin as we mean to go on. We hope you’ll be entertained, surprised, provoked – and above all, inspired – as we open our 2012 season of Wheeler Centre programming.
All profits go to the Indigenous Literacy Fund.
Featuring: Alice Pung, Elliot Perlman, Kaz Cooke, Tony Birch, Lally Katz, Andy Griffiths, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Carrie Tiffany, Gillian Mears, Bob Franklin and Casey Bennetto.
Tweet at this event: #GalaNight
Featuring
Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 33 bestselling books since their first title, Just Tricking, was published in 1997.In Australia, Andy and Terry’s books have sold over 10 million copies, won... Read more
Gillian Mears grew up in the northern New South Wales town of Grafton. Acclaim came early, with her short story collections and novels winning major prizes. Her books include Ride a Cock Horse (1988), Fineflour (1990), winner of a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, The Mint Lawn ... Read more
Elliot Perlman is an award-winning writer of one short story collection and three novels. He lives in Melbourne, where he also works as a barrister. Elliot has published the novels Three Dollars (1998), Seven Types of Ambiguity (2003) and The Street Sweeper (2011), as well as the short story collect... Read more
Casey Bennetto is an award-winning writer, musician and radio broadcaster. He wrote the musical KEATING!, hosts the program Superfluity on Melbourne’s 3RRR, and has appeared in places as diverse as ABCTV’s Spicks and Specks, the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Festival of Dangerous... Read more
Bob Franklin is a highly respected writer, actor and comedian (perhaps most recognisable from The Librarians, Stupid Stupid Men and Thank God You’re Here). He recently wrote and directed a short film called Corrections and has several other projects in pipelines. Bob’s work has been described in... Read more
Lally Katz is an award-winning Melbourne based playwright. Her play Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd premiered at Malthouse Theatre and won the Louis Esson Prize for Drama at the 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Lally is a graduate of the University of Melbourne’s School of Studies in Cr... Read more
Tony Birch is a founding member of the Melbourne School of Discontent. He has published three novels; The White Girl, Ghost River and Blood. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Pa... Read more
Alice Pung is an award-winning Australian writer whose books include the bestselling memoirs Unpolished Gem (2006) and Her Father’s Daughter (2011), and the novel Laurinda (2014). She is the editor of the anthology Growing Up Asian in Australia (2008), and created the Marly books for Penguin&#... Read more
Kaz Cooke is a former reporter and cartoonist turned history detective. She is also the author of the bestselling books Up The Duff, Kidwrangling, Girl Stuff, Girl Stuff 8–12, Women’s Stuff, and the children’s picture books Wanda Linda Goes Berserk and The Terrible Underpants. Her new nov... Read more
Randa Abdel-Fattah is a well-known writer and scholar who is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University, Sydney. Her books include Islamophobia and Everyday Multiculturalism and she serves on the editorial boards of Journal of the Contempora... Read more
Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in Central Australia. Her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (2005), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guard... Read more
