Join us for sessions such as Adventures in the Golden Age of Islam with Richard Fidler and Why The Irish are a Mystery Unto Themselves with Fintan O’Toole and Maxine McKew. Journalists Sumeyya Ilanbey, Katharine Murphy, Margot Saville, Margaret Simons and Chris Wallace come together for History’s Rough Draft and Shaun Micallef talks to Jon Faine about his successes, his failures, and his abiding love of comedy.

The much-loved Kids’ Day (for ages 2-11) also returns on Saturday 4 March for a magical day of stories, performance and hands-on fun. This year features authors Kate & Jol Temple (Bin Chickens), Amy McQuire (Day Break) and Jason Pamment (Treasure in the Lake), with special guests Mem Fox and Max Gillies celebrating Possum Magic‘s 40th anniversary.

Join some of Australian’s leading thinkers as they ponder the power of the people in Democracy is Broken – But It Can Be Fixed, a series presented by The Australia Institute. With four sessions throughout the day chaired by Radio National’s Paul Barclay, panellists include Richard Denniss, Sally McManus, Greg Jericho, Wayne Swan and Bob Brown, who discuss The Future of Work; Big: The Role of Government; No Enemies, No Friends: Restoring Australia’s Global Relevance and State-Sponsored Greenwash: Offsetting Us Up to Fail. As the sun sets on Monday, David Speers and ABC’s flagship political discussions program Insiders takes over the West Stage, with a couch full of the country’s most astute analysts including Laura Tingle, Jack Latimore, Katharine Murphy, Samantha Maiden and the Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas.

On Tuesday, In the Presence of Absence is this year’s spotlight on the writing of leading Palestinian writers, poets, and essayists. Home, land, language and loss are the heart of this rich literary tradition which takes on the North Stage, featuring the likes of Susan Abulhawa, Mohammed El-Kurd, Hasib Hourani and Raja Shehadeh.

A rich program of fascinating topics and conversations will also spread across the East and West stages throughout day, featuring the likes of British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Lara Feigel, Craig Silvey and Kim Mahood among many, many others. Sloane Crosley, Laura Kipnis and Diana Reid come together to discuss human connection in the 21st century in Modern Relationships.

On Wednesday, a focus on the relationship between editor and author takes over the North Stage as some of our finest editors talk with their bestselling authors about the editorial process in My Editor and Me or Should That Be Me and My Editor?

The Terrible Truth About Climate Change brings Joelle Gergis, Peter Singer and Gaia Vince together to discuss why “the apocalypse is not a done deal“. Geoff Dyer muses On Endings with Jonathan Green, and Sara Peretsky live streams in from Chicago for Don’t Try To Silence V.I. Warshawski.

Another huge day of conversations and creativity with far too many writers and sessions to list here! Grace Tame discusses speaking truth to power with Louise Milligan in “May These Words Bring You Home”; John Boyne reflects on the difficulties of fictionalising the historical in History Lessons with Jonathan Green; Inala Cooper explores what self-determination means for First Nations people in Holding White Australia to Account; and Thinking Writing Now brings together Shannon Burns, Gillian Hagenus, Gemma Parker, Alex Sutcliffe, Jane Turner Goldsmith and Patrick Flannery on working as a creative writer today.