Brisbane Made Me: How David Malouf Imagined a City

When award-winning Australian author, poet and essayist David Malouf AO FAHA died in April at the age of 92, the nation lost one of its greatest writers. The child of a Jewish English mother and a father whose parents emigrated from Lebanon in the 1880s, David spent his early years in South Brisbane. His vivid memories of life as it was then are captured in his classics, Johnno and
12 Edmondstone Street. David was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and The University of Queensland, where his papers and publications are held in the Fryer Library. When UQ presented David with a Doctor of Letters in 1991, the official statement addressed to the Chancellor read: ‘Queensland, and Brisbane in particular, have never been celebrated more lyrically than by one of this University's graduates, David Malouf.’

In this year’s Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature, prize-winning Australian novelist and journalist Matthew Condon reflects on the importance of David Malouf as a friend and mentor. In his presentation, Matt will explore how Brisbane shaped David and how he, in turn, imagined Brisbane for the rest of us as the first writer to distil the city and what it means to live here today.

Reserve your free spot here.