Melbourne Writers Festival

Evelyn AraluenPrimary Schools Day

When: Monday May 4 and Tuesday May 5, 10:00-14:30

Location: State Library of Victoria

Designed to captivate young minds, the program features sessions from beloved storyteller James Foley, scientist and presenter Dr Niraj Lal, performer and activist Oliva Muscat, and award-winning author Penny Tangey.

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Opening Night: Revisions and Visions

When: Thursday 7 May, 18:30-20:00

Location: Athenaeum Theatre

Hear original readings and performances responding to this year’s theme, Visions & Revisions, from a lineup of extraordinary festival guests including one of the 2026 MWF First Nations curators, Evelyn Araluen (The Rot).

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VCE Program

When: Friday 8 May, 10:00-14:30

Location: State Library of Victoria

The VCE Program offers Year 11 and 12 students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the curriculum, under the guidance of renowned local authors.

Throughout the day, students will hear from beloved poet, author and activist Tony Birch, acclaimed poet and novelist Maxine Beneba Clarke, and award-winning memoirist Alice Pung.

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Reimagining Resistance Beyond Colonies

When: Saturday 9 May, 10:30-11:30

Location: The Wheeler Centre

Across generations, Indigenous voices have carried culture, memory, and connection to Country despite ongoing colonial violence. Today’s writers continue and reshape that work anew.

Join us for a rich discussion of craft, sovereignty, and new creative horizons as the panel explores how contemporary Indigenous writing engages with grief, survival, and cultural continuity. Hear about the new modes of storytelling emerging as political work to push beyond convention, inviting readers to think differently about voice, form, and power.

With Quill Christie-Peters, Chelsea Vowel, Jesse Wente and host Mykaela Saunders (Always Will Be).

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Evelyn Araluen and Maxine Beneba Clarke: Girl, Woman, Poem

When: Saturday 9 May, 13:30-14:30

Location: Queen Victoria Women's Centre

In The Rot, Evelyn Araluen offers poems steeped in anger and sorrow, reverberating with lyric intelligence and revelatory beauty. Maxine Beneba Clarke’s beautiful changelings is a rallying cry that lays waste to the myths and fairytales fed to girls and pays tribute to the enigmatic wonder of womanhood.

Araluen and Clarke come together to discuss the desolation and joy of living through the current moment, and writing poetry that reckons with the most urgent themes of our time. With Maeve Marsden.

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Acoustic Mirrors: An Afternoon of Poetry and Music

When: Saturday 9 May, 15:00-16:30

Location: Fringe Common Rooms, Trades Hall

Words and sound weave together as local and international poets and musicians transform the written word into a collection of poetic performances and intimate soundscapes.

Tune in for a deep listening experience anchored in creative collaboration.

Co-curated by poet Panda Wong and musician and writer Hannah Wu, aka lotus threads. With readings and performances from poets Ender Başkan, Ana Svetel, Dženana Vucic (after war) and Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, and musicians Genevieve Fry, Nū, John Szetho, Jack Whu, May Zeng and Xiaole Zhan.

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The Next Big Thing

When: Saturday 9 May, 15:30-16:30

Location: The Moat

Discover new works and celebrate cutting-edge writing talent at The Next Big Thing. Emily Lighezzolo’sLife Drawingis a provocative novel about women’s bodies, sex, autonomy – and the power of the image.

Hosted by Pranati Narayan Visweswaran

This event may include references to sensitive content. The authors will share relevant content warnings with the audience before their readings.

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Sintering: An Evening of Indigenous Brilliance

When: Saturday 9 May, 18:30-19:00

Location: The Wheeler Centre

“Sintering is bonding; it is building coalitions with your neighbours.” — Theory of Water: Nishaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Each of the featured writers hold love and joy together as a testimony to their unique cultural knowledges and thought systems, and this event will celebrate the ways in which they have come together to share their art.

Featuring readings from Quill Christie-Peters, Alicia Elliott, Jasmin McGaughey, John Morrissey, Mykaela Saunders, Chelsea Vowel, Jesse Wente and more. Curated and hosted by Evelyn Araluen and Jessica Johns.

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Centring First Nations Knowledge

When: Sunday 10 May, 13:30-14:30

Location: State Library Victoria, Theatrette

What are the pathways to a future in which First Nations knowledge systems are centred, and communities are empowered to meet their own social, cultural and economic needs?

In this panel discussion, historian Julie Andrews OAM (Where’s All the Community?), Indigenous justice advocate Professor Eddie Cubillo (Defending the Defenceless) and writer and mathematician Dr JM Field (The Eagle and the Crow) come together with host Tony Birch.

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Chelsea Vowel: Indigenous Futurisms

When: Sunday 10 May, 16:30-17:30

Location: State Library Victoria, Theatrette

Far from being merely a form of science fiction, Indigenous futurisms offer innovative ways to envision the world – challenging dominant narratives and creating pathways for resilience, healing, and social justice.

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A hosted by Mykaela Saunders (Always Will Be).

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Closing Night Address: Tony Birch on The Ethical Imagination

When: Sunday 9 May, 18:30-19:30

Location: The Capitol

In the 2026 MWF Closing Night Address, activist, historian and author Tony Birch considers the ethics of being a reader, and of being a writer.

Whether as readers or writers, we have incredible freedom and access – and a responsibility to use that privilege in a positive way.

How can we read and write with courage? How do writers and poets whose experiences and perspectives differ from those of their readers foster empathy, and embrace specific and universal differences? How can we all develop an ethical imagination?

Birch will consider these questions through the lens of stories and poetry by First Nations and other writers whose creative work enlarges our collective and individual imaginations. Following his address, Birch will be in conversation with Michael Williams.

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