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The Art of the Essay

10 Oct
BOOK

ABOUT THE SHOW

Richard Flanagan, Andrew O’Hagan, Melissa Lucashenko & Cameron Hurst in conversation with Carody Culver

Every few years, somebody on the internet will declare that the essay is dead…which is usually a sign that it’s thriving. Indeed, the essay may have as many lives as it has styles, and its endurance is testament to its creative dynamism and versatility.

Join four luminaries of this endlessly malleable literary genre as they discuss the value and valence of the essay and their own storied approaches to the art of short-form non-fiction.

PART OF BRISBANE WRITERS FESTIVAL

White logo with a bold geometric shape on the left and the text Brisbane Writers Festival in large, white, sans-serif letters on a black background.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Richard Flanagan has been described by the Washington Post as ‘one of our greatest living novelists’ and as ‘among the most versatile writers in the English language’ by the New York Review of Books. He won the Commonwealth Prize for Gould’s Book of Fish and the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Question 7 was shortlisted for the Prix Femina étranger and the Prix du meilleur livre étranger as a novel, and won the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is the first and only author to have ever won both the Booker and the Baillie Gifford prizes.
Book cover for Heresies: Occasional Pieces by Richard Flanagan, showing a burning, charred section, a person in a dunce cap sitting with back turned, and bold orange and black text.

Andrew O’Hagan has three times been nominated for the Booker Prize and is a winner of the E.M. Forster Prize. His novel Mayflies was adapted by the BBC and his latest, Caledonian Road, a state-of-the-nation epic, was a Sunday Times bestseller. He is Editor at Large of the London Review of Books.
Book cover for On Friendship by Andrew OHagan, featuring bold white and black text on a teal background with two illustrated orange and red poppy flowers crossing stems.

Melissa Lucashenko is a multi-award-winning novelist from the Bundjalung nation. Too Much Lip won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and Edenglassie was released to critical acclaim in 2023. She is a Walkley Award winner, and her latest book is the essay collection Not Quite White in the Head.
Book cover with a red and black background. The title reads Melissa Lucashenko, Not Quite White in the Head: Personal Essays in large, bold text.

Cameron Hurst is a writer and art historian who lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
A red book cover titled Exclusive! Dispatches from the Paris End by Cameron Hurst, Sally Olds, and Oscar Schwartz, with a black-and-white bird illustration inside a seal at the bottom right.

Carody Culver is the editor of Griffith Review. She’s also a writer and a literary interviewer. Her work has appeared in Australian Book Review, Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books, Kill Your Darlings, Books+Publishing and more, and she’s been a contributing editor for Peppermint magazine. Her chapbook, The Morgue I Think the Deader It Gets, was published by Cordite in 2022.

BOOK

PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES

Sat 10 Oct 2026
3:30PM

VENUE

Brisbane Powerhouse

TICKETS

Adult
$29.90*
Concession
$25*
*$7.20 transaction fee applies to all ticket purchases

DURATION

60 minutes

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Suitable for All ages

18 months and under free on the knee; all other ages must hold a valid ticket

ACCESSIBILITY

  • wheelchair_accessible

Accessiblity Information at Brisbane Powerhouse

Presented by Brisbane Writers Festival in partnership with Brisbane Powerhouse

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Richard Flanagan has been described by the Washington Post as ‘one of our greatest living novelists’ and as ‘among the most versatile writers in the English language’ by the New York Review of Books. He won the Commonwealth Prize for Gould’s Book of Fish and the Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Question 7 was shortlisted for the Prix Femina étranger and the Prix du meilleur livre étranger as a novel, and won the 2024 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. He is the first and only author to have ever won both the Booker and the Baillie Gifford prizes.
Book cover for Heresies: Occasional Pieces by Richard Flanagan, showing a burning, charred section, a person in a dunce cap sitting with back turned, and bold orange and black text.

Andrew O’Hagan has three times been nominated for the Booker Prize and is a winner of the E.M. Forster Prize. His novel Mayflies was adapted by the BBC and his latest, Caledonian Road, a state-of-the-nation epic, was a Sunday Times bestseller. He is Editor at Large of the London Review of Books.
Book cover for On Friendship by Andrew OHagan, featuring bold white and black text on a teal background with two illustrated orange and red poppy flowers crossing stems.

Melissa Lucashenko is a multi-award-winning novelist from the Bundjalung nation. Too Much Lip won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and Edenglassie was released to critical acclaim in 2023. She is a Walkley Award winner, and her latest book is the essay collection Not Quite White in the Head.
Book cover with a red and black background. The title reads Melissa Lucashenko, Not Quite White in the Head: Personal Essays in large, bold text.

Cameron Hurst is a writer and art historian who lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
A red book cover titled Exclusive! Dispatches from the Paris End by Cameron Hurst, Sally Olds, and Oscar Schwartz, with a black-and-white bird illustration inside a seal at the bottom right.

Carody Culver is the editor of Griffith Review. She’s also a writer and a literary interviewer. Her work has appeared in Australian Book Review, Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books, Kill Your Darlings, Books+Publishing and more, and she’s been a contributing editor for Peppermint magazine. Her chapbook, The Morgue I Think the Deader It Gets, was published by Cordite in 2022.