Overview
How do you make an exciting Melbourne Writers Festival lineup even better? Keep adding impressive names, which is exactly what this year's MWF has done. As announced back in June, the 2022 fest will already host Parks and Recreation star Jenny Slate, Succession's Brian Cox, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and Exit West author Mohsin Hamid — and now that the full program is here, they're set to have plenty of company.
More 270 authors, actors, journalists and poets will take part in 150-plus events at this year's MWF, which means that the bill is stacked with must-see talents. Among the highlights: Alice Oseman, the writer and illustrator responsible for the graphic novels behind Netflix hit Heartstopper, and the show's writer and creator as well; British Still Life author Sarah Winman; Sarah Moss, who has the pandemic novel The Fell on her resume; and law professor Anita Hill, who penned Believing about the harassment she received for decades after testifying against now-US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Jarvis Cocker, Tom Jamieson
When it takes place over four days between Thursday, September 8–Sunday, September 11, MWF will also welcome everyone from Pure Colour's Sheila Heti and Talking about a Revolution's Yassmin Abdel-Magied through to Lapvona's Ottessa Moshfegh and Station Eleven's Emily St John.
While some of the fest's big-name guests will appear in-person, others will stream in from overseas — and, some events are digital-only, and available to watch on demand nationally with pay-what-you-can prices. So, for instance, Melburnians will be able to see Slate, Cox and Hamid live, and catch livestreamed sessions with Cocker and Heti. And everyone can enjoy Oseman and St John's chats online.
Other 2022 highlights include Hamid teaming up with this year's Miles Franklin winner and Bodies of Light author Jennifer Down, plus Talkin' Up to White Woman's Aileen Moreton-Robinson, to give the festival's opening address on the theme of ambition; Coronacast's Dr Norman Swan chatting about his new book So You Want to Live Younger Longer?; Wiradjuri poet and artist Jazz Money and Mununjali Yugambeh and South Sea Islander author Chelsea Watego talking through their experiences as First Nations creatives; and Boy Swallows Universe's Trent Dalton taking to the stage not once but twice.
Or, there's Pulitzer Prize winners Jennifer Egan (A Visit From the Goon Squad) and Margo Jefferson (Constructing a Nervous System) among the digital program; ABC News Breakfast favourite Tony Armstrong on a panel about growing up in country Australia; and China's Murong Xuecun chatting about his book Deadly Quiet City: Stories from Wuhan, COVID Ground Zero.
The jam-packed lineup also spans a debate about ambition-themed storytelling; discussions on partisanship in Aussie politics, mental illness and vulnerability, republicanism, the future of the ABC, and the global impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Melbourne Writers Festival 2022 runs from Thursday, September 8–Sunday, September 11 at a variety of venues around Melbourne. For more information and to buy tickets, head to the festival's website.