Geopolitical dynamics
Ukraine. The Gaza Strip. The Solomons. China. Israel. The USA. Five Eyes. The Quad. AUKUS. Russia. Taiwan. The South China Sea. Syria. BRICS. NATO. The Global South. North Korea. The G-20.
Where do we start when it comes to international issues and foreign policy? Why is it important for Australia—at the “arse end of the earth”—to have such a strong interest and presence in geopolitical issues and forums? What are the most pressing foreign policy issues for Australia, and the world? What will geopolitical dynamics hold for 2024 and beyond?
Join us for the Closing Event of the Manly Writers’ Festival with a Q&A-style discussion.
Host: Michael Brissenden
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 6.00-7.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $30
From hero to zero
In mid-2017, whispers of executions and cover-ups within Australia's most secretive and elite military unit, the SAS, reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. He and Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only reveal shocking truths about Ben Roberts-Smith VC but plunge the reporters into the defamation trial of the century.
For five years, Nick McKenzie led the investigation, waging an epic battle for the truth to be acknowledged. Hear his story.
In conversation with Sarah Dingle.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 4.30-5.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
You couldn’t make it up, could you?
A CIA handler, a Russian millionaire living in Sydney, and a journalist, in this action-packed spy thriller full of suspense, intrigue, and corruption. If you enjoy a good spy story, along with complex, exciting, and compelling narratives, you’ll also want to know just how close to fact the John Bailey series of novels really are from one of Australia’s most prolific writers of the genre, Tim Ayliffe.
In conversation with Michael Brissenden.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 4.30pm-5.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Women through the ages
We speak with three scientists whose expertise and professional background encompasses child health, puberty, conception, pregnancy, motherhood, menopause, and beyond to the ‘silent generation’. What are the leading mental, physical and emotional health challenges facing women and girls today?
In conversation with Michaela Kalowski.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 4.30-5.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
The state of our media
If journalism is the first draft of history, what will it say about the state of the media? Disinformation, propaganda, social media (the peoples’ soapbox), and artificial intelligence pose mounting threats to journalism and genuine, accurate, quality news. The Australian media landscape is in a state of perpetual transformation, driven by technology, changing audience behaviours, and global influences and influencers. We talk with four people who know more than most.
Tracey Kirkland and Gavin Fang, both journalists with the ABC, take us behind the scenes of Australia’s media organisations to give a first-hand perspective on the operations of the fourth estate, especially as it applied in reporting on the COVID pandemic.
Michael Gawenda has had a 40-year career in journalism and, amongst other things, is a former editor-in-chief of The Age.
Walter Marsh is a freelance journalist who writes and reports for a wide range of media with a unique insight into the making of the Murdoch empire.
In conversation with Michael West.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 3.00-4.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Life as literature
Life can be precarious, unrelenting, and tough - whether it be living as refugees in the middle of war, patriarchal violence and exile, or growing up in a housing commission development surrounded by domestic violence, addiction, and poverty. Despite the brutally confronting situations, both Kirsty Jagger’s Roseghettoand Sara M. Saleh’s The Flirtation of Girls and Songs for the Dead and the Living are coming-of-age stories that are, ultimately, hopeful and spirited tales of survival.
In conversation with Amanda Austen.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 3.00-4.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Cognitive dissonance in the American Bible belt
Interpretations of the word of ‘God’ is used to frame much of the political discourse in the USA today. But just as the fictional US President Jed Bartlett used the Bible to dismiss the discriminatory views of ultra- conservative Christians in an episode of West Wing, Constantine Campbell uses the Bible as the basis for calling out the cognitive dissonance amongst those who call themselves ‘evangelicals’ and for whom moral credibility has been lost in the pursuit of political power.
In conversation with Summer Land.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 3.00-4.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Olympic boycotts, death threats, doping, and a Cold War
Against the backdrop of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, the 1980 Moscow Olympics was always going to be political. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser wanted Australia’s Olympic athletes to boycott the Games, in line with the USA, but many of the athletes had a different view and competed under the Olympic flag. Whatever flag they competed under at Moscow, athletes were the victims—and most of them female. As Paris prepares to host the 2024 Olympics, 100 years after the Modern Olympics founding father Pierre de Coubertin declared that “Women have one task, that of the role of crowning the winner with garlands”, an indifference to female athletes lives on.
In Turning the Tide, 800 metres Swimming Gold Medal winner, Michelle Ford, charts the highs and lows from the beaches of Sydney to the dizzy heights of Olympic swimming gold in the middle of the Cold War. Along with the politics, death threats, wilful blindness and sexism, the world also witnessed the most ferocious, systematic, state-sponsored doping ever.
