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Helen Garner: A Life in Literature

Celebrate Helen Garner’s 80th birthday with a far-reaching discussion about life, literature, love and the enduring importance of words.
Live Event

Event and Ticketing Details

Dates & Times

Saturday 05 November
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Location

The Capitol

113 Swanston Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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Accessibility

Auslan Interpreted

Wheelchair accessible

Accessible toilets available

You can learn more about the Wheeler Centre’s accessibility policies here. Please notify us of all access requirements when booking online so we can assist you with your visit. If you require further information, please contact reception on 03 9094 7800 or ticketing@wheelercentre.com.

Additional Notes

Celebrating rebirth, renewal and rejuvenation, Spring Fling is a short series of big ideas offering a delectable picnic spread of literary experiences with leading thinkers, writers and creators from Australia and abroad. Spring Fling is supported by the Melbourne City Revitalisation Fund, a Victorian Government and City of Melbourne partnership.  

About

To mark one of Australia’s greatest literary figures turning 80, we’re hosting a celebratory in-conversation event chronicling Helen Garner’s life and career. Helen Garner is an iconic Australian figure. Her vast body of work – from non-fiction to fiction and her diaries – has held a significant place in the Australian cultural psyche for decades, earning a legion of dedicated fans at home and abroad. Hosted by beloved Australian actor Virginia Gay, this is your chance to hear a literary great in conversation with none other than super-fan Annabel Crabb, alongside an introduction by Miles Franklin Award-winning author Jennifer Down. Celebrate Helen Garner’s 80th birthday with a far-reaching discussion about life, literature, love and the enduring importance of words. This event will be photographed and recorded for use by the Wheeler Centre. The bookseller for this event is Readings.

Featuring

Helen Garner

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction ...

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Jennifer Down

Jennifer Down is a writer and editor. Her debut novel, Our Magic Hour, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. The story collection Pulse Points won the 2018 Readings Prize and the 2018 Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Literary Awards. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Novelist of the Year in 2017 and 2018. Bodies of Light, her second novel, won the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne.
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Annabel Crabb

Annabel Crabb is a South Australian-born writer and television presenter who as a university student paid full price for Cosmo Cosmolino in 1992, breaking a solid habit of waiting for new books to arrive at the library. She completed a law degree but never became a lawyer. Annabel has been a journalist for 25 years, much of it as a political reporter, columnist and commentator. She created the ABC series Kitchen Cabinet, as well as The House With Annabel Crabb, both of which are occupied with Australian federal politics. She has written a number of books, including the Walkley-winning Stop At Nothing:The Life And Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull, and The Wife Drought. With ABC colleague and fellow Garner devotee Leigh Sales, Annabel hosts the popular podcast Chat 10, Looks 3.
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Virginia Gay

Virginia Gay graduated WAAPA, then spent four years pretending to be a nurse on All Saints, six months pretending to be cop on Savage River (ABC), and then five years on Winners & Losers, where she pretended to know a lot about high finance. That last one, particularly, was a stretch. She won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress for Calamity Jane, starred in the film Judy & Punch which premiered at Sundance, and wrote and directed her first short film Paper Cut, which made Tropfest finals. In 2020 she wrote two new plays: an adaptation of Cyrano for MTC and The Boomkak Panto for Belvoir, which premiered December 2021. She starred in both and also co-directed The Boomkak Panto.
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