MWF 2016 program announced

The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has announced the program for its 2016 festival, which runs from 26 August to 4 September.

Author Maxine Beneba Clarke will deliver the opening night address prior to the announcement of the Miles Franklin Literary Award. As previously announced, US novelist Lionel Shriver will deliver the closing night address with a talk on gender. The program includes more than 400 authors, scriptwriters, comedians and other guests.

International artists include UK singer-songwriter and poet P J Harvey, US-author Geoff Dyer, Canadian author Yann Martel, US science writer Steve Silberman, Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Irish novelist Eimear McBride, and bestselling US author of ‘The Passage’ trilogy Justin Cronin.

They join previously announced authors Alexei Sayle, Molly Crabapple, Lev Grossman, George Packer, Laura Secor and Neil Strauss.

Australian authors include Magda Szubanski, Fiona Wright, Liane Moriarty, Richard Flanagan, Charlotte Wood, Elizabeth Harrower, Anna Funder, Steven Amsterdam, Emily Bitto and Nick Earls.

The festival also includes the MWF schools program, which runs from 29 August to 1 September.

The festival is the fourth under CEO and director Lisa Dempster, who was reappointed to the role for another two years in October last year. Independent bookseller Readings will return as official bookseller, replacing Dymocks, which ran the festival bookstore for the past few years.

Tickets will be on sale from 22 July. To see the full program, click here.

Category: Local news