Around Melbourne
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Calling all bookworms, literature lovers and BookTok obsessives: the Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) line-up has just been unveiled. 2026's program reads like a list of the crème de la crème of the 2026 literary world, featuring New York Times best-selling authors, Booker Prize standouts, first-timers and MWF exclusives, with a stellar cast coming together to celebrate the iconic festival's 40th anniversary.
The festival will spread big bookish energy across the city and surrounds via four days of workshops, talks, events and panels, running from May 7-10. This time around, the central theme of the program is 'Visions and Revisions' – which will explore the ideas that matter, futures we imagine, the strange stories we all carry, and the particular revisions, both personal and collective, that work to define us.
International highlights include former NZ prime minister and all-round fan favourite, Jacinda Ardern, international bestseller R.F Kuang (Yellowface and Babel), recent Booker prize winner David Szalay (Flesh) and acclaimed Booker winner Yann Martel, whose known worldwide for his beloved book, The Life of Pi.
On the local front, expect to see journalist and human rights advocate Antoniette Latouff present 'Women who Win', alongside activist and former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame. We'll also see Stephanie Alexander (aka, the queen of Australian homestyle cooking) in conversation with beloved author and philanthropist Alice Zaslavsky, in a Mother's Day convo about Aussie national food culture and Alexander's brilliant career.
Across four action-packed literary days, audiences will get the chance to dance amongst some of the most brilliant, buzzing and cutting edge voices in politics, journalism and literature. From poetry slams, to First Nations knowledge systems, to live activities that include a hosted tour of Melbourne's night sky by Melbourne Planetarium senior curator Dr Tanya Hill, to a Sunday walking tour of Melbourne's past, led by Historian and author Robyn Annear, this is a time of year where ideas, critical thought and wonder are absolutely everywhere you look.
There’s so much more to explore on the Melbourne Writers Festival line-up, so head to the website to buy tickets and find an event (or 16) that sing to you.