In conversation with Julian Linden.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 1.30-2.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Just Gladys
Born in Manly to Armenian parents who were born in Palestine and Syria, Gladys Berejiklian was one of Australia’s most popular premiers. She forged a path for NSW during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and seemed unstoppable. But it all came crashing down when she found herself in the middle of a corruption inquiry into a man with whom she had a secret relationship. Slowly, but surely, that inquiry extended to Berejiklian also. Journalist Paul Farrell makes the case for why anti-corruption bodies are important, and asks tough questions about the state of our democracy and how Berejiklian maintained her popularity—at one stage even considered as the possible Liberal candidate for the seat of Warringah—despite the negative attention.
In conversation with Darren Mara.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 1.30pm-2.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Jewish life
Born in a displaced persons’ camp in 1947, Michael Gawenda spent his childhood and teenage years in a left-wing non-Zionist Jewish youth group in Melbourne. This shaped the person he became—a secular Jew who loved the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture. Gawenda went on to become a public figure during his 40 years as a journalist and editor-in-chief of The Age. Throughout this time, and since, he became dismayed and pained by the growing hostility of the left to Israel and to Jews like him who were not prepared to declare themselves as anti-Zionists. This has also forced him to examine his own Jewish identity and his relationships with his Jewish friends, and to forensically examine the basis of the critiques of Israel.
In conversation with Michael Brissenden.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 1.30pm-2.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
What could possibly go wrong?
A junior Minister. A sardonic mother. A fundamentalist mother-in-law. And a state premier who is about to promote him due to the scandal of another Minister. Oh, and did we mention his nude portrait—soon to be entered in the Archibald Prize? All great ingredients for this hilarious political novel.
In conversation with Tracey Kirkland.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 1.30pm-2.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
The accidental farmer
From avocado-smashing inner city writer to his father’s once-a-hobby-but-now-an-actual farm in the Yass Valley, Sam Vincent found himself on the family farm deputising for his father after an accident. It was a farming apprenticeship of “grit and shit”. But it is also a tale of affection, belonging, learning, humility, inter-generational differences, and legacy—and the winner of the 2023 Prime Minister’s prize for Literary Non-Fiction.
In conversation with Summer Land.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 12 noon-1.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Sport as a microcosm of society
Other than autobiographies, sport non-fiction is traditionally a slow-selling genre in Australia. Yet just as sport is said to reflect society, so does much of Australia’s sporting history provide a glimpse into Australian history. We talk to four authors about their sports non-fiction and what motivates them to record these nuggets of sporting history.
In conversation with Craig Lord.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 12 noon-1.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
A fine romance
Everyone loves a good love story, and these authors are helping to give the romance novel a revival and a different twist. The stories are relatable and human, and with a local focus – ingredients that make you fall in love!
In conversation with Liz Deep-Jones.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 12 noon-1.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
An unimaginable nightmare
Shirley Singh and her husband were in Fiji attending a family wedding when a ’phone call in the early hours from Queensland Police informed her that three of her four children had been found dead—murdered—in the family home.
In Shirley’s Story, journalist and author Emily Eklund Power tells the story of every parent’s worst nightmare and what Shirley Singh had to endure to bring the perpetrator to justice. Strong, sassy, passionate, and loving, Shirley depended on her love for her children, her faith in God, and her decision to keep a ‘clean state of mind’ to overcome alcohol and substance abuse while battling mental illness to help catch the killer. When her only surviving child died of a brain aneurysm in February 2020, Shirley was once again forced to dig deep, finding strength in memories captured over 43 years.
Shirley Singh joins Emily in conversation with Lia Harris.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 12 noon-1.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
The lure of the past: historical fiction
Authors Mirandi Riwoe and James Vella-Bardon have set their historical novels in vastly different times, empires, and nations. But nonetheless we are drawn back ceaselessly into the past not only as a means of rich storytelling, but also as a pointer to the future.
In conversation with Victoria Haskins.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 10.30-11.30am
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Australia’s Matildas: Their 50-year ‘overnight success’ and what it means for the Australian sporting landscape
In 2023, Australia’s love affair with the Matildas, the women’s national football (soccer) team reached the stratosphere with their performances at the World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand. For many fans, it was their first taste of the skill and authenticity of the team, but the Matildas have been around for almost 50 years, women have been playing the game for one hundred years, and today’s Matildas are emblematic of the battles fought, lost, and now increasingly won, by women’s sporting teams.
We hear from four experts about the history and impact of the Matildas on re-shaping women’s sport, and the all-important battle for hearts and minds, as well as for government, corporate and media support.
In conversation with Amanda Shalala.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 10.30-11.30am
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
How did it come to this?
You meet a man. He is charming. He has a good job. Things seem to be going well for the two of you. But then things change. How and why does this happen? And what do we do when it does? A compelling discussion with two strong, talented women who fell victim to (different) conmen.
