Body of Work: Helen Garner
PRESENTED BY FED SQUARE
Celebrated Australian author Helen Garner will be joined by Michael Williams, editor of The Monthly to reflect on her writing life to date.
Helen Garner, as one of Australia’s most significant and renowned writers, needs little in the way of introduction. From her groundbreaking debut novel Monkey Grip (1977) to her latest, co-authored non-fiction work The Mushroom Tapes (2025, with Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein) she continues to set the standard for fearless investigation into what makes us – and her – tick.
Touching on everything from her award-winning How to End A Story: Collected Diaries 1978–1998 (2025) to non-fiction favourite Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) and novels such as The Spare Room (2008), this event will be a celebration of Garner’s immense contribution to Australian letters and life across five decades.
This event is presented as part of Body of Work – a free, in-conversation series with some of Australia’s greatest living literary icons, presented by Fed Square and curated by author and bookseller Jaclyn Crupi.
Due to the expected popularity of this event, tickets will be limited to two per registration. Sign up to receive updates when registrations open or new events in this series are announced.
Helen Garner is a novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist whose works examine a wide sweep of themes and interests. Among her many awards and honours, she has won the 2016 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, the 2019 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, the 2023 Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Medal, and the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.
Her novels include Monkey Grip (1977), The Children’s Bach (1984), and The Spare Room (2008). Her non-fiction books include The First Stone (1995), This House of Grief (2014), and The Season (2024).
She lives in Melbourne.
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He was the founding Head of Programming at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne and then its Director. A regular host and interviewer for literary and ideas events around Australia, his background is in publishing and broadcasting.