In recognition of the UN Year of Indigenous Languages, this year the Festival will explore the powerful ways in which Australia’s traditional custodians convey story, both now and in the past.

“The written word hasn’t always been the primary way to tell a story,” said Festival CEO and Artistic Director Zoe Pollock, “Indigenous Australians have been yarning, weaving, painting, singing and dancing the stories of this land for thousands of years and right up into our present day. At Brisbane Writers Festival this year we are privileged to present some of our most compelling and evocative writers and storytellers from our First Nations including Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko and Claire G. Coleman. Acknowledging difference and understanding how we can use stories to connect to one another is at the heart of this year’s program.”

“Our local reading and writing communities are engaged with what’s happening in the world. We live in challenging times and are facing big issues in both our inner and outer worlds. There are so many movements and forces that are reshaping the world at a rapid pace. We’re bringing these conversations to the Festival and inviting open dialogues around how to connect when the conversation is constantly changing.”

The 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival kicks off with a huge celebration at State Library of Queensland headed by Danzal Baker aka Baker Boy. The Indigenous Australian rapper, dancer, actor and visual was named the 2019 Young Australian of the Year and is an advocate for Indigenous Australian communities. Joining Baker Boy is writer, actor and comedian Steven Oliver (A Chance Affair), Omar Sakr (The Lost Arabs), Australian slam poetry championships winner Solli Raphael and Indigenous slam queen Melanie Mununggurr-Williams.

International guests include Jasper Fforde famed for the hugely popular Thursday Next series, best-selling historical fiction author Ann Weisgarber (The Glovemaker), Joanne Ramos, whose dystopian debut novelThe Farm has drawn comparisons with The Handmaid’s Tale, New York Times bestselling author Karen Thompson Walker, Gemma Hartley (Fed Up), and poet, sociologist and author, Eve L. Ewing. Ewing’s work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The New Republic.

The Festival is also proud to showcase the work of local and Australian authors, including audience favourites Benjamin Law (The Family Law), Clementine Ford (Boys Will be Boys), Melissa Lucashenko(Too Much Lip), Ashley Hay (One Hundred Small Lessons), John Marsden (So Much to Tell You and Tomorrow, When The War Began), Jane Caro (Accidental Feminists), Richard Glover (The Land Before Avocado) and Rosalie Ham (The Dressmaker).

In 2019, Brisbane Writers Festival is bringing new ways to experience literature to State Library of Queensland. Angel’s Palace, an immersive literary experience inspired by the Alexis Wright’smonumental work Carpentaria, will return to Maiwar Green featuring performances created by Indigenous playwright and theatre maker Alethea Beetson, for all ages, as well as panel discussions and author talks. First featured at Brisbane Writers Festival in 2017, Angel’s Palace is a 7.5 metre dome decorated with original artwork by acclaimed Brisbane artist Gordon Hookey.

“I’m also very excited to announce a collaboration with Anna Spiro inspired by Jessica Anderson’s Miles Franklin award-winning novel Tirra Lirra by the River. We’re inviting Festival goers to experienceAnderson’s work through the lens of Brisbane’s most iconic designer. Spiro is known for her residential and commercial work – including interior of Mr Percival’s as part of the Howard Smith Wharves development.Tirra Lira by the River will be a special space to catch up with friends, read and soak up the Festival’s atmosphere. We have also planned free events in the installation, including workshops open mic sessions.”

For those aspiring and established writers there is also plenty on offer. Learn the art of historical fiction and archival research with Ann Weisgarber, craft a daring and genre breaking novel with Jasper Fforde, create compelling YA characters with Lili Wilkinson and much more.

Love YA is also back in 2019, bringing a full day of free YA programming to Brisbane Square Library on Saturday 7 September.

“Love YA is a day to celebrate everything that makes Young Adult fiction so compelling. This year we’re shifting focus to look at community and responsibility & the universality of love with some of Australia’s best LGBTQ+ writers including Claire G. Coleman, Alison Evans, Benjamin Law, Jax Jacki Brown andMichael Earp.”

Other Festival highlights include:

• A special event with Ann Weisgarber examining how we can find our compassion through books and writing.
• A session with Walkley Award winning journalist Hedley Thomas of Teacher’s Pet fame.
• Asking for a Friend, a public forum event where attendees can put a problem to a panel of Agony Aunts including Clementine Ford, Benjamin Law, Cal Wilson and Bec Mac.
• Closing night address with Jasper Fforde exploring the what could happen when we dare to imagine.
• Meet the Author book club style events with international and Australian authors.
• A conversation with former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
• Big conversations with leading Australian commentators and contributors to public life including Tim Costello, Bob Brown, Gillian Triggs, Kerry O’Brien, Chloe Hooper, Matt Condon, Richard Cooke and Richard Denniss.
• Forward thinking feminist conversations with Clare Press, Jane Caro, Gemma Hartley and Jess Hill.
• The very best in Australian fiction including A.S. Patrić, Steven Carroll, Lucy Treloar, Rosalie Ham, Melina Marchetta and Kristina Olsson.
• Crime fiction and the #metoo movement with Meera Atkinson, Caroline de Costa and M. J. Tija.
• Indigenous Language Revival with Des Crump, Sandra Delaney and Rory O’Connor.
• Free family programming including sessions with international best seller Jessica Townsend, John Marsden and many more.
• A spoken word showcase including Zenobia Frost, Pascalle Burton and Maxine Beneba Clarke

“It’s an enormous privilege to bring such a diverse program of thinkers and writers to Brisbane each year. I hope that our local reading and writing communities will come out in force to be part of the big conversations on offer and support a culture embracing literacy and difference in our state,” Pollock said.