In conversation with Lia Harris.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 10.30-11.30am
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Memoir as truth-telling
“No-one is boring if they tell the truth,” said Quentin Crisp. A memoir might be a cathartic experience with the need to heal and ‘set the story straight’ or it may be a way of having a record of your life for family and friends. But finding the best way to tell your story can be the hardest part of writing it, and the truth of your life is often challenging and elusive.We talk to two authors of very different memoirs about why it was important to tell their story in their own words, and how they balanced being both the narrator and main character in their books.
In conversation with Bonita Mersiades.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 9.00-10.00am
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
This life
Mothers. Children. Partners. Parents. Work. Family. Community. Relationships. We’ve all got so many balls in the air, and every family has its drama. Why do we like writing and reading about it so much? And in the process of writing a story that is so close to real life, are the authors plotters or ‘pansters’?
In conversation with Tracey Kirkland.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 9.00-10.00am
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
‘Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness’
… So wrote Mark Twain. We speak to three travel writers about how their experiences trotting around the globe has helped make them better people and better writers, as well as how to be a good traveller, their hot spots for 2024, their travel mishaps and wonder moments, and how the travel landscape is changing.
In conversation with Amanda Austen.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 9.00-10.00am
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Manly Literary Salon
Join us at the Manly Spirits Distillery for the Manly Literary Salon for a book launch and poetry reading—as well as a complimentary themed cocktail and antipasto share plates.
Book launch:
Jill Valentine—High Heels and Low Blows
Poetry salon:
Cocoa Deep-Amek
Luke Fischer
Zeina Issa
Michele Seminara (curator)
MC: Michael Cain
Music by Jazz with Kate
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 6.30–9.00pm
Where: Manly Spirits Distillery, Brookvale
Cost: $45 including a complimentary themed cocktail and antipasto share plates
Writing as a form of activism
Activism isn’t just about marches, protests and demonstrations. Writing is a powerful form in the toolbox of activism with the ability to share a voice, inform and educate an audience, advocate a cause, and inspire change.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 4.00-5.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Call my agent
We catch a glimpse into the world of a literary agent and the publishing industry with a veteran of the industry, Lou Johnson. What does a literary agent do? What are the pros and cons of having one? What does an agent look for in a book? What are the options for publishing today? How do you actually get a publishing deal? What should authors do to help market their book? All this and more!
In conversation with Tim Ayliffe.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 4.00-5.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
The pandemic generation
Who are the pandemic generation? What does the future hold for the millions of young Australians whose formative years were so disrupted by school and childcare closures during the COVID-19 pandemic? What help should we provide to this generation of children?
In conversation with Michaela Kalowski.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 4.00–5.00pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
The accidental historian
John Maynard happen-chanced into history when he visited the University of Newcastle to help with some family research on his grandfather, Fred, who had been a high-profile Aboriginal activist of the 1920s. Following the visit to the university, and a meeting with the Murri woman at university who encouraged him to take his interest further, John completed his education and the rest—as they say—is history.
John’s research has concentrated on the intersections of Aboriginal political and social history and made significant contributions to the research fields of Aboriginal, race relations and sports history both nationally and internationally. In 2022, John was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Historical Association and in 2023, he received the Annual History Citation from the History Council of NSW.
In conversation with Sienna Brown.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 2.30–3.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Everyone has at least one book in them, don’t they?
Introducing five of the emerging writers of the inaugural Manly Writers’ Festival, all with debut novels, who have written on romance, young adult fantasy, the high-powered business world, and a Cold War thriller.
In conversation with Michele Seminara
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 2.30–3.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
All in the brain
Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause are the most significant neurological transitions in women’s lives. Hear about the lessons learned about women’s brain health through the lifespan from neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay.
In conversation with Michaela Kalowski.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 2.30–3.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
Why do women still need to roar?
Fifty years on from Helen Reddy’s polemic call-to-action I am woman, hear me roar, we’re still talking gender equity, gender diversity, language, gender and cultural bias, and the role of women in corporate life, media, politics, sport and elsewhere. Why? And what will it take for women to have ‘made it’?
In conversation with Michael West.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 11.30–12.30pm.
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20
LOLA Breakfast
Help us Love Our Local Authors (LOLA) by kicking-off the first full day of the festival with a LOLA Breakfast. Celebrate the great literary talent right here on the Northern Beaches, emerging and established, fiction and non-fiction, children’s, young adult, and adult.
Local authors attending include Tim Ayliffe, Pip Harry, Amy Hutton, Rachel Lees, Lucy Lever, Sarah McKay, Zena Shapter, and Jill Valentine.
Session details
When: Friday 15th March, 7.30am-9.00am
Where: Beachside, Manly Pacific MGallery
Cost: $35 includes breakfast