Brisbane Writers Festival 2023
That's a wrap!
Held 10–14 May, the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival spun a rollicking tale of festive entertainment across five days, four nights and more than 100 events. The plot? Full of twists and turns. The characters? A diverse cast of writers, readers and thinkers coming together to enjoy a lively line-up of panel discussions, salons, special events and more.
From blockbuster bestsellers to literary luminaries and everything in between, BWF 2023 was an adventure from beginning to end. You can still view the program below.
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#Program Highlights
Brisbane Writers Festival showcases dynamic and diverse literary talent from across Brisbane, across Australia and across the oceans, inspiring audiences and building relationships through the power of words.
From blockbuster bestsellers to literary luminaries and everything in between, BWF 2023 is an unmissable adventure from beginning to end.
#Irvine Welsh
In 2023, BWF is thrilled to be hosting one of the most iconic writers of the last few decades. He's a titan of transgressive fiction, a bard of punk and grunge, and a chronicler of the disaffected and dispossessed. He is, of course, Irvine Welsh – and he's coming to Brisbane this May to talk crime writing, cult classics and the legacy of his brilliantly subversive back catalogue.
This year not only marks the release of Welsh's propulsive new novel The Long Knives – it's also the 30th anniversary of Trainspotting, the title that defined a generation and became both the UK’s most shoplifted novel and a landmark film.
Don’t miss your chance to see this countercultural legend in a series of exclusive events at BWF 2023. Book now!
Catch him at one of these three events.
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#First Word and Last Word
First Word formally opens the Brisbane Writers Festival each year. To celebrate the vibrant tradition of Australia’s first storytellers, the session showcases a keynote speech by an eminent First Nations writer. In 2023, that writer is leading Indigenous poet and political activist Lionel Fogarty. Born on an Aboriginal reserve on Wakka Wakka land, Fogarty has been at the forefront of the fight for Indigenous rights since he was a teenager. Today, with fourteen published poetry collections and a career of writing and activism spanning more than forty years, Fogarty’s revolutionary spirit and rousing words are as strong and salient as ever.
The peerless Alexis Wright will close the 2023 Brisbane Writers Festival with a powerful exploration of apocalypse and creation. In this stirring speech, Wright probes the possibility for revelation in humanity’s existential crisis, the rediscovery of ancient modes of being and perceiving, and the critical role of storytellers in this moment of peril. Join one of Australia’s finest literary minds for an address that unifies philosophy and prophecy, bringing this year’s festival to a rousing and provocative climax.
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#Country of Focus: South Korea
For the second year, BWF presents its Country of Focus program, an initiative highlighting the dynamic literature of the Indo-Pacific region. Situating Australian writing within a geopolitical context, Country of Focus emphasises the exchange of ideas across language, culture and geography and the critical role of literature in an interconnected modern world.
This year, the festival has the pleasure of hosting some extraordinary South Korean talents, beginning with the incredible children’s book illustrators Gihun Lee and JiHyeon Lee, then expanding to include some of the most exciting and subversive voices in South Korean literature: the experimental Bae Suah; neoromantic Sang Young Park; feminist poet Kim Min Jeong; polymathic Krys Lee; and literary luminary Bora Chung. Their astonishing work probes the psychological disquiet of modernity through radical formal innovation and devastating intimacy.
These are extraordinary South Korean artists and stories. They are stories that particularise the universal, reminding us of the enduring power of literature – to expose how we suffer and how we find salvation.
BWF is pleased to have partnered with the Korean Cultural Centre, the Australia-Korea Foundation, and the Literature and Translation Institute of Korea to bring this event to fruition. We thank them and Dr Sung-Ae Lee for their generosity and expertise.
#Treats and Tidbits
Have we got a story for you! We've got monsters, politics, science, romance, comedy, social issues, environmental concerns, poetry, tragedy, history, conflict, crime and redemption.
Your literary dishes will be served by some of the most acclaimed writers and emerging talents in their fields. Dig in.
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