Our worlds, our way

Evelyn Araluen, Jasmin McGaughey and Lisa Fuller, moderated by Casey Mulder | 10:00am – 11:00am | Theatre

Join this exciting First Nations panel to hear how each author feels their writing is shaped by connections to culture and Country. Across genres, from poetry to YA and younger children's novels, how do Indigenous world views emerge? As First Nations writing and publishing flourishes in Australia, there is a chance to look across forms, learn and delight in connection and creativity. Moderated by Ballardong Noongar educator, writer and editor, and co-curator of Rivers Flow: Reflections on the Songs of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, Casey Mulder, this promises to be a rich exploration of First Nations writing for Australians of all ages.

Policewoman Kate Cocks turned fiction

Lanie Anderson, with Susan Wyndham | 10:30am - 11:30pm | L4 Conference Room

Readers loved discovering pioneering policewoman Kate Cocks, a real-life detective working in early 1900s Adelaide, in The Death of Dora Black. Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks, unmarried, aged 40, became the first policewoman in the British Empire to hold the same salary and have the same powers of arrest as her male colleagues. Now author Lainie Anderson brings Kate Cocks back, in the recently released Murder on North Terrace. Cocks' real history of forcing abusive husbands to their knees to repent and busting out jujitsu moves on baddies, merges seamlessly into taut crime fiction in Lainie Anderson's world. Adelaide has never been this tense or exciting! 

Kathleen Folbigg's story: Friendship and the fight for justice

Kathleen Folbigg and Tracy Chapman, moderated by Alex Sloan | 11:30am - 12:30pm | Theatre

In 2003 Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of murdering her four babies and spent the next twenty years in prison. Her childhood friend Tracy Chapman, convinced of her innocence, began advocating for her with a ferocious tenacity. New evidence was examined, advances in medical understanding were presented to court, and ultimately Kathleen was released, pardoned and exonerated. This extraordinary story is captured in Inside Out. This book tells the story of their lives over decades together, a remarkable fight for justice, and a friendship between women that never wavered. 

Great classics of power, politics and passion: A very Canberra conversation

Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole (Secret Life of Books) | 12:00pm - 1:00pm | L4 Conference Room

Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole of the Secret Life of Books podcast love igniting new insights into some of the greatest classics and authors of all time. Join them for a brilliant discussion of mighty works in our national capital and as they draw inspiration from the Canberra Writers Festival theme: Power, Politics, Passion. There’s no doubt at the end you’ll see some of these works differently...and perhaps gain further insight into the age-old instincts and plots that sit at the heart of our capital too?

Pink Ink: The Lucky Sisters?

Rachael Johns, with Emma Grey | 1:30pm - 2:30pm | Theatre

Rachael Johns is one of Australia’s most beloved authors of warm, witty women’s fiction and heartfelt romance. She joins us from Western Australia to talk about her latest novel The Lucky Sisters and the power of pink ink! She’s a passionate supporter of the huge network of writers and readers who love contemporary women’s fiction and romance. Join us for a feel-good session that will have all the fun, relief and warmth of an amazing hug. 

Murder, mayhem, manners: Classic mystery with a twist

Toby Schmitz and Sulari Gentill, moderated by Susannah Begbie | 2:00pm - 3:00pm | L4 Conference Room

Set 100 years apart but joined by the glamour of the Gilded Age (and a more than little gore), Five Found Dead and The Empress Murders twist the conventions of classic murder mysteries. Class, empire, privilege and inherited wealth are all sliced and diced, as the bodies pile up. With witty rapid-fire dialogue, Toby Schmitz and Sulari Gentill take us on a wild (Atlantic cruise and Orien Express) ride; characters racing against time to find the murderer and save themselves. Will you catch the killer before the detectives do?

All things Austen! Jane Austen anniversary special

Devoney Looser, Emily Maguire and Susannah Fullerton, moderated by Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole | 3:00pm - 4:00pm | Theatre

Be part of this major event as we celebrate all things Austen! Over 200 years since Jane Austen's works were first published, her insights into daily life, manners, love and tragedy are more relevant and recognisable than ever. Secret Life of Books podcasters Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole moderate an amazing international panel, including Wild for Austen author Devoney Looser (joining us all the way from the USA!), Emily Maguire (author of acclaimed Rapture), and President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia (and authorial cat lover), Susannah Fullerton. But the most important member of this event is you! Clip on your imaginary bonnet or slip into your breeches and join your Jane Austen-loving community for this once-in-a-lifetime celebration; for as Mr Darcy would say, "My feelings will not be repressed!"

Can big tech really save humanity?

Saul Griffith, Pip Finkemeyer and Richard King | 3:30pm - 4:30pm | L4 Conference Room

What's the true cost of progress, and what do we lose in trying to attain it? Facing a rapidly approaching Artificial Intelligence existence, Big Tech promises that geoengineering, nanotech and AI can solve our health, environmental and social crises. So why does it feel so dystopian? In Brave New Wild, Richard King shows us that corporations and governments are attempting to remake nature itself – and could break the foundational connection that sustains us as a species. In her novel One Story, Pip Finkemeyer dives into the power of narrative in an AI world, and a turning point for Big Tech in the 2010s that paved the path we are on today. Saul Griffith lives in labs and boardrooms trying to harness the power of innovation, tech and corporate might for good – because if innovation can’t save us, what can?  

This event is being presented in partnership with the Canberra Writers Festival. The National Library of Australia is proud to be a foundation partner.