Sydney Writers' Festival

Sydney Writers' Festival

Author: Sydney Writers' Festival Language: English Episodes: 100
Step into the vibrant heart of Australia's largest celebration of literature, stories, and ideas with the Sydney Writers' Festival podcast. This audio companion captures the festival's dynamic spirit year-round, offering front-row access to conversations you might have missed. Each episode pulls you into the room for live, unscripted discussions with a remarkable lineup of international authors, sharp journalists, groundbreaking scientists, and provocative public intellectuals. The range is deliberately broad, reflecting the festival's own eclectic programming-you'll find deep dives into the craft of fiction alongside frank explorations of societal issues, business innovation, and cultural critique. It’s more than just author interviews; it’s where books meet the big ideas they inspire. The Sydney Writers' Festival podcast serves as a permanent record of those fleeting, brilliant moments of connection and insight, all curated by the festival team. For anyone curious about the world and the words we use to describe it, this series provides a regular dose of intellectual stimulation and narrative pleasure. Tune in to hear the arguments, the stories, and the questions that shape our contemporary conversation, all delivered with the authentic energy of the live event.
Episodes
Past and Future of Indigenous Recognition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:03
[Content warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners should be aware that this podcast contains reference to deceased persons.] The fight for First Nations rights in Australia is ongoing, most recently frust…
Making a Writer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:51
What enables writers to grow and flourish? Writing is mostly a solitary pursuit that draws on individual reserves of talent and skill. But writers are also part of a national community that can help, or hinder, celebrate…
State of the Art: The Novel [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:40
The novel has continued to evolve since its inception as a major literary form centuries ago. It has seen styles and genres come and go, adaptation and translation between languages and cultures and countless publishing…
2025 Program Announcement: Benjamin Law and Ann Mossop [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:51
Join Benjamin Law and Artistic Director Ann Mossop as they discuss the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival program. The pair talk about the 2025 Festival theme, In This Together, and how books bring us closer to one another, o…
Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood: Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:48
Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood invite us onto the Country they call home in Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra, reflecting on life after publishing Dark Emu. In the aftermath of devastating bushfires in north-eastern Victoria,…
How We Learn to Read with Sally Rippin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:32
We all know the importance of literacy for school and life, but what happens when, despite all your efforts, reading just doesn’t “click”? Sally Rippin, the Australian Children’s Laureate and author of the book Wild Thin…
First Fictions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:17
Jennifer Croft, Bri Lee and Louise Milligan have earned widespread acclaim in the realms of translation, non-fiction and investigative journalism, respectively. Now, these authors are branching out into novels for the fi…
Literary Legends [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:24
Explore the literary histories of Charmian Clift, Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower. Following her biography The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift, Nadia Wheatley contributed the afterword to The End of the Morning, C…
SWF Great Debate: Artificial Intelligence is Better Than the Real Thing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:37
Humankind stands at a crossroads: will artificial intelligence make us superhumanly productive, liberating us from life’s most mundane tasks? Or have we opened Pandora’s box, unleashing sentient technology that will even…
Robyn Davidson: Unfinished Woman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:11
Robyn Davidson once described Unfinished Woman as an “infinite book”. “I feel absolutely that I have to write it and absolutely that I can’t write it.” Twenty-five years in the making, this unforgettable memoir charts he…