Event Topic: Politics & Current Affairs

  • Book Chat: Leah Kaminsky and Meg Keneally on ‘Animals Make Us Human’

    Book Chat: Leah Kaminsky and Meg Keneally on ‘Animals Make Us Human’

    Leah Kaminsky is a physician and award-winning writer. Her debut novel, The Waiting Room, won the Voss Literary Prize. The Hollow Bones won both the Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction categories of the 2019 International Book Awards, and the 2019 American Book Fest’s Best Book Award for Literary Fiction. She is the author of ten books and holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

    Meg Keneally has worked as a public affairs officer, sub-editor, freelance feature writer, reporter and talkback radio producer. She is co-author with her father Tom Keneally of The Monsarrat Series of historical crime novels. Fled, Meg’s first solo novel, was published in 2019. Her most recent novel is The Wreck.

    In their book chat, Leah and Meg discuss what inspired them to undertake the creation of Animals Make Us Human, a book about the connections of humans with animals in the natural world — and the process of selecting and working with the incredible authors that contributed to the anthology.

    Proceeds of their book Animals Makes Us Human go to the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

  • Book Chat: Danielle Celermajer on ‘Summertime’

    Book Chat: Danielle Celermajer on ‘Summertime’

    Professor Danielle Celermajer is a philosopher, and Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. Her books include Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apology and The Prevention of Torture: An Ecological Approach. While her professional and academic background have focused on human rights, she has recently shifted her thinking and activism towards environmental, animal and human ethics and justice issues.

    She lives in a Multispecies Justice Community in rural New South Wales and experienced first-hand the realities of climate change during the Black Summer Fires of 2019-2020. In this book chat on Summertime, a work of non-fiction written in the shadow of the 2019/2020 bushfires, Professor Celermajer expands on the story of Jimmy the pig, urging us to expand our understanding of grief beyond the anthropocentric — and discusses how she uses the evocation of sense in her work to take the reader beyond abstract knowledge of the natural world.

  • William Cooper: A life of activism

    William Cooper: A life of activism

    Special event to commemorate National Reconciliation Week.

    Daniel James, a descendent of Aboriginal activist William Cooper, in conversation with Simon Holloway, Head of Education, Melbourne Holocaust Museum, discussing Cooper’s extraordinary life of activism, including his protests against Nazi persecution of Jews.

    Daniel James and Dr Simon Holloway

  • Possibilities For Dialogue in Polarised Times

    Possibilities For Dialogue in Polarised Times

    This event has replaced with ‘William Cooper: A life of activism’, featuring Daniel James.

    Sarah Krasnostein will be appearing in ‘The Passenger: Unearthing a Dunera Boy’s Story‘, at 10.00am on Sunday May 29.

  • Reporting in Times of Crisis

    Reporting in Times of Crisis

    Whether it’s Covid 19, domestic and international politics, war or fake news, conspiracy theories and rumours have abounded over the past two years. This panel of scientists and journalists examines reportage in times of crisis.

    Deborah Stone (moderator), Peter Doherty, Margaret Simons, Norman Swan, Zoya Sheftalovich

  • Climate Turning Point: Challenge or Opportunity?

    Climate Turning Point: Challenge or Opportunity?

    What can writers and stories contribute in our collective response to climate change? In what direction do they point us? 

    Rebecca Forgasz (moderator), Danielle Celermajer, Daniel Sherrell, Mireille Juchau

  • New Populism and Old Hatreds

    New Populism and Old Hatreds

    Join Melbourne Jewish Book Week and world-renowned historian Simon Schama, a high-profile contributor to the new issue of The Jewish Quarterly with the editor Jonathan Pearlman – to explore why the stoking of ancient hatreds is so potent right now. 

  • Reconciliation, Identity and Imagined Futures

    Reconciliation, Identity and Imagined Futures

    Melbourne journalist Isabelle Oderberg was joined by Noongar writer Claire G. Coleman and writer, Black American and Orthodox Rabbi Shais Rishon as they journeyed through the variegated terrain of identity and belonging. Exploring experiences of connection and community alongside those of disconnection and divide, Oderberg uncovered Coleman and Rishon’s realities, fears and hopes through the prism of their writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

  • Plagues, Pandemics and Preventing Panic: Professor David Isaacs and Dr Elizabeth Finkel

    Plagues, Pandemics and Preventing Panic: Professor David Isaacs and Dr Elizabeth Finkel

    In trying to navigate the unknown future, what can the past teach us? Join paediatric infectious disease specialist Professor David Isaacs, (author of Defeating the Ministers of Death: The Compelling History of Vaccination), in conversation with Dr Elizabeth Finkel, as together they shed light on the history of pandemics.
  • Colum McCann  in conversation with Mark Raphael Baker

    Colum McCann in conversation with Mark Raphael Baker

    Broadcast live from New York to Melbourne, Melbourne Jewish Book Week — in partnership with Plus61J — is thrilled to bring you Colum McCann, the international award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin, discussing his new book Apeirogon with Mark Raphael Baker.