10:00- 11:00am

Andrew O'Hagan in conversation

Award-winning Scottish novelist Andrew O’Hagan talks to fellow writer Edmund Campion about his new book, Be Near Me, a story of love, religion, class hatred, and the clash of generations.

11:30- 12:30pm

Beauvoir and Sartre: An Existential Passion

Acclaimed biographer Hazel Rowley talks about her new book,Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Hear the story of the love affair between two of the most famous intellectuals of the 20^th century.    

LUNCH

12:30 – 1:30pm

1:30 - 2:30pm

Acting on Conscience

Join Frank Brennan, Jesuit priest, human rights lawyer and academic as he takes on the big issues such as the war in Iraq and same-sex marriage, and asks the question:  Is there a place for personal beliefs in public life? Can we responsibly mix law, religion and politics?

3:00 –4:00pm

Voices of the Landscape

What happens when a writer makes landscape the character?  Join Tom Griffiths (Slicing the Silence: Voyage to Antarctica) and Michael McKernan (Drought) as they discuss the role of environmental historians, and track the interrelationship between people and the environment.

4:30 –5:30pm

Launch - Emily Ballou: Aphelion

Join Blue Mountains writer Emily Ballou, author of the critically acclaimed Father Lands, as we celebrate the launch of her new novel, Aphelion.

10:00- 11:00am

CAL presents - Larger than Life: Writing Memoir

Kate Holden (In My Skin) and Pip Newling (Knockabout Girl) discuss their extraordinary yet very different personal histories, in a conversation about the choices we make and how they shape our lives.

11:30-12:30pm

Concertos, Gospels and A Little Rain on Thursday

Hear some of the best new Australian writing as Jo Gardiner, Emily Maguire and Matt Rubinstein talk with Varuna’s Creative Director Peter Bishop, in a conversation on their new novels and the intimate lives of us.

LUNCH

12:30 – 1:30pm

1:30 - 2:30pm

Inaugural Mick Dark Lecture: Tom Griffiths

Honeymoon on Ice: Love in a Cold Climate

Emily Ballou was chosen as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists in 2003 and was the winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize in 1997. Emily also writes for film and television and is currently adapting her critically acclaimed first novel, Father Lands, for the screen. Aphelion is her second novel. 

Frank Brennan is a Jesuit priest and lawyer and Professor of Law in the Institute of Legal Studies, at the Australian Catholic University and Professor of Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Notre Dame Australia. He is an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to Aboriginal Australians (1995). He has written extensively on Aboriginal Land Rights and is the author of a number of books, including The Wik Debate, One Land One Nation, Sharing the Country and Land Rights Queensland Style, and is the co-author of Finding Common Ground and Reconciling Our Differences.
His books on civil liberties are Too Much Order With Too Little Law, Legislating Liberty, Tampering with Asylum, and his latest work, Acting on Conscience. 

Jo Gardiner is an award-winning poet, and her short fiction has been published in literary journals across Australia. She works as a psychologist in schools in western Sydney, and at her private practice in the Blue Mountains. The Concerto Inn is her first novel.

Tom Griffiths is a Professor of History in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He is the author of the multi-award-winning Hunters and Collectors: The Antiquarian Imagination in Australia. He is also the author of Forests of Ash: An Environmental History. In the summer of 2002-3 he travelled to Antarctica as a Humanities Fellow with the Australian Antarctic Division. His latest book is Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica.

Kate Holden was born in Melbourne in 1972. She completed an honours degree in classics and literature at the University of Melbourne and a graduate diploma in professional writing and editing. In My Skin is her first book, a searingly honest and wonderfully written account of a life on the streets, on drugs and on the skids.

Kimina Lyall had been working at The Australian newspaper for some years before she began a posting as Southeast Asia correspondent, based in Bangkok, where she covered stories from the Bali bombings to court cases involving Australian child sex predators. But her presence as an eye-witness to the Boxing Day tsunami unravelled her relationship with her work, and forms the subject of her first book, Out of The Blue - Facing the Tsunami. 

Pip Newling was winner of the Varuna/HarperCollins manuscript award (2004). Knockabout Girl is Pip’s first non-fiction book. Her short film, The Reunion, won awards both in Australia and overseas. In 1991, Les Murray crowned her the Bard of Bellingen. Pip lives in Melbourne.

Andrew O’Hagan is the author of the novels Personality and Our Fathers, a finalist for the Booker Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Whitbread Award. His work has appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, and the Guardian. He has been name one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. His latest novel is Be Near Me (2006), tells the story of a Catholic priest who takes over a small Scottish parish, only to get caught in a clash of generations, small-town politics and class hatreds.

Emily Maguire is the author of Taming the Beast, a darkly erotic coming-of-age novel which has been translated into nine languages. Her new book, The Gospel According to Luke. Her articles on sex, religion, culture and literature have been published in newspapers and magazines including The Observer, The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Reading.

Michael McKernan is a well-known historian. He was principal historian at the Australian War Memorial and is now a freelance commentator, writer and critic. He has written a number of books including Drought and The Brumbies and is now the resident historian for the ABC.

Hazel Rowley is the author of Richard Wright: The Life and Times and, most recently,Tête-a-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, a portrait of the twentieth century’s most famous couple, the book is being translated into over a dozen languages, and has garnered considerable international acclaim. It is among the Washington Post's Best Books.

Matt Rubinstein's first novel Solstice, was short-listed for the 1993 Australian/Vogel award and published, to critical acclaim, in 1994 by Allen & Unwin. His adaptation of the book for the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Magpie Theatre was the hit of the 1996 Adelaide Festival, directed by Neill Gladwin.  Matt’s second novel, Nomad, was published in 1997 by Hyland House and his third, Vellum, was runner-up for the 2001 Australian/Vogel award, and will be published in 2007 under the title, A Little Rain on Thursday.

Melissa Sweet is one of Australia’s most respected health journalists, and has been writing about health and medical issues for more than 15 years. She has worked at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin magazine and Australian Associated Press. Her most recent book, Inside Madness tells the story of the shocking murder of Adelaide psychiatrist, Dr Margaret Tobin. 

Neal Blewett has been an academic - Professor of Political Theory and Institutions, Flinders University 1974-77, a politician - Australian Minister for Health 1983-90, and a diplomat - High Commissioner to the United Kingdom 1994-98. He is the author of three major works of non-fiction and is a regular reviewer for The Australian Book Review. He became a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1996.

Ed Campion is a Catholic priest, writer, editor, literary judge and academic. A former chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, he has been judge of most of the major Australian literary awards. His books include Rockchoppers (1982), A Place in the City (1994) and Lines of My Life (2003).

Delia Falconer is the author of two novels, The Service of Clouds and The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers. She holds a PhD in English Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Melbourne. She has been the recipient of two fellowships at Varuna, along with residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland, Bundanon, and the State Library of Victoria. In 2003 she travelled as the James Joyce Fellow to Dublin, Trieste, and Beijing, and currently holds the NSW Writer's Fellowship.

Susan Hayes is the Manager of Copyright Agency Limited's philanthropic Cultural Fund.  Previously she has been Director of the Australian National Playwrights' Centre and Chair of the Australian Society of Authors. In Western Australia, Susan was Director of the WA State Literature Centre. She has edited collections of Western Australian writing for University of Western Australia Press and for the UWA Centre for Studies in Australian Literature.