NSW

Sydney Writers’ Festival

Various venues, Sydney May 22-28 swf.org.au

A novel, according to America’s George Saunders, is “a story that hasn’t yet discovered a way to be brief”. A master short-story writer and an acclaimed novelist, he knows of what he speaks. Catch him at this festival’s 20th edition, comprising more than 300 events bound by the theme “refuge”. Other must-hears include Thomas Friedman, Roxane Gay and Ha Jin.