VIEW OUR PROGRAM BUY TICKETS DOWNLOAD PDF The program is organised into pathways to help you navigate the Festival. Each pathway brings together sessions with shared themes or interests, but they’re not meant to be followed from start to finish. They’re simply a way to explore what’s on offer, mix and match sessions, and create your own Festival experience. Find out more here . Filter by Pathway Select Pathway LEARN MORE Thursday 19 March, 2026 6.30pm-9.00pm EVENT Thomas Keneally Oration LOCATION Manly Wharf Events (formerly Sake) LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 11.00am-12.00pm EVENT Workshop: Edit Like an Expert LOCATION Manly Youth Centre (The Writers' Room) LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 12.30-2.00pm EVENT Roundtable: Who Pays the Price? Gender and Institutional Power LOCATION Manly Life Saving Club LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT Country and the Stories We Tell LOCATION Manly Life Saving Club LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT Truth, Voice and Who Is Believed LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT Workshop: Beyond the Postcard: Writing Place with Authority LOCATION Manly Youth Centre (The Writers' Room) LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 3.45-5.00pm EVENT A Speed Date with Love LOCATION Manly Life Saving Club LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 4.00-5.00pm EVENT Workshop: Building a Professional Name. Reputation and Resilience at Work LOCATION Manly Youth Centre (The Writers' Room) LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 4.00-5.00pm EVENT After 'Liberation' and 'Discovery': Power, Aftermath and Human Agency LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 5.15-6.00pm EVENT Money, Confidence and Choice LOCATION Manly Life Saving Club LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 5.30-6.15pm EVENT Lloyd Rees and the City He Taught Us to See LOCATION Manly Art Gallery LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 5.30-6.15pm EVENT Speaking the Unspoken LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 6.30-7.30pm EVENT Boys, Masculinity and the Online World LOCATION Manly Life Saving Club LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 6.45-7.30pm EVENT The Australian Wars: Truth, Violence and the Making of a Nation LOCATION Manly Art Gallery LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 7.30-9.00pm EVENT Festival Conversation and Book Launch: 'Betrayal' LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Friday 20 March, 2026 8.00-8.45pm EVENT Feature Conversation: Democracy Under Pressure with Amy Remeikis LOCATION Manly Life Saving Club LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 10.00-11.00am EVENT Ask Us Anything: From Manuscript to Bookstore—What Really Gets You Published LOCATION The Manly Club LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 11.30-12.30pm EVENT Open Book: Becoming Yourself Under Pressure LOCATION Henry G's LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 11.30-12.30pm EVENT The Nightmare Sequence: Art, Witnessing and Fracture LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 1.00-2.00pm EVENT Open Book: What the Writing Reveals LOCATION Henry G's LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 1.00-2.00pm EVENT Frontlines: Conflict, Capture and the Human Cost of State Power LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 1.00-2.00pm EVENT Land, Identity and Who Gets to Belong LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT Workshop: From Page to Stage: Writing for the Theatre LOCATION Sky Theatre (The Studio) LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT The Murder Next Door LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT The Diplomat: Inside Australia’s Foreign Service LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT Inheritance, Survival and Belonging LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 4.00-5.00pm EVENT The World on Edge: Australia and the New Global Disorder LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 4.00-5.30pm EVENT Manly Poetry Salon LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 4.00-5.00pm EVENT Open Book: Writing Lived Experience LOCATION Sky Theatre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 4.00-4.45pm EVENT Power, Paranoia and Pleasure LOCATION Henry G's LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 5.30-6.15pm EVENT Bring Back Yesterday: In Conversation with Bob Carr LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Saturday 21 March, 2026 8.00-10.00pm EVENT The Night Shift LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 8.30am-9.45am EVENT Beyond the Hot Flush: Rewriting Midlife with Michelle Bridges LOCATION Hotel Steyne LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 10.00-11.00am EVENT Just Saying: In Conversation with Hugh Mackay LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 11.30-12.30pm EVENT Inside the General Hospital LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 11.30am-12.30pm EVENT The Stories that Sport Forgot LOCATION Henry G's LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 11.30-12.30pm EVENT Ruptured Lives, Resilient Voices LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 1.00-2.00pm EVENT Lives That Don’t Follow the Script LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 1.00-2.00pm EVENT Age of Extremes: Spies, Lies and Power Games in the 21st Century LOCATION Henry G's LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 2.30-3.15pm EVENT The Great Australian Dream, or The Great Australian Obsession? LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 2.30-3.30pm EVENT History’s Long Shadow: Writing the Past LOCATION Manly Youth Centre LEARN MORE Sunday 22 March, 2026 4.00-5.00pm EVENT Festival Conversation and Book Launch: Home, Forever LOCATION Manly Youth Centre ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

