Masterclass: Non-Fiction

The lines between truth and fiction can be slender indeed, but nonetheless the world seems to have a ravenous appetite for non-fiction writing. This jam-packed program across a full day covers life-writing, memoir, literary journalism and experimental approaches to non-fiction.

10am Reality Hunger: New Modes of Non-Fiction

Contemporary non-fiction is increasingly marked by experimentation in form and genre. Hear from three non-fiction writers about the clarity that can be found in blurring the lines of form.

With Quinn Eades, Ellena Savage and Maria Tumarkin

11am The Lives of Others

How do you work ethically with your subjects? Hear Jon Tjhia (The Messenger) and Tresa LeClerc in conversation about the fundamentals of working responsibly with other people’s stories.

11.45am Pathway to Publication

Writer Kate Rossmanith (Small Wrongs) and publisher Arwen Summers (Hardie Grant) explore the rigours and discipline necessary for pursuing a long-form research project, the ethics of working with others’ truths and the process of getting a book out into the world.

1.30pm Ethics of Memoir

When writing stories from your own life, how do you protect yourself and your loved ones? What does it mean to write from your own experience, and what are the moral implications of representing the lives of the people around you? Traversing the borders of the personal and political, this panel explores the responsibility and ethics of life writing.

With Lur Alghurabi, Eda Gunaydin, Zoya Patel and Alice Pung

2.30pm Workshop: What to Tell

What are the techniques, tools and skills needed to craft a narrative from the details of everyday life? How do you write from personal experience, and what does that entail? In this workshop, Rebecca Harkins-Cross shows what to take out, what to leave in and how to create a compelling narrative from fact.