Program

The Thomas Keneally Oration is the Manly Writers’ Festival’s annual keynote address, created to honour one of Australia’s most significant literary voices and his enduring contribution to public life.
In 2026, the Oration will be delivered by Thomas Keneally himself. Across a
career spanning more than six decades, Keneally has written with moral clarity about history, power, injustice, faith and national identity, helping to shape how Australians understand both their past and their place in the world.
In this special address, Keneally reflects on writing as a civic act: the
responsibility to bear witness, the role of memory in national storytelling, and the
power of literature to question, challenge, and endure. Drawing on a lifetime of work across fiction, history and memoir, the Oration speaks to the moment we are in now, and to the long view writers must take.
The Thomas Keneally Oration opens the Manly Writers’ Festival, setting the tone for the days that follow with stories across Manly.