





Born to a world without welcome, Isobel observes it warily – an alien trying to pass for a native. She’s more at ease with imaginary friends than the flesh-and-blood people she meets.
Cate Kennedy…
Neil Armfield is a leading Australian director of theatre, opera and film. He was co-founder of Sydney's Belvoir Theatre and its Artistic Director for 17 years, during which time he directed over 50 productions.
Lovers of Sappho and pals of Armistead Maupin alike, it’s time to grab your favourite book, don your most flattering get-up and head to the Wheeler Centre to meet your next mate (or playmate).
Yes…
Acclaimed micro-fiction writer Lydia Davis won the Man Booker International Prize yesterday. Estelle Tang shares an in-depth appreciation of Davis's career-branching volume The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. Read it and see what all the fuss is about.
It’s been a tumultuous term in the federal government – and now it’s time for us voters to decide if we’re ready for change. And as we prepare to exercise our democratic duty to vote our government i…
We chat to Sam Twyford Moore, director of the Emerging Writers Festival, about the importance of mentors, how he misses having to fight for someone to hear you, and why he believes you should write to engage and defy.
These days, classrooms seem packed with children who report to the office to take medication at lunchtimes – or whose behaviour problems come with labels that didn’t exist when their parents were…
Professor Katie Allen is a Paediatric Gastroenterologist and Allergist practising in the field of Food Allergy at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.
Nikki Anderson is a communications and literary consultant, and coordinator of the Australian Embassy Beijing's annual writers week.
The Wheeler Centre's Lucy De Kretser was recently a participant in the inaugural First Nations Australian Writers Workshop in Queensland - established to foster a vibrant Aboriginal writing sector. She reports back on her highlights, from writers as diverse as Alexis Wright, Kim Scott, Anita Heiss and Sam Wagan Watson.
The broadcaster, former Monthly editor and indomitable host of our Fifth Estate events series takes her distinctive brand of political and cultural savvy to the new Museum of Australian Democracy at …
When Father Bob Maguire was forced to retire from his South Melbourne parish, the community – and wider Melbourne – was devastated and outraged. Father Bob is an iconoclast, known for his radio and t…
Chicago designer Jenny Volvoski has set herself a fascinating new project - she designs her own covers for the books she reads. They're documented on her blog, From Cover to Cover.
We share some amazing (and innovative) eco-friendly buildings from around the world - from the world's first vertical forest in Italy to a stunning mountain hut that generates 90% of its own power in the Swiss Alps.
Virginia is a digital designer and one of the founders of Booki.sh, an e-book platform developed in Australia and since acquired by the US e-book giant OverDrive.
Tara Moss is famous for her kickass crime-fighting creations. First came model turned forensicpsychologist Mak Vanderwall – and her latest is the supernaturally gifted Pandora English, a…
Angela Meyer is a Melbourne-based writer and reviewer. Her work has appeared in *The Lifted Brow*, the *Australian*, *Seizure*, *The Big Issue* and many others, and her blog *LiteraryMinded* has been running for six years, including for three years on *Crikey.com*.
The Country Women’s Association is not often thought of as a feminist organisation … if at all. But with the current interest in women’s rights and spaces, it’s arguably a ready-made grassroots…
Breakfast Club is a platform that interrogates how the world and art collide.
Following a highly successful series at the Wheeler Centre during the 2012 Next Wave Festival, your early morning shot of …
Sylvia Nasar talks about why Marx was wrong (and why The Communist Manifesto was influenced by the Bible), the woman who invited the welfare state, Dickens' crusading journalism (and the true meaning of A Christmas Carol), how John Maynard Keynes fought the Depression, and Amaryta Sen's economic war against poverty.
Jon Stewart is an internet hit in China - which seems to bode well for the future of satire. In a real-life Misery, Charlaine 'True Blood' Harris is receiving death threats from readers unhappy with the fate she's given her fictional heroine, Sookie Stackhouse. David Foster Wallace's This is Water is now a short film. The Guardian is unimpressed with the new New York Times Book Review editor. And we look at the wildly divergent reviews of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.
Colin Batrouney on getting fantastic feedback on his work from Wells Tower, why you should make sure your writing stays true to your gut intention, and why referring to someone as a 'queer' writer is 'bullshit' and sets up lowered expectations.
Just what constitutes middle class, middle income and genuine ‘struggling’ has been a hot conversational topic lately. We look at some recent arguments from social commentator Rachel Hills, the ACTU's Matt Cowgill and Fairfax writer Peter Martin.
Award-winning YA author Patrick Ness spoke passionately in defence of teenagers when he accepted the Carnegie Medal last year. We share highlights (and footage) of his speech, in which he calls for our culture and governments to engage with teenagers and see past the negative - and reveals his own difficult teenage years.
The Wheeler Centre is Melbourne’s home for smart, passionate and entertaining public talks on every topic.
Across 200+ events each year, you’ll find some of our finest local and international thinkers and speakers, sharing their expertise, their imagination and their ideas.
The majority of events are free.
The Wheeler Centre is the centrepiece of the Victorian Government’s City of Literature initiative.