Miranda July and Richard Dawkins to Kick Off an Epic Year for the Wheeler Centre

Time to wake your brain up from its summer slumber and get those mind grapes squeezing juice again, because the Wheeler Centre has just announced a whole slew of insanely intelligent and creative writers and thinkers will be coming to the stage in the first instalment of their 2016 program. Leading the charge will be none other than Miranda July, along with atheist author Richard Dawkins, Mona founder David Walsh and environmental activist David Suzuki. And that's just the first few months of the year.

Recently read The Last Bad Man and wondered who the hell was this woman behind it? Or just fascinated by the whole persona of Miranda July? In what can't be called anything less than a coup, the celebrated writer, filmmaker, actor, artist, app maker, handbag wizard and bona fide enigma will be gracing the stage at Melbourne Town Hall for Lost Child! on Monday, March 7 — right off the back of her talk at the Sydney Opera House's All About Women. She'll be talking through her very varied and unique works, from her time as an artist in Portland to where she is now.

Tackling issues of God, proof and reason will be American ethologist, evolutionary biologist and atheist, Richard Dawkins. Best known for his 2006 book The God Delusion (which understandably was a little provocative), Dawkins is apparently rigorous and remorseless in his defence of proof and reason — which should make for very interesting listening. Another interesting one will be David Walsh. The Mona founder will discuss art and why we make it on February 24, and will no doubt crack some some quotable quotes in the process.

The inaugural Victorian Indigenous Literary Festival, Blak & Bright, will also be hosted at the Wheeler Centre over February 19-21, with over 20 events happening both at the centre and surrounding venues. Wheeler Centre regulars will be happy to hear that Erotic Fan Fiction is back for another year, as is current affairs series The Fifth Estate, and Question Time will be taking about the big issues of housing prices and healthcare. The Gala Night of Storytelling is also having a 2016 instalment, with All That I Am author Anna Funder, Lee Lin Chin and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's Kon Karapanagiotidis sharing what books have shaped their thinking.

Many of the events on the Wheeler Centre program are free, but bookings are essential. For more information, visit their website.