2026 Festival
Speaker Profile
Richard King
Richard King is an author and critic based in Fremantle/Walyalup, WA, whose work has appeared in The Monthly, Griffith Review, the Sydney Review of Books and Australian Book Review. He is a contributing editor to Arena Quarterly and the author of three books, including Here Be Monsters: Is Technology Reducing Our Humanity? (which was shortlisted for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards) and Brave New Wild: Can Technology Really Save the Planet? (2025).
Social Media: Force For Good Or Engine Of Division
Friday April 24
The Ballroom, The Continental
10.30am
/
60 mins
Richard King, Ruby Kraner-Tucci, Clare Stephens and Thomas Mayo with Laura Macdonald
Via our phones and laptops, we can alienate, divide, polarise and cancel out. We can also bring people together, build social and political activism, and amplify marginalised voices. Our panel discusses.
AI and Us: A noxious, invasive weed or trusted friend?
Friday April 24
Portsea Surf Life Saving Club
12.00pm
/
60 mins
Richard King and Toby Walsh with Seth Robinson
Climatenomics: Engaging business, government and schools in the battle for survival
Saturday April 25
Portsea Village
2.30pm
/
60 mins
Sarah Hamylton, Richard King and Kylie Soanes with Dan Ziffer
What positive roles can local organisations play in the climate change crisis? Must communities wait for governments to act? And might technology save the day?
Special Event
On Hope: Our artists discuss, reveal, recite and read
Saturday April 25
Halcyon Hall, The Continental
5.30pm
/
90 mins
Evelyn Araluen, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Erik Jensen, Richard King, Thomas Mayo and Richard Piper with Jane Montgomery Griffiths
This session is supported by I-Nex
This is a Special Event