Tony Birch is, quite simply, one of the most engaging and respected writers in Australia.

He is also an author whose attempts to attend the festival were dashed two years in a row, so with the third time being the charm, we are thrilled to at last welcome him to the stage.

In 2017, Tony became the first Indigenous writer to win the Patrick White Award – an award recognising outstanding contribution to Australian literature.

His 2022 book Dark As Last Night was the recipient of the Christina Stead Literary Prize, and the Steele Rudd Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award.

Now, his latest novel Women and Children is shortlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and is described as “a new high for the master craftsman”. It is a story of family, violence and tenderness – it may well be Tony’s finest work yet.

Join Melanie Kembrey in conversation about this novel of love and the loss of innocence.