All In The Family
Moderator: Tom Gibson • Peter Garrett & Emily Garrett, Richard Glover & Debra Oswald, Sam Johnson & Hilde Hinton
Tolstoy famously opined that ‘All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. But what about families who write? Father and daughter, husband, and wife and two siblings reveal who gets to tell what and how!
Artist
PETER GARRETT
Peter Garrett is a long-time advocate and campaigner on a range of local and global issues. A member of iconic Australian rock band Midnight Oil, he served as a cabinet minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007-13. Peter is a member of the Order of Australia for contributions to the music industry and environment, and an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (France). Peter’s bestselling memoir is Big Blue Sky. He also contributed on the subject of the environment to the anthology Upturn: A Better Normal After Covid-19 (edited by Tanya Plibersek).
Artist
EMILY GARRETT
Emily Garrett is based in Sydney’s inner west. She is the author of The Village Dogs of Pucklechuck children’s books series, has made four short films and is passionate about street photography.
Artist
RICHARD GLOVER
Richard Glover is the author of Flesh Wounds, described as a comic romp for anyone whose family was not what they ordered, and of The Land Before Avocado: Journeys in a lost Australia. His most recent book is Love, Clancy – A Dog’s Letters Home. He writes regularly for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Washington Post and presents the comedy show Thank God It’s Friday! on ABC local radio.
Artist
DEBRA OSWALD
Debra is a two-time winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and creator/head writer of the first five seasons of television series Offspring. Her stage plays have been performed around the world. She has written television scripts (including Bananas in Pyjamas and Police Rescue), nine books for children and three adult novels. Her new novel is The Family Doctor. Debra recently performed a sell-out season at Griffin Theatre of her one-woman show, Is There Something Wrong With That Lady?
Artist
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Samuel Johnson won a Gold Logie for his portrayal of Molly Meldrum and danced his way to the Mirrorball trophy on Dancing with the Stars. He prefers to be known as a brother to his sister Connie, who died of cancer in September 2017. Since Connie’s diagnosis, Samuel has unicycled 16,000 km around Australia, helped build a giant love heart out of 50 million five cent- pieces and helped raise more than $13m for cancer research. He was the 2018 Victorian of the Year for his charity work to vanquish cancer. Samuel is a bestselling author with his and Connie's book Love Your Sister. His latest book is Dear Mum.
Artist
HILDE HINTON
Hilde avoided being a writer for many years. But after her critically acclaimed debut novel, The Loudness of Unsaid Things, made a number of bestseller lists, everything changed. Now the stories won't stop. Hilde lives in a boisterous house in Melbourne with a revolving door for the temporarily defeated and takes great pride in people leaving slightly better than when they arrived. Her children are mostly loved. And so are her books.
Moderator
TOM GIBSON
Tom Gibson burst onto the Australian comedy scene by winning the Green Faces national comedy competition and the Canberra heat of Triple J’s Raw Comedy competition. He has since written and performed solo stand-up comedy shows for each of the last 12 years, including at the Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra comedy festivals. Tom is currently completing a Creative PhD at the University of Canberra that focuses on the way authors of young adult fiction portray identity development in their protagonists. His PhD includes a humorous YA novel inspired by the findings of this research.