The Forrest Research Foundation will support a series of literary events, including a conversation between Helen Garner and Merve Emre, along with talks by Tim Winton and Maria Tumarkin centred on the works of Helen Garner.
On Candour: Merve Emre and Helen Garner
Merve Emre joins Helen Garner for a conversation about writing, aging, and seeing without being seen.
Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most beloved authors. Her novels and works of non-fiction include The Season, Monkey Grip, The Children’s Bach, The First Stone, and This House of Grief. Her long list of accolades includes the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Windham-Campbell Prize, an Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and the ASA Medal.
Professor Merve Emre is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University. Her books include Paraliterary, The Personality Brokers, and The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and has judged the International Booker Prize. In July-August 2025, she is a Thinker in Residence at the Forrest Research Foundation.
With Respect: Tim Winton – Sold Out
Join Tim Winton as he reflects on his forty-year friendship with Helen Garner and offers a maverick view of her life’s work.
Tim Winton is the author of thirty books. He has won the Miles Franklin Award four times and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Voted a National Living Treasure by the National Trust in 1997, he is also an honorary fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2023, in recognition of his contribution to literature and the environment, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.
Grief and Love: Maria Tumarkin
Join Maria Tumarkin as she reflects on the work of Helen Garner, approaching an array of ethical and aesthetic questions.
Maria Tumarkin is a Ukrainian-Jewish writer born and raised in Kharkiv. She writes books, essays, reviews and pieces for performance and radio, and collaborates with artists across a range of mediums. She is the author of four books of ideas, including Axiomatic (2018).
