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Wake Up! The Essay as Alarm Clock
Sat
25
Sat 25 Oct 10:00 AM
Senate Chamber | Museum of Australian Democracy Old Parliament House
Wheelchair
General Admission
60 Mins
October
A powerful and timely essay can wake us up. Esther Anatolitis, editor of Essays That Changed Australia, has identified some of the best from Meanjin over the decades. This session also celebrates the immense contribution regular pieces across key publications including The Monthly and Quarterly Essay have in shaping our political, social and cultural life. Esther will be joined by award-winning journalist, Marian Wilkinson (Woodside vs. the Planet: How a Company Captured a Country: Quarterly Essay 99) and long-time authority on the art of the essay and Keating speechwriter, Don Watson (Quarterly Essays High Noon and Enemy Within). Moderated by Michael Williams, editor of The Monthly.
Esther Anatolitis works venturously across the cultural and civic fields that create Australia’s future. Across two decades, she has held arts and media leadership positions across all platforms and artforms. Esther is a member of the National Gallery of Australia Governing Council, Hon A/Prof at RMIT School of Art, and Co-Chair of the Australian Republic Movement. Her strategic consultancy Test Pattern honours the values of art, tenacity and democracy, working across Australia on strategic development, creative precincts and public policy. A prolific writer and commentator, Esther’s work on arts and civic matters is widely published, and she regularly co-hosts RRR’s politics show Spin Cycle.
Marian Wilkinson is a multi-award-winning journalist with a career that has spanned radio, television and print. She has covered politics, national security, refugee issues and climate change as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a Deputy Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Executive Producer of the ABC’s Four Corners program and a senior reporter with Four Corners. She is the author of several books including the political biography The Fixer, on former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson, Dark Victory, on Australia’s response to asylum seekers which she co-authored with David Marr, and The Carbon Club on Australia’s fraught climate policy. Her latest work is the Quarterly Essay, Woodside Vs. the Planet, on Australia’s gas industry and climate change.
Don Watson is the author of many acclaimed books, including Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, American Journeys, The Bush, Watsonia, Death Sentence, and The Passion of Private White, as well as three Quarterly Essays on American culture and politics. His latest book, The Shortest History of the United States of America, will be published 18 November 2025.
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Concession Tickets apply for children under the age of 16, full-time students, Commonwealth Health Care Card holders, Commonwealth Seniors Card Holders and Commonwealth Pensioner Concession Card holders. Please have your eligible card with you at the venue.
Esther Anatolitis works venturously across the cultural and civic fields that create Australia’s future. Across two decades, she has held arts and media leadership positions across all platforms and artforms. Esther is a member of the National Gallery of Australia Governing Council, Hon A/Prof at RMIT School of Art, and Co-Chair of the Australian Republic Movement. Her strategic consultancy Test Pattern honours the values of art, tenacity and democracy, working across Australia on strategic development, creative precincts and public policy. A prolific writer and commentator, Esther’s work on arts and civic matters is widely published, and she regularly co-hosts RRR’s politics show Spin Cycle.
Marian Wilkinson is a multi-award-winning journalist with a career that has spanned radio, television and print. She has covered politics, national security, refugee issues and climate change as well as serving as a foreign correspondent in Washington DC for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a Deputy Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Executive Producer of the ABC’s Four Corners program and a senior reporter with Four Corners. She is the author of several books including the political biography The Fixer, on former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson, Dark Victory, on Australia’s response to asylum seekers which she co-authored with David Marr, and The Carbon Club on Australia’s fraught climate policy. Her latest work is the Quarterly Essay, Woodside Vs. the Planet, on Australia’s gas industry and climate change.
Don Watson is the author of many acclaimed books, including Recollections of a Bleeding Heart, American Journeys, The Bush, Watsonia, Death Sentence, and The Passion of Private White, as well as three Quarterly Essays on American culture and politics. His latest book, The Shortest History of the United States of America, will be published 18 November 2025.
_______________________________________________________________
Concession Tickets apply for children under the age of 16, full-time students, Commonwealth Health Care Card holders, Commonwealth Seniors Card Holders and Commonwealth Pensioner Concession Card holders. Please have your eligible card with you at the venue.