Sarah Wilson:
I Eat The Stars
Friday 8 May | 6.30pm
The Street Theatre
From New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Sarah Wilson comes a powerful, hopeful exploration of how to live with meaning in a world that feels like it’s coming undone.
Catastrophic fires and floods. Record heat. Political instability. AI and nuclear anxiety. Rising inequality and unrest. It’s hard to shake the sense that something is deeply wrong, that the systems we depend on are wobbling, or even collapsing altogether. In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson argues that what we’re experiencing isn’t unique, but part of a pattern every complex civilisation has faced: systemic collapse.
So how do we keep living, loving, choosing, creating, when the ground feels unstable beneath our feet? Should we have children? Plan for the future? Invest, prepare, or opt out? And how do we stay open-hearted without tipping into doom and despair?
In conversation with national Board member for Women in Media and HerCanberra’s Emma MacDonald, Sarah Wilson leads a courageous and compassionate dialogue on how to live fully, beautifully, and wisely in uncertain times - exploring why joy, meaning, and tenderness matter now more than ever.
“A beautiful and uplifting book” – Liam Neeson
Holden Sheppard:
Yeah The Boys
Friday 15 May | 6pm
Dickson Library
ACT Libraries and the Canberra Writers Festival are thrilled to present the launch of Yeah The Boys with author Holden Sheppard.
A bold, propulsive novel about male friendship and masculinity. Three boys become men in this much-anticipated follow-up to modern gay Australian classic Invisible Boys.
Seven years after escaping their rural hometown, the boys – Charlie, Zeke and Hammer – are back, though not as we left them. Unapologetic and unforgettable, this is the story of three boys finding their way back to each other, and finding their own ways to become men.
Holden Sheppard is an award‑winning Australian author whose work explores masculinity, sexuality, and identity through contemporary fiction. He is known for his candid, politically engaged writing and his contribution to conversations around queer experience and representation in Australian literature.
Night of the Bookers:
David Szalay & Susan Choi
Tuesday 12 May | 6.00pm
National Library of Australia
Following the global success of two extraordinary literary works, join us for a glittering night of words as we host internationally acclaimed authors Susan Choi and David Szalay.
Booker Prize 2025 winner David Szalay will discuss his latest novel Flesh – a hypnotic and propulsive work about a Hungarian man swept up to live alongside London’s super-rich. Flesh confronts profound questions about what drives a life, what makes it worth living, and what ultimately breaks it.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025, Susan Choi’s critically acclaimed novel Flashlight traces the sweeping story of one family caught in the currents of the twentieth century from Japan to the United States to the North Korean regime. This monumental new work from the National Book Award-winning author spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, deeply moving exploration of family, loss, memory, and the unseen forces that shape our lives.
Susan and David will appear in conversation with Canberra’s much-loved Nigel Featherstone, read from their work and discuss their writing lives. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear two of today’s most compelling literary voices in conversation and enjoy a celebration of Booker Prize excellence!
Flashlight – Ferociously smart and full of surprises, Eleanor Catton, author of
Flesh - 'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital