Join us for a joyful collision of art-makers, big thinkers, and storytellers as we kick off the national literary calendar this spring. Photo: Canberra Writers Festival.
Together, we’ll take a thrilling first look at the books and ideas set to lead the cultural discussion in the coming year.
The Canberra Writers Festival vibrant springtime program of master classes, author talks, panel discussions, workshops, and book launches will be set against the backdrop of some of Australia’s most iconic national institutions.
Canberra Writers Festival Program 2025:
Monday 13 October
Friday 17 October
Wednesday 22 October
Thursday 23 October
Friday 24 October
- Jana Wendt: The Stories Around Us
- ACT Book of the Year Awards
- Art and Words: Celebrating Literature and Contemporary Artists
- Mervyn Bishop in Black, White and Colour
- Guts: In Conversation with Melissa Leong
- In Love with Tasmania: Heather Rose in Conversation
Saturday 25 October
- She Shapes History Quest
- Australian Gothic and Suspense with Jessica Mansour-Nahra
- Gardening Across the Generations
- Passion, Food, Love: Helly Raichura’s Story
- Wake Up! The Essay as Alarm Clock
- What Happened in the Outback?
- Writing about family with Spiri Tsintziras
- Diplomats and Disasters: Embassies on the Front Line
- End of Days or Start of Something New?
- Stories of Birth & Death
- A Writing Q&A with Heather Rose
- Desperately Seeking Stoicism
- Growing Up Gay in Opus Dei
- Method or Madness?
- Nature is Human
- Bob Brown: Stand Up!
- Reckoning
- The USA, Trump & Friends
- Self on the page: My writing life
- Plug In!
- Runt! Page to Picture: Movie and Author Talk
- Agnes Magnúsdóttir: Muse, Ghost, Obsession?
- Finding Elizabeth Harrower
- Grief and Glamour in Hollywood: In Conversation with Griffin Dunne
- The Power of Choice
- Some of My Favourite Books
- Stalin, Mao…Putin, Xi, Trump? The march of authoritarian history
- Bolthole or Hellhole?
- Chosen Family: Garden Cocktail and Conversation with Madeleine Gray
- Profit vs. Planet vs. Human
- Writing our climate change age with Jane Rawson and Natalie Kyriacou
- Endurance and the Need for Speed: A Motorcycling Life
- Finding the Heart of the Story: Editing for Pulse and Structure with Katia Ariel
- Words that Shine
- The Cults Around Us
- Dispatch from the Diplomat
- Legend, Re-Imagined: The Bright Sword
- Wellness & Cure
- Conspiracy vs. Trust
- Determination, Love and Dementia
- Feminist Fightback!
- What is with Canberra and Crime?
- Lonely, Sacred, Desperate and Divine
- Unlocking Place: From Iceland to the American SouthWest
- Let’s Be Honest…
- The Long Arc: Culture, Craft and Creative Power in Indian Australian Stories
- Dalton Defies Gravity: Trent Dalton in Conversation
- What Do Women Want?
- Blood, Sweat and Glitter: Em Rusciano & Michael Lucas!
- SMUT!
Sunday 26 October
- Design a Garden Workshop
- Storytime in the Tim and Gina Fairfax Centre
- Let’s Have a Draw Off!
- Runt, the Outback Hero
- Ask Hannah Kent
- Ghosts of the Past
- Our Worlds, Our Way
- Whitlam: Unleashed and Unvarnished
- Working with First Nations’ Stories and Story Owners with Craig Cormick and Darren Rix
- Art of the Short Story
- Hawke – From Larrikin to Legend
- Heist at the Museum
- Policewoman Kate Cocks Turned Fiction
- Wake Up to Love and Tears
- Writing for Screen – Q&A with Michael Lucas
- Join the Andy Griffiths & Bill Hope Adventure: You & Me and the Peanut Butter Beast!
- Salvaging the Earth?
- Talented Tales: Trim the Cat
- Wrestling with Epic Fantasy with Lev Grossman
- Code of Silence: Aussie Women Who Helped Win the War
- Honouring and Escaping our Ancestors
- Kathleen Folbigg’s Story: Friendship & Fight for Justice
- Australia: Sleepwalking off a Cliff?
- Canberra Youth Theatre Emerging Playwright Commission Award
- Caught in Conflict
- Great Classics of Power, Politics and Passion: A Very Canberra Conversation
- Inner Landscaping — discovering nature’s code for cultivating creativity
- NZ Family Reckoning: Family Secrets & Coming of Age
- Poems of Love and Rage
- Lay the World Bare
- Danger Countdown: Race the Clock with Jack Heath
- Dare to Draw and Cartoon Around
- Bonds of Love and Family
- Boys on the Brink?
- Pink Ink: The Lucky Sisters?
- Reimagining Worlds, Reclaiming Power
- Toys, Curios & Fragments of the Past
- Big Ideas and Bold Reforms
- Family Sagas: Japan, Hong Kong and Australia
- Foundations of Character with Natasha Rai
- Murder, Mayhem, Manners: Classic Mystery with a Twist
- One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
- All Things Austen! Jane Austen Anniversary Special
- Espionage in our Age
- Express yourself! Poems, songs and sounds
- Hearts, Humour & Growing Up: Does True Love Exist?
- Lost and Found: Zara Holt
- Roach and Hunter
- Can Big Tech Really Save Humanity?
- Whitlam’s Dismissal: On These Very Steps
