Melbourne Writers Festival 2015 program launched

British author Will Self will deliver the closing address at the 2015 Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF), which launched its full program on 24 July.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, UK author Louis de Bernières will deliver the opening address. Self and de Bernières are among more than 500 local and international guests who will appear at 531 events across 60 city venues from 20-30 August.

International guests appearing at the festival include Naomi Klein (US), Suki Kim (Korea), Jon Ronson (UK), Sarah Waters (UK), Daniel Handler (US), Antony Beevor (UK) and ‘Veronica Mars’ creator Rob Thomas (US).

Among the local authors are David Malouf, Cate Kennedy, J M Coetzee, Hannah Kent, Graeme Simsion, Liane Moriarty, Les Murray and Kate Grenville. 

The program also includes journalists Annabel Crabb, Adele Ferguson, Latika Bourke and Barrie Cassidy; current and former politicians Mark Latham, Anna Bligh and Christopher Pyne; and scientists Brian Schmidt and Katie Mack.

The festival, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, is the third under director Lisa Dempster and the first under program manager Jo Case, who joined the MFW team in January. It includes the previously announced schools program, which runs from 24-27 August, and more than 150 free events.

Dymocks will return as the festival’s bookseller and will be open daily at Federation Square.

Tickets for the festival, along with the full program, are available at the MWF website.