Get ready for four days of fast-tracked, smart conversation from some of the world's best thinkers and talkers – and you, from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 March 2018. 

Text authors featured: Jock Serong and Sarah Sentilles

This year if there is a word we can use to connect the ideas in the program it is 'change', as for good or for ill ours is an uneasy world. Join the Adelaide Writers' Festival for conversations about murder, mayhem, hoarding, salvaging, love, loss, reporting, chronicling, and celebrating the ideas and institutions that impact all of our lives. Text authors featured are Eva Hornung, Kate Cole-Adams, Sarah Krasnostein, Judith Brett, Melanie Cheng and Sarah Sentilles.

Lawyer and bestselling author Sarah Krasnostein, winner of Victorian Prize for Literature 2018, is in conversation with Tim Byrne reading from and discussing her highly acclaimed book, The Trauma Cleaner.

Sarah Krasnostein has watched the extraordinary Sandra Pankhurst bring order and care to these, the living and the dead—and the book she has written is equally extraordinary. Not just the compelling story of a fascinating life among lives of desperation, but an affirmation that, as isolated as we may feel, we are all in this together.

Bookings essential to: rsvp@avenuebookstore.com.au with the subject line: Sarah Krasnostein at Albert Park.

All successful bookings will receive a confirmation email.

The Somerset Celebration of Literature will be held from Wednesday 14 March to Friday 16 March 2018, it is a significant cultural event that reaches beyond Somerset College to include the whole community. This inspiring three day festival is held on the Gold Coast each year, with ticket sales exceeding 20,000.

Authors featured are Steph Bowe and Claire Christian.  

Join Sarah Krasnostein as she speaks to Ruth Wykes about her debut book, The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman’s Extraordinary Life in Death. Sarah's book centers on Sandra Pankhurst who for 20 years has cleaned houses in which people have died, sometimes violently, sometimes through drugs, and very often alone.

Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, gender reassignment patient, sex worker, small businesswoman, trophy wife… But as a little boy, raised in violence and excluded from the family home, she just wanted to belong. Now she believes her clients deserve no less.

Krasnostein's book has been longlisted for the 2018 Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction.

This event has been produced in assocation with Sisters In Crime Australia.

What makes a great book cover, who decides and how do they know?! In this panel discussion presented by Australian Book Design Association, hear from designers, publishers and artists who have created award-winning covers to discuss the peculiar mix of art, science and instinct that goes into designing a book cover. Moderated by W. H. Chong.

The space between pure fiction and fact harbours many curious things. When it comes to famous (or infamous) historical events, we may know broadly what happened – but the inner lives and private worlds of key players are literally left to the imagination. Enter fiction.

For this edition of The Next Big Thing, hear stories of real lives reimagined. How can we make sense of history, and lend humanity to its most influential (or discreet) figures? When legacy overshadows experience, how might we fill in the gaps? Come and find out – with readings from Kelly Gardiner (Goddess), Marija Pericic (The Lost Pages) and Bram Presser (The Book of Dirt).

Sarah Krasnostein has captured the hearts and minds of readers with this brilliant biographical work. She will discuss her book, The Trauma Cleaner, which is about trauma cleaner Sandra Pankhurst. 

Meet Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner, and hear the fascinating story of Sandra Pankurst, a woman who has been many things: a husband and a father, drag queen, sex worker, businesswoman and trophy wife, before becoming a trauma cleaner. Adults 18+  

The 2018 Clarence Valley plunge Art & Culture Festival runs from 28 March to 30 April and there is something for everyone - workshops, exhibitions, shows, talks, entertainment and music. Text author Claire Aman will be hosting two writing workshops.