Big names and bold ideas set for Queenscliffe Literary Festival

A FORMER politician, the 2025 winner of the Miles Franklin prize, a Geelong Cats champion and, for the first time, an international author are among the writers and household names to feature in this year’s Queenscliffe Literary Festival.

The program, announced last night (Thursday, September 11), is stacked with big-name writers and personalities from around the country, including previous Stella Prize-winners Evelyn Aralun and Heather Rose, MasterChef Australia’s first female judge Melissa Leong, Sydney author Jane Caro and First Nations activist and academic Marcia Langton.

Program director Elizabeth McCarthy, who continues to propel the festival to new heights, said this year’s event will be “a brilliant celebration of community and culture”.

“There is something for everyone in our 2025 program: for art lovers, sports enthusiasts, foodies, podcast listeners, politics junkies, crime buffs, families, green thumbs, social justice advocates and budding writers,” she said.

This year’s theme is “Rising Tides”, recognition Ms McCarthy notes in the program’s foreword that many feel “this moment in history is particularly fraught and the stakes so high”, and many guests will explore topics of “critical significance”.

 

 

The festival’s first international guest, Egyptian-American journalist Omar El Akkad will join Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf to discuss global flashpoints, including Black Lives Matter and the genocide in Gaza, while Peter Greste, who was imprisoned for his journalism, will reflect on why the truth has become so dangerous.

“As those global tides rise, writers festivals are places where people can come together to interrogate the big issues, be moved by great stories and conversations, celebrate ideas and experience the pleasures of reading and connection,” Ms McCarthy writes.

“There is no better place to be in October than on the high ground in Queenscliffe.”

But there will be plenty of levity and intrigue, too.

Craig Silvey, the bestselling author of Runt — last year reimagined as a feature film — will bring the dog-themed shenanigans to the Point Lonsdale Primary School Hall for a one-hour event recommended for readers aged eight and above, while former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown will discuss his new book Defiance and the forces that have shaped him.

 

 

“I’m particularly excited to be celebrating Jane Austen’s birthday with some Regency dancing and to host a play-reading of a new work about Germaine Greer,” Ms McCarthy said.

Mystery fans will be able to catch sessions with local crime writers Mark Smith, Christine Keighery and Tanya Scott and true crime lovers will relish a conversation between crime reporter Andrew Rule and ABC investigative journalist Rachael Brown in which they unpack the collective fascination with the mushroom murders.

Meanwhile, sports sessions include John Wayne Parr, a 10-time world title-winning Muay Thai fighter and boxer, discussing the triumphs and trials of his brilliant and brutal career, and Geelong Cat Zach Tuohy and journalist Catherine Murphy talking about their book The Way of the Irish.

The Queenscliffe Literary Festival will run from October 17 to October 26. Tickets are available now.

For more information, head to queenscliffeliteraryfestival.com.au, or to grab tickets, head to tinyurl.com/QLF2025