Michaela Kolowski

Fantastic conversations with people like Meg Mason and Alice Pung, Holly Ringland, just a whole range of people, Leah Purcell, Sarah Lambert.

And what we also tried to do this year was to make sure that we covered lots of different kinds of genres.

So we've got a panel on sports writing, we've got a panel on masculinity, we've got a panel on poetry.

Another one of the Zoom events we're doing is a romance panel with Rudy Bremer and a great Australian academic and writer called Jodie McAllister and the brilliant UK contemporary romance fiction writer Talia Hibbert.

And I'm really looking forward to that one.

It's a very good question.

So there are going to be eight people in that Zoom masterclass and the actual masterclass itself will be private, but we are recording that audio and a kind of a slightly trimmed down version will be played on Radio National later on in the year after the festival's gone to air.

And with the Zoom event, with the Talia Hibbert, Jodie McAllister conversation about romance, that's actually open to the public and registrations are closing at the end of this week.

Ah, that's a Zoom swoon.

Zoom swoon, exactly.

I couldn't help myself.

That's right, Cassie.

So, yeah, Christos Tsiolkas from things like The Slap and Loaded and Damascus most recently, and he's got a new book coming.

We decided this year to do something a bit different and have writers in conversation with other writers.

And one idea that came to us that we were really lucky to pull off was a column to be in conversation with Christos Tsiolkas.

I understand that they know each other and they like and respect each other, and it's really awesome to hear two extraordinary... That's a bonus.

It could be interesting if they didn't.

Exactly.

I think in this case that's true.

I think from memory as well, I think Christos' book was published overseas under one of Colm's imprints and they really are known to each other and it was just a great opportunity to hear these two extraordinary writers talk about their body of work and exchange ideas about the evolution of their writing as well as talking to each other about writing these great historical figures.