Literature Lovers, Rejoice: Melbourne Writers Festival's Four-Day 2025 Lineup Is Filled with Highlights
Irish authors Marian Keyes and Colm Tóibín, Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey and 'The Ministry of Time' scribe Kaliane Bradley are among the names hitting up MWF this year.
When the weather starts to cool down, curling up with a book is a tried-and-tested way to get cosy and make the most of the indoors. Perhaps that's why autumn has also become writers' festival season in some Australian cities. Both Sydney and Melbourne's fests are returning in 2025, each in May. Melburnians can livestream along with the Harbour City's event, which announced its program earlier in March — but there's nothing like heading along in-person at home.
Melbourne Writers Festival's 2025 lineup has just been unveiled, revealing the first roster of talks, panels and more under Festival Director Veronica Sullivan. In her initial year at the helm, she has curated a four-day program that'll run from Thursday, May 8—Sunday, May 11. Irish authors Marian Keyes and Colm Tóibín, Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey and The Ministry of Time scribe Kaliane Bradley: they're among the big names on the bill.
Given their close timing, Melbourne and Sydney's festivals do share some guests. All of the above talents are doing double duty, hitting both cities, for instance. In the Victorian capital, Keyes will look back at her career, Tóibín has Brooklyn sequel Long Island to discuss, Harvey will dig into the International Space Station-set Orbital and Bradley has one of the texts of 2024 to talk about. Also on MWF's bill like SWF's, to name just a few more: Entitlement's Rumaan Alam, Discriminations' AC Grayling, The Safekeep's Yael van der Wouden and Detransition, Baby's Torrey Peters, with the latter the first openly trans woman nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
The theme uniting Sullivan's debut Melbourne Writers Festival lineup: magical thinking. Expect that notion to shine through whether France-based Australian Sarah Wilson is pondering living meaningfully, Argentine writer Mariana Enríque is exploring her latest collection of short stories, Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama is tasked with examining the state of his preferred literary medium, Butter's Asako Yuzuki or Twist's Colum McCann are behind the microphone, or fantasy is in the spotlight with Lady's Knight's Meagan Spooner and Amie Kaufman.
Hannah Kent on her non-fiction debut Always Home, Always Homesick, Unsettled's Kate Grenville, The Belburd's Nardi Simpson, music icon Jimmy Barnes, a feminist walking tour, live recordings of podcasts Culture Club and The Psychology of Your 20s, a MWF session of Queerstories: you'll find them all at this years' festival, too. Then there's a panel on the Voice referendum, overseen by the fest's First Nations Curator Daniel Browning, with Ben Abbatangelo, Thomas Mayo and Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts getting chatting.
The usual approach to the program applies: if you're a word nerd, no matter your preferred genre or topic, there's likely something on offer for you across the full slate.
"I'm thrilled to share our 2025 program. Across four packed days this May, some of Australia and the world's most-brilliant and -incisive writers and thinkers will gather in our City of Literature to celebrate the alchemy of storytelling, and the power of imagination to open doors we never thought possible," said Sullivan, announcing the program.
"At this year's Festival, audiences will encounter Booker Prize winners, inspiring memoirists, genre-defying storytellers, acute political analysts, vibrant podcasters, transcendent musicians, shimmering poets and emerging voices whose work will shape Australian literature in years to come."
Reynaldo Rivera
Melbourne Writers Festival 2025 runs from Thursday, May 8—Sunday, May 11 at a variety of venues around Melbourne. For more information and to buy tickets, head to the festival's website.
