Perth Writers Festival: Recent Episodes
ABC Local
Indulge your passion for writing and ideas with some of the top literary visitors to Perth for the Writers Festival
Western Australia has some great literary talent. Join writers Jon Doust, Robyn Mundy and Stephen Scourfield as they explain just what it is about WA that inspires their writing.
Join Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting for a riotous evening. Warning: Contains coarse language
While some critics praise the Australian film industry for having its best year ever in 2009, others take a harsher view.
It's 2010, we live in a modern world. But how did we get to the political, religious and social setting that we're in today?
Join William Dalrymple as he tells tales from India at the 2010 Perth Writers' Festival.
Children's author Morris Gleitzman talks about his latest book, Grace. He also describes how he became a writer.
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Finkel introduces you to some of the men featured in his book, The Good Soldiers. Finkel was embedded with 800 US Marines in Iraq for eight months.
Patrick Gale and Salley Vickers talk about turning heartache into an opportunity for writing good fiction at the 2010 Perth Writers Festival.
Spend an hour with Salley Vickers as she discusses her latest book Dancing Backwards, reads an excerpt and takes your questions.
One per cent of Australians go missing each year. This fact inspired Hugh Mackay to write his novel Ways of Escape.
How can you create grood characters in your novels? Authors Marina Endicott and Andrea Goldsmith explain how they go about developing characters.
Are we able to speak without using managerial or public service jargon? AC Grayling and Don Watson explore the idea that our language is in decline because of it.
Horticulturalist and broadcaster Monty Don talks to Stephen Scourfield about his 18-year journey writing his book The Ivington Diaries.
Have a laugh with historians Tom Keneally and Michael Cathcart as they discuss what it means to be a larrikin.
Australian author Alex Miller talks about his career and his new novel Lovesong in this conversation session of the 2010 Perth Writers' Festival.
Paul Kelly, Michael Cathcart and Hugh Mackay discuss the nation's identity through politics, our cultural history and recent events such as the Global Financial Crisis.
Judith Lanigan and Linda Jaivin describe how they turned history research into thrilling fiction in their respective novels.
George Ernest Morrison lived one hell of a life as Peking correspondent for The Times of London in the 1900s - so much so that two authors wrote books on his escapades.
Colin McLaren and Michael Koryta discuss their experience of writing true crime books based on their respective experience as an undercover detective and a private investigator.
How have our ideas of home and intimacy changed over the last few decades and is 'the Australian Dream' making us happy?
Everyone has an opinion of John Howard and Paul Keating, but how does Kevin Rudd compare?
Two tales of atonement - one of a human shield in Baghdad, another of a white collar criminal doing time in a prison with a difference.
If you thought that anyone who's been played by George Clooney and has been investigated by the FBI would have a story or two to share, you'd be right.
Just over a year since he came to power with a promise of change, how much is actually different under the Rudd government?
It could be a case of history repeating, but events of years gone by can inspire some great novels.
The unexamined life is not worth living, or so Socrates said, and some authors are willing to put their own lives under the microscope for their writing.
You are what you read, some would say, so what are the books that have fed some popular published authors?
A certain feature film earned some attention for our state's landscape but it has also inspired many writers.
The very personal writing of James McBride has made him one of the most celebrated contemporary US writers.
Climate change has been acknowledged as the most pressing concern facing us but has it been overtaken by other events and how seriously will it be taken from now?
A recreational fisher, advocate for marine conservation, and novelist talks about a popular pastime under threat.
They say you should write about what you know and for a couple of top authors that means a secretive world they can open up to us.
In an increasingly secular society, what roles can God and faith play in our lives, if any at all?
Nearly four years of imprisonment without ever being charged sounds like an indescribable horror, but Mamdouh Habib has managed to share descriptions of his experiences.
There is nothing better than a book that you just can't put down, but how do you craft a 'ripping yarn'?
With stories from a part of the world central to global affairs, an artist, poet and novelist explores humanity, memory and history.
What his work reveals about Australian society is one of the things Robert Drewe discussed as part of the Writers Festival Book Club.
Ever a topic of conversation and a source of disputes, three esteemed commentators share their thoughts on the current situation in one of the world's ongoing hot spots.
The first and only female Director-General of MI5 has more recently turned her hand to writing spy thrillers.
What difference can any of us really make in the world? Quite a lot according to this Princeton University Professor of Bioethics.