Manly Writers' Festival 19-22 March, 2026 Stories Across Manly PROGRAM TICKETS Why Manly Writers' Festival? Manly Writers’ Festival is an independent, volunteer-run festival for readers who care about words, storytelling, ideas, the power and joy of reading and writing, community life and the public good. We bring together writers, journalists, historians, and storytellers to explore fiction and non-fiction in all their forms — from novels, memoir, history, reportage, personal reflection, and the important issues of today. Our program balances imagination with lived experience. It brings established voices, local and emerging writers into conversations about people, place, culture, power, memory, sport, and everyday life. Not everyone will agree with every conversation or every voice, but that's exactly what writers' festivals do best: challenge, inspire, inform, and entertain. PROGRAM Thomas Keneally Oration Opens Festival 19 March 2026 We are honoured to welcome Thomas Keneally AO as the Orator for the inaugural Thomas Keneally Oration at the 2026 Manly Writers’ Festival. Read the full announcement → TICKETS Beyond the Hot Flush Michelle Bridges with Caroline Baum Money, Confidence & Choice Melissa Browne with Jill Valentine Lives that Don't Follow the Script Lucy Nelson & Kumi Taguchi with Summer Land Roundtable: Gender & Institutional Power Ainslie Harvey, Tracey Holmes, Ee Ling Quah & Diana Thorp with Angela Priestley If you're interested women, work, money & reinvention OUR AUTHORS Ainslie Harvey Alexandra Smith Ali Lowe Amy Coomer Amy Hutton Amy Remeikis Anna Dombkins Anne Buist AO Anthony Segaert Antoun Issa Ashley Kalagian Blunt Ben Aitchison Bob Bowker Bob Carr Candida Baker Cocoa Deep-Amek Con Campbell Cory Alpert Courtney Peppernell Daniel Nour Dave Warner Deborah Conway AM Debra Adelaide Diana Thorp Ee Ling Quah MEET OUR AUTHORS

e6c5e1f8-76bb-496d-b5a0-930cc3f51f54 Cory Alpert ABOUT < VIEW ALL AUTHORS Cory Alpert Cory Alpert is a PhD candidate in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, where he researches the impact of artificial intelligence on democratic legitimacy. He is a former White House staffer who served three years during the Biden-Harris Administration as an Advance Associate. His political resumé includes roles such as Senior Policy Advisor to the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Regional Chief of Staff for Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign, and advisory and staff positions across numerous campaigns and levels of government. He works at the intersection of technology, activism, and journalism, regularly contributing to outlets such as The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Haaretz, and Pursuit. He has been nominated for a Quill Award for Commentary by the Melbourne Press Club. < PREVIOUS AUTHOR NEXT AUTHOR > ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

722c4401-8d7d-401e-9e01-68135360c75e Saul Eslake ABOUT < VIEW ALL AUTHORS Saul Eslake Saul Eslake is one of Australia’s leading independent economists and has been Principal of Corunna Advisory since 2015. He has been following, analysing and offering commentary and advice on the Australian and other economies for more than 40 years, cutting his teeth with The Treasury in Canberra. He has had Chief Economist roles at ANZ Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and National Mutual Funds Management, and he has also worked at the Grattan Institute as Director of Productivity Growth. He is currently on the Board of the Council on the Ageing (COTA) and Jamieson Coote Bonds. Saul is the co-author of Australia's Productivity Challenge < PREVIOUS AUTHOR NEXT AUTHOR > ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

Program Feature Conversation: Democracy Under Pressure with Amy Remeikis BUY TICKETS DATE: Friday 20 March, 2026 TIME: 8.00-8.45pm COST: $25.00 Manly Life Saving Club PATHWAY: Living Today HOST : Savva Savas < VIEW ALL SESSIONS Amy Remeikis How is democracy being reshaped by the systems that now control how information flows? In this timely conversation, Amy Remeikis examines how media concentration, social platforms, algorithms and artificial intelligence are altering public debate and democratic accountability. Drawing on her experience in political journalism, she explores how agendas are set, how misinformation spreads, and why trust in institutions is under strain. Rather than a partisan debate, this session offers a clear-eyed analysis of how democratic systems are coping — and often failing — in a rapidly changing information environment, and what citizens should be paying attention to as these pressures intensify.

ff55b8a2-210d-437b-ac6f-cef09db6c366 Thomas Keneally AO ABOUT < VIEW ALL AUTHORS Thomas Keneally AO Thomas Keneally is a literary icon. Since his first novel was published in 1964, he has written numerous novels and non-fiction works. His novels include The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Schindler’s Ark and The People’s Train. He has won the Miles Franklin Award, the Booker Prize, the Los Angeles Times Prize, the Mondello International Prize and has been made a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library, a Fellow of the American Academy, recipient of the University of California gold medal, and is now the subject of an Australian stamp. He has held various academic posts and lives in Manly. < PREVIOUS AUTHOR NEXT AUTHOR > ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

