Overview
Word nerds, you'd best put aside September 2 to 6 and prepare to indulge your love of letters. For five days, the annual Brisbane Writers Festival will turn the city — and the State Library, specifically — into a literary wonderland.
Headlining the event is Jon Ronson, Welsh journalist, humourist and documentary maker. If you haven't already devoured his examination of abhorrent social media behaviour, So, You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, you've probably seen the two films based on his earlier work, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Frank.
Elsewhere, expect your penchant for prose to be well and truly pampered, no matter what type of text or breed of book you fancy. Whodunnit fans can revel in all things monocles, moustaches and Agatha Christie in the grand manor that is Newstead House, while YA aficionados can talk about life, love and literature with some of the genre's top authors — including Tomorrow When the War Began's John Marsden — at a seven-hour celebration-slash-cosplay party.
Walkley Award-winning cartoonist First Dog on the Moon is also set to get in on the BWF, whether theatre or whiskey tasting is your thing. In the former event, he scampers through an apocalyptic scenario offering advice on how not to be terrible. In the latter, he recounts the joys of Tasmania's finest blends.
That's just a glimpse of the incredibly long and eclectic list of events, talks, panels, Q&As and other sessions on offer, touching upon everything from thrillers and supernatural storytelling to the biology of desire and our right to offend. With such a diverse array of content on offer, it feels fitting that the festival is pushing a "minds wide open" theme this year. They're not only encouraging audiences to abandon their addiction to screens and take the time to immerse themselves in writing in all its forms — they're also warning of you to make plenty of mental space for such a stimulating program.
The Brisbane Writers Festival runs from September 2 to 6. To check out the full program — and to purchase tickets — visit the festival's website.