“This is an incredible opportunity to hear from the people with nuanced insight into the fast-changing world that we all share. I invite you to join us and have your say.”

The 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival goes on sale from 21 June. Visit bwf.org.au for tickets and more information.

2019 Brisbane Writers Festival
5 – 8 September 2019
State Library of Queensland and QAGOMA
www.bwf.org.au

Highlights will be a substantial number of newly commissioned works, as well as works by emerging, mid-career and senior artists and influential works that continue to shape contemporary art in the region. The exhibition will feature over 80 artists and groups whose work is notable for making an impact in contemporary art in its local context, including a large representation of Australian artists. Their works will reveal a number of preoccupations, such as the use of innovative approaches to indigenous traditions and modern thought, the re-imagining of histories or poetic narratives and the ability to show our universal yet diverse relations to nature and culture.

APT9 Kids will include interactive artworks, hands-on making, and multimedia activities developed in collaboration with exhibiting artists, especially for children and families. APT9 Kids on Tour will provide children and families throughout Queensland with the opportunity to enjoy a selection of adapted projects at their local venue.

APT9 will also include a symposium and extensive public programs, as well as an APT9 Cinema program.

9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9) Exhibition
24 November 2018 – 28 April 2019
QAGOMA, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Picasso once said of the role of an artist, ‘it’s not what the artist does that counts, but what he is’. He identified himself, along with his own sense of artistic creativity and sexuality, with the mythical figure of the Minotaur. Nowhere is the link between the artist and ‘the untamable beast’, to use Picasso’s words, more apparent than in the ‘Vollard Suite’. In these prints the major emphasis was devoted to transformations of the artists into his alter-ego, the Minotaur.

As with the subject of the Minotaur, Picasso’s interpretations of Pygmalion were autobiographical in tone, and his view of himself as an artist and lover figured largely in depictions of this theme in the ‘Vollard Suite’ – as does his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter with her extraordinary ‘classical’ countenance.

This iconic suite of prints will be shown alongside selected works from the QAGOMA Collection.

‘Picasso: The Vollard Suite’ is a National Gallery of Australia Exhibition.

Picasso the Vollard Suite Exhibition
2 December 2017 – 15 April 2018
Queensland Art Gallery
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Among the highlights are paintings by Rover Thomas (c.1926–98), and works on bark and canvas by Jack Wunuwun (1930–91) and John Bulunbulun (1946–2010) that present visual records of their clan manikay (song cycles).

The Perth-based Holmes à Court family collected extensively and secured a vital artistic legacy by developing focussed holdings from individuals and artist groups in this period. Works in ‘Sung into Being’ are predominantly from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, joined by works from QAGOMA and the National Gallery of Australia.

Sung into Being: Aboriginal Masterworks 1984–94 Exhibition
22 July – 22 October 2017
Queensland Art Gallery
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

The program celebrates the songstress films of Hong Kong cinema during the 1950s and 1960s and their most alluring star: Grace Chang (Ge Lan).

This period of Mandarin cinema reflected the burgeoning changes in Hong Kong society – the mixing of East and West, old and new, regional influences and urban experiences. Grace Chang was one of the singers and actresses who dominated the screen and her appearances in Hollywood-influenced romantic comedies, musicals and melodramas made her an icon.

The program includes Grace Change’s most beloved films: Manbo Nülang (Mambo Girl) 1957; Ye Mei Gui Zhi Lian (The Wild, Wild Rose) 1960; Xiangji Meiren (Our Dream Car) 1959; Liu Yue Xinniang (June Bride) 1960 and Jiao Wo ru He Bu Xiang Ta (Because of Her) 1963.

Grace Chang: Modern Songstress
27 January – 19 February 2017
QAGOMA
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

Two focus projects are the result of in-depth research and ongoing exchange with the region. Yumi Danis (We Dance) presents the vitality and complexity of performance in the cultures of some of our nearest neighbours: Papua, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Kalpa Vriksha: Contemporary Indigenous and Vernacular Art of India looks at the breadth and vibrancy of Indigenous and vernacular art from regions of India. Also featured are site-specific installations by artists from UAE/Iran, India, South Korea, Myanmar, Australia and New Zealand.

APT8 Cinema programs address the representation of Islamic cultures in popular culture throughout the region and showcase independent cinema from the Philippines. APT8 also sees the reintroduction of the APT Conference, and the development of a new component focusing on live performance, APT8 Live. APT 8 Kids includes interactive artworks and activities developed in collaboration with the APT8 artists.

The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Arts
21 November 2015 – 10 April 2016
QAGOMA, Brisbane
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

The exhibition presents some of the most loved and iconic works acquired during this period, including Blandford Fletcher’s Evicted 1887 (purchased 1896), Josephine Müntz-Adams’s Care c.1893 (the first Australian acquisition; purchased 1898) and Godfrey Rivers Under the Jacaranda 1903 (purchased 1903).

The Founding Years 1895–1915: A Collection for Queensland
28 March – 14 June 2015
Queensland Artists’ Gallery (QAG)
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au