One more sleep 'til BWF 2016

Bookworms and thinkers, assemble! It's our very favourite time of the year ... it's BWF eve.

We can't wait to welcome you for