Melbourne Writers Festival 2022

Overview

Back in person for 2022, Melbourne Writers Festival is treating word enthusiasts to a jam-packed program of over 150 events, from Thursday, September 8–Sunday, September 11 this year. With more than 270 authors, actors, journalists and poets set to take part in the festival, the bill is positively stacked with must-see talent.

Among the big names: Parks and Recreation star Jenny Slate; Succession's Brian Cox; Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker; Alice Oseman, the writer and illustrator responsible for the graphic novels behind Netflix's Heartstopper; Exit West author Mohsin Hamid; and Talking about a Revolution's Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

While some of the fest's guests will appear in-person, others will stream in from overseas, with some digital-only events available to watch on demand nationally with pay-what-you-can prices.

Author Alice Oseman

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; 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 two appearances from Boy Swallows Universe's Trent Dalton.

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 talking through his book Deadly Quiet City: Stories from Wuhan, COVID Ground Zero.

The lineup also features a debate about ambition-themed storytelling; discussions on partisanship in Aussie politics, mental illness and vulnerability, the future of the ABC, and the global impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Tony Armstrong