2009 Festival dates for your diary

swf flags and bridge.jpgSydney Writers' Festival 2009 will be held from Monday 18 to Sunday 24 May.

The full program of events and participants will be announced on Saturday 28 March 2009 in the Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum and here on the SWF website. Tickets will also go on sale from this date.

In the meantime, sign up to our monthly e-news to receive all the latest Festival news and exclusive subscriber offers and competitions. To subscribe, enter your name and email address on the right-hand-side of this page.  

 
Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2008 winners announced

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the Fiction and Non-fiction winners of the new Prime Minister’s Literary Awards at a ceremony on Friday 12 September.

Non-fiction winner:
Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers Philip Jones

Fiction winner:
The Zookeeper's War Steven Conte

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards are a new initiative celebrating the contribution of Australian literature to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life. The awards will be held annually with a tax free prize of $100,000 awarded to the work judged to be of the highest literary merit in the categories of fiction and non-fiction. For more information click here.
 
Man Booker 2008 shortlist announced

Steve ToltzSydney Writers' Festival congratulates 2008 Festival guest Steve Toltz who was recently shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his debut novel A Fraction of the Whole.

Toltz was one of two first time novelists to make the shortlist of six, alongside author of The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga.

Chosen from a longlist of 13, the six shortlisted books were:
  • The White Tiger Aravind Adiga
  • The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry
  • Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh
  • The Clothes on Their Backs Linda Grant
  • The Northern Clemency Philip Hensher
  • A Fraction of the Whole Steve Toltz
The winner will be announced on 14 October 2008. For more information, visit the Man Booker Prize website.
 
Catch highlights from this year's Festival

Click here to download or listen to podcasts of the following Sydney Writers' Festival 2008 sessions:

  • Ask Jeanette Winterson Anything!
  • Don Watson's American Journey
  • Helen Garner in Conversation with Caroline Baum
  • Hermione Lee in Conversation
  • James Reston Jr in Conversation
  • Kate Jennings in Conversation with Caroline Baum
  • Not Another Misery Memoir with Judith Lucy, Ryan Knighton and Imran Ahmad
  • Private Lives, Public Histories with Wibke Bruhns, Naldo Rei, Sandy Blackburn Wright
  • Remembering Parents with Wibke Bruhns, Craig Sherborne and David Rieff
  • Simon Sebag Montefiore in Conversation with Bob Carr
  • The Lessons of Vietnam with Andrew Bacevich and Paul Ham
  • The Simple Life with Michael Pollan and Elizabeth Farrelly
  • The Whale Warriors: Peter Heller in Conversation  


Thanks to our friends at SlowTV and ABC Fora, you can also watch video recordings of some of this year's events. Just click on the links below.

SlowTV is an internet TV channel delivering interviews, debates, conversations and public lectures about Australia's key political, social and cultural issues. 

ABC Fora is a new multi-platform project on the ABC. Two television programs a week and a constantly updated website broadcasts a selection of the most interesting, challenging and diverse talks events from across Australia.

Transcripts and recordings are also available from ABC Radio National's Book Show website. 
 

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