Join the Manly Writer's Festival as a volunteer and help us bring storytelling, creativity, and community together in Manly, Sydney. Enjoy an unforgettable experience and contribute to a cultural celebration. VOLUNTEER SIGN UP FOR 2027 Thank you for your interest in volunteering with us. We really appreciate it. We have reached our volunteer complement for 2026. If you wish to be included for 2027, you are welcome to complete this form. We will be in touch with you towards the end of this year. First name* Last name* Email* Phone* Were you a volunteer with MWF in 2026? Yes No Sign up for news and updates Submit ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gamaraygal and Garigal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

2a2f9da6-d824-41ce-bf8a-b27c179904cd Bob Carr ABOUT < VIEW ALL AUTHORS Bob Carr Bob Carr was Premier of NSW from 1995 to 2005, during which time the NSW Government set new records for spending on infrastructure, became the first government in the state’s history to retire debt, hosted the ‘world’s best Olympics’ in 2000, and achieved the nation’s best school literacy levels. He received the World Conservation Union International Parks Merit Award for creating 350 new national parks, introducing the world’s first carbon trading scheme, and curbing the clearing of native vegetation. Bob has served as Australia’s Foreign Minister (2012–13), and as Director of the Australia–China Relations Institute and is Professor of Industry in Climate and Business at the University of Technology Sydney. In July 2024, he was appointed Chair of the Australian Heritage Council and the NSW Museum of History. He is also the author of Thoughtlines (2002), Foreign Minister (2014), and Run for Your Life (2018). < PREVIOUS AUTHOR NEXT AUTHOR > ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

Program The World on Edge: Australia and the New Global Disorder BUY TICKETS DATE: Saturday 21 March, 2026 TIME: 4.00-5.00pm COST: $25.00 Manly Youth Centre PATHWAY: Australia In the World HOST : Michael Brissenden < VIEW ALL SESSIONS Clinton Fernandes Michael Pembroke Peter Hartcher As the international order shifts, leading commentators and strategic thinkers debate Australia’s future in a rapidly changing world. From US–China competition and increased militarisation to disinformation, the erosion of global norms, the weakening of Western liberalism, and the emergence of an increasingly multipolar world, this finale brings sharply contrasting views to the major strategic questions facing the nation. Dynamic and thought-provoking.

Program The Diplomat: Inside Australia’s Foreign Service BUY TICKETS DATE: Saturday 21 March, 2026 TIME: 2.30-3.30pm COST: $25.00 Manly Youth Centre PATHWAY: Australia In the World HOST : Geraldine Doogue < VIEW ALL SESSIONS Bob Bowker Lachlan Strahan Bob Carr Ian Kemish AM What does diplomacy really look like behind closed doors? Three former diplomats lift the veil on the pressures, responsibilities and moral complexities of representing Australia abroad. From crisis management to regional relationships and the shifting expectations placed on the foreign service, this session offers a candid insider’s view of the work, challenges and changing culture of diplomacy.

Program The Night Shift BUY TICKETS DATE: Saturday 21 March, 2026 TIME: 8.00-10.00pm COST: $49.00 Manly Youth Centre PATHWAY: Living Today HOST : Nick Place & Alice Fraser < VIEW ALL SESSIONS Cocoa Deep-Amek Daniel Nour Max Holzner Con Campbell Deborah Conway AM Cory Alpert Heather Morris A late-night exploration of human voice, meaning and creativity in the age of artificial intelligence. There are four parts to the evening. First, an explainer from Cory Alpert on What AI Is (and Isn't) Doing to Human Creativity. Best-selling author, Heather Morris, in a one-on-one with host Nick Place on Writing Empathy: What Stories Can Do that Facts Can't. Then we switch to looking at human creativity vs AI with The Human Sentence—Writers vs AI with writers Candida Baker, Amy Coomer, Cocoa the Conscious, Amy Hutton and Daniel Nour experimenting with their different voices and tones, versus AI. And we end the evening with The Human Sound—Musicians vs AI. Four different musicians: Con Campbell (Saxophone), Max Holzner (Violin), and Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier show what they can do that AI can't (or maybe can). It's a fabulous evening. Entry includes a complimentary themed cocktail from Wildfire, known as The Afterword.

Program Inheritance, Survival and Belonging BUY TICKETS DATE: Saturday 21 March, 2026 TIME: 2.30-3.30pm COST: $25.00 Manly Youth Centre PATHWAY: Country and Who We Are HOST : Vasiliki Nihas < VIEW ALL SESSIONS Antoun Issa Daniel Nour What do we inherit from the lives our parents lived before us? How do those stories shape who we become? Antoun Issa and Daniel Nour reflect on family, migration, and the quiet legacies of survival. From humour and masculinity to war, displacement and renewal, both writers explore how identity is formed in the space between generations, cultures and expectations. A humane and intimate discussion about belonging and becoming oneself.