With the 2023 Canberra Writers Festival kicking off on Wednesday, here are five events to check out.
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1. The Joyful Genius of Bluey
You would be hard-pressed to find an Australian that doesn't know Bluey. And indeed the same can be said for countries across the world.
To Bluey's millions of fans, the show is an expert balance of fun, tenderness and wisdom that captures the joys and heartaches of family life. In this special craft-focused conversation, creator Joe Brumm tells us how he manages this storytelling triumph
![The creator of Bluey, Joe Brumm, will be at this year's Canberra Writers Festival. Picture supplied The creator of Bluey, Joe Brumm, will be at this year's Canberra Writers Festival. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/hU74HdTxzzWB78D7znDAb9/7f67c98f-7b9d-4e32-8482-bbbac1d4fcbf.jpg/r0_0_5760_3238_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It is worth noting that while the topic of discussion is everyone's favourite blue heeler, this is a conversation for grown-ups. Younger readers are welcome, but Bluey herself won't be present.
Saturday, 12pm. Manning Clark Hall.
2. Body Politics
Join award-winning writers, Eloise Grills and Kris Kneen, with moderator Kaya Wilson as they consider the cultural weight of the fat body.
Grills and Kneen are two of the country's most fearless and form-exploring writers who have written beautifully unruly books about beautifully unruly bodies.
MUST READS:
Grills' big beautiful female theory is a collection of essays that sees her turns her life, her body and her mind into art, confronting what it means to grow up in an increasingly unfathomable world.
Kneen's latest book Fat Girl Dancing is a memoir that examines their body through the lens of art and burlesque, exploring questions such as 'How does a person come to know that they are different from the children around them?'
Saturday, 2.30pm. Kambri Cinema.
3. Frankenstein's Monster: Grappling with AI
All it took for broadcaster Tracey Spicer to have an epiphany was for her son to ask for a robot slave.
![Tracey Spicer will feature at this year's Canberra Writers Festival with her book Man-Made. Picture by Gary Ramage Tracey Spicer will feature at this year's Canberra Writers Festival with her book Man-Made. Picture by Gary Ramage](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/hU74HdTxzzWB78D7znDAb9/1815e328-4dfb-4178-901b-ea0baf95a9e0.jpg/r0_204_4000_2462_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
All of the time she had spent fighting inequality seemed futile - what's the point if bigotry is being embedded into our futures? This is what led her to write her latest book Man-Made.
She joins University of NSW professor of international and political studies Clinton Fernandes and Australian National University professor of social and organisational psychology, and Global Institute for Women's Leadership director Michelle Ryan to explore what are the hidden traps of our algorithmic age.
Sunday, 10am. Museum of Australian Democracy.
4. How Men Came to Rule
Award-winning British journalist, based in New York, Angela Saini draws on her new book The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule for Thursday's National Press Club event.
When did gendered oppression begin? What fuels and feeds the patriarchal beast? Siani aims to answer these questions and imagine a future where we have demolished the myth of male domination.
Thursday, 11.30am. National Press Club.
5. Feared and Revered: Radicals, Rebels and Reformers
Join a panel featuring Michelle Arrow, Gillian Appleton, Cathy Eatock, Gail Radford, Elizabeth Reid and Biff Ward, as well as moderator Virginia Haussegger, at this special event to coincide with the Feared and Revered exhibition.
Inspired by the book, Women and Whitlam by Michelle Arrow, hear the stories from the women themselves - those 'libbers' and 'femocrats' who were there at the centre of Australia's most radical feminist reforms.
How do they look back on those years of change? What advice do they have for the next generation of feminist activists?
Thursday, 6pm. National Museum of Australia.
For the full program and tickets go to canberrawritersfestival.com.au.
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