Sydney Writers' Festival 2018

Overview

Sydney Writers' Festival has launched its 2018 program, unveiling a powerful lineup of speakers and guests to match a very powerful theme.

Artistic Director Michaela McGuire announced the festival's 21st edition, which will run from April 30 until May 6 at its new home of Carriageworks. It will dive deep into an exploration of "power and its adjacent qualities, and its relationship to sex, money, politics, identity, and the state of the world".

Headlining this year's impressive group of big-name guests are three international literary legends, including André Aciman — author of novel Call Me By Your Name, which inspired the coming-of-age big screen drama of the same title. He'll take the stage for a talk centred around ideas of power, along with Korean-American author Min Jin Lee, and Alexis Okeowo, who penned the award-winning A Moonless, Starless Sky.

Other international heavyweights on the bill include Amy Bloom — discussing her bestselling story about the affair between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and a journalist — as well as The New Yorker's Ben Taub on his time in Syria, and Robert E. Kelly, the 'BBC Dad' from that fateful TV interview. Meanwhile, Robert Drewe, Jane Harper, Helen Garner and The Slap's Christos Tsiolkas are just some of the talent flying the flag for Australia's literary scene.

Festival goers will also have the chance to hear from a swag of politicians-turned-writers, including Jacqui Lambie, Sam Dastyari and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The hefty event program includes what promises to be a huge SWF Gala at Sydney Town Hall, an all-day YA literary festival and a host of great family-friendly events.

Images: Prudence Upton.