Event

Opening Night: I’ve Been Away for a While

Thu 4 May, 6pm
Melbourne Town Hall

The last few years have changed us all in profound ways.

How have we been surprised, unsettled and enlivened as we return to once-familiar relationships, routines and realities? How are storytellers making sense of how life has changed?

For our Opening Night event, five of the most remarkable writers in the world take to the stage at Melbourne Town Hall to deliver their unique takes on this year’s Festival theme: ‘I’ve been away for a while’. Hear from Random House copy chief and author of Dreyer’s English Benjamin Dreyer, renowned photographer and non-fiction writer Bill Hayes (Insomniac City, Sweat: A History of Exercise), prize-winning writer and critic Sarah Krasnostein (The Believer, The Trauma Cleaner), Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money (how to make a basket) and award-winning filmmaker and Kaytetye man Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah, The Beach).

The Age also presents its Book of the Year awards for fiction and nonfiction.

This event will have Auslan interpretation.

Thanks to the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, this event will be live-streamed to the State Library Victoria forecourt, so you can listen for free.

This event is supported through the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund – a $200 million partnership of the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne.

Duration

1 hour 15 minutes

Tickets

20% early-bird discount until 11.59pm, Thursday 6 April

Flexible refund policy

Community tickets for First Nations peoples

Convenient public transport and parking options

Coffee, bars and dining options nearby

Readings bookshops available plus book signings

Over 80% of our 2022 guests felt MWF helped them gain new insights about the world, held their interest and were inclusive, well-produced and topical! (With more than 70% keen to attend again!)

Event artists

Benjamin Dreyer is vice president, executive managing editor and copy chief, of Random House. He began his publishing career as a freelance proofreader and copy editor, joining Random House as a production editor in 1993...

The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, Bill Hayes is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the author of seven books, including The Anatomist, Insomniac City, and How We Live Now: Scenes from ...

Sarah Krasnostein is a multi-award winning writer and critic. She is the best-selling author of The Trauma Cleaner, The Believer, and the Quarterly Essay, Not Waving, Drowning. She is a regular contributor to The Monthly...

Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist whose uses poetics to create works across print, installation, digital, performance and film. Her writing and art has been presented, performed and published nationally and inter...

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