The Sydney Writers’ Festival will run from April 29 to May 5, 2019, with 55 international and 360 Australian writers, academics and public figures talking to the theme at Carriageworks, Town Hall, City Recital Hall and venues across Greater Sydney and the nation through the Live & Local streaming program.

“Hundreds of the world’s most exciting writers will gather in Sydney to examine the white lies and deceptions that are necessary for survival, and malicious lies that are spun with darker intent,” Artistic Director Michaela McGuire said.

“They’ll explore the ways that writing can be used to deceive others in an increasingly post-truth world and look at the lies that we tell ourselves and each other, and those we collectively tell as a country.”

High profile international guest writers include Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black), Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers) and Meg Wolitzer (The Interestings).

Headlining Australian writers include novelists Candice Fox (Gone By Midnight), Mark Brandi (The Rip), Melanie Cheng (Room for a Stranger), Trent Dalton (Boy Swallows Universe), Moreno Giovannoni (The Fireflies of Autumn), Jane Harper (The Lost Man), Toni Jordan (The Fragments), Melissa Lucashenko (Too Much Lip) and Markus Zusak (Bridge of Clay).

Non-fiction writers featured include Maxine Beneba Clarke (Growing Up African in Australia), Stan Grant (Australia Day), Chloe Hooper (The Arsonist), Nam Le (On David Malouf: Writers on Writers), Leigh Sales (Any Ordinary Day), Clare Wright (You Daughters of Freedom) and Eddie Woo (Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths).

Both Mark Brandi and fellow festival guest Moreno Giovannoni are Australian writers of Italian descent.

Described by Booktopia as “riveting, frightening, and heartbreaking” Brandi’s The Rip is an urban crime novel that slowly and masterfully hooks you in.

It’s about a young woman who is addicted to drugs and caught in a web of suspect characters.

Brandi will feature on a panel at Carriageworks on May 2 called ‘The Perfect Crime’, wherein three crime writers come together to unravel the mystery of what makes a great psychological thriller tick.

He will also speak on his own book that same afternoon at Concord Library.

Brandi and his successful writing career have been previously featured in Il Globo.

Moreno Giovannoni’s novel The Fireflies of Autumn takes the reader to the olive groves and piazzas of a little-known Tuscan village. 

The book includes tales of war and migration, feasts and misfortunes – of a people and their place over the course of the 20th century.

Discussion of Giovannoni’s rural upbringing has been previously explored in an article in Il Globo.

Giovannoni will feature on a panel entitled ‘An Irrevocable Condition’ on May 3 at Carriageworks, discussing whether it’s possible to sever all ties with one’s birthplace and start truly afresh in a new land.

You can catch these stunning writers and more on the program of this year’s festival.

Tickets are on sale from today, and can be booked online or by calling (02) 9256 4200.