Milk Bar’s Guide to Melbourne Writers Festival

The Melbourne Writers Festival 2012 returns this Thursday with a program bursting with literary luminaries. Writers, editors, publishers and a glossary of other industry professionals from around the globe will amass together to celebrate ideas and the written word.

The variety of the events on offer caters to all, no mater if you’re a studious scholar or if you bend the spines on your books before guests come over.

Here are a few of the events to look out for:

IN A NEW YORK MINUTE…
Impress your inner circle by displaying your cool cultural connections by attending An Evening with The New Yorker. In the first of MWF’s exclusive tours inside The New Yorker, editorial director Henry Finder reviews stories, characters and events that have made the magazine one of the world’s celebrated cultural institutions. The flagship program also includes conversations and key note addresses from The New Yorker’s art critic Peter Schjeldahl, staff writer David Grann, music critic Sasha Frere-Jones and veteran cartoonist Roz Chast.
mwf.com.au/2012/?name=the-new-yorker

LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND….
If you’re searching for the answers to the big questions then Contemporary Ethics may hold some keys. In a global economy of haves and have-nots, can we live ethically? Are ethics a collective as well as a personal quality? Renowned philosopher Martha Nussbaum (University of Chicago) and Richard Holloway (Godless Morality: Keeping Religion Out of Ethics) consider these head scratchers.
mwf.com.au/session2_mwf.asp?s=196

“TONIGHT MY GUEST IS…”
Friday Night Live is a series of Lettermanesque late-night talk show chats hosted host Libbi Gorr. Through out the fest guests include feminist and provocateur Germaine Greer, comedian and author Mark Watson and science-writer Margaret Wertheim. The evening even includes a requisite talk show house band, with musicians the TEK TEK ensemble providing a soundtrack to each evening.
mwf.com.au/session2_mwf.asp?s=250

MOONAGE DAYDREAM!
The latest edition of Melbourne’s spoken word event Liner Notes presents a poetic tribute celebrating 40 years of David Bowie’s  Ziggy Stardust. Led by MC Michael Nolan along with a the house band performing classic Bowie tunes. Special guests Benjamin Law, Joumana Haddad (Lebanon) and First Dog on the Moon, with Emilie Zoey Baker, Sean M Whelan, Omar Musa and Yana Alana will chime in to examine the enduring nature of Bowie’s alterative persona.
mwf.com.au/session2_mwf.asp?s=300

The Melbourne Writers Festival runs from August 23 to September 2.
Full program details visit mwf.com.au.