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Calling all bookworms, literature lovers and BookTok obsessives: the Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) line-up has just been unveiled. This year’s program reads like a list of the crème de la crème of the 2025 literary world, featuring New York Times best-selling authors, Booker Prize standouts, first-timers and MWF exclusives.
The festival will spread big bookish energy across the city and surrounds via four days of workshops, talks, events and panels, running from May 8-11. This time around, the central theme of the program is 'Magical Thinking' – which will explore the power of storytelling as a transformative force and celebrate the magic that lingers long after the final page.
International highlights include Irish authors Marian Keyes and Colm Tóibín; 2024 Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey, who will open the festival with a star-studded panel discussion; and UK philosopher AC Grayling, who will tackle the topic on everybody’s lips: the culture wars.
On the local front, catch writers, friends and co-authors Jamila Rizvi and Rosie Waterland sit down to discuss brain health with host Clare Bowditch; listen as Jimmy Barnes recounts the his larger-than-life adventures; or see five First Nations women showcase their artistic practices in writing, poetry, music, performance and art for Blak Magic Women.
“Across four packed days this May, some of Australia and the world’s most brilliant and incisive writers and thinkers will gather in our City of Literature to celebrate the alchemy of storytelling, and the power of imagination to open doors we never thought possible,” said MWF’s festival director, Veronica Sullivan.
“Audiences will encounter Booker Prize winners, inspiring memoirists, genre-defying storytellers, acute political analysts, vibrant podcasters, transcendent musicians, shimmering poets and emerging voices whose work will shape Australian literature in years to come.”
There’s so much more to explore on the Melbourne Writers Festival line-up, so head to the website to buy tickets.