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2024 Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature- a tribute to David Malouf AO
11 Oct 2024 / 5:30pm – 8:30pm
The Long Room, Customs House, 399 Queen Street, Magandjin (Brisbane).

2024 Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature- a tribute to David Malouf AO

The annual Fryer Lecture is the premier event in the Friends of the Library program. The Lecture celebrates Australian literature and the important role of the Fryer Library in collecting and preserving our literary heritage. Included in its holdings are the manuscripts of prominent Australian writers such as David Malouf, Peter Carey, Thea Astley, Frank Moorhouse, Olga Masters, and Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Its collections also include plans, drawings and records of key Queensland-based architects, the University of Queensland Press Archive, rare books, and other unique material documenting Australian cultural history.

These collections are a valuable resource for teaching and research at The University of Queensland and attract scholars from across Australia and internationally.

The 2024 Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature is a tribute to internationally acclaimed novelist, poet, short story writer, playwright, and librettist David Malouf AO

In this year’s lecture, Imaginary Lives: in appreciation of David Malouf AO, novelist Nicholas Jose pays tribute to his friend David Malouf’s unique contribution to Australian letters through his beautiful and evocative works. A conversation between David and Nicholas will follow the lecture.

David Malouf AO

UQ alumnus David Malouf AO is an internationally acclaimed novelist, poet, short story writer, playwright, and librettist. The author of iconic titles such as Johnno, 12 Edmonstone St, Fly Away Peter, and Remembering Babylon, his awards include the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Miles Franklin Award, and the Order of Australia.

On being presented a Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University in 1991 the citation read, “Queensland, and Brisbane in particular, have never been celebrated more lyrically than by one of this University's graduates, David Malouf AO. Harland's Half Acre of 1984 and The Great World of 1990 provide extensive treatment of Malouf's central ideas: the interrelationship between spatial and poetic experience; the processes of imagining oneself and others; and the creation of perceptions of Australia's culture.”

This is a free event, but please register here.