Acclaimed Australian writers Helen Garner and Anne Manne discuss writing about some of the darkest aspects of human experience.

In conversation with distinguished journalist Romana Koval, they discuss how and why they’ve written on topics such as murder, violence against children, and the contemporary culture of narcissism.

This 90-minute discussion took place at the State Library of Victoria on 28 April 2016. It’s part of our Ideas and Society Program, a series of debates and public lectures convened by Emeritus Professor Robert Manne that considers critical questions of our time.

The program brings together some of Australia’s leading thinkers and public figures and aims to deepen the understanding of these critical issues and enliven intellectual life.

Find out about more free events as part of the Ideas and Society Program.

 

About the authors

Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most respected and loved non-fiction writers. The author of The Last Stone, Joe Cinque’s Consolation and This House of Grief, she is the winner of many awards including The Melbourne Prize for Literature and the prestigious international Windham-Campbell Prize.

Anne Manne is a penetrating social analyst, cultural critic and Monthly essayist who has written columns for The Age and The Australian and whose works include Motherhood, Love and Money: The Family and the Free Market, the memoir, So This is Life and the best-selling The Life of I: The New Culture of Narcissism.

Ramona Koval is one of Australia’s most distinguished and accomplished literary journalists, broadcasters and interviewers who presented ‘Books and Writing’ on ABC Radio National for many years. She is the author of Jewish Cooking, Speaking Volumes: Conversations with Remarkable Writers and Bloodhound: Searching for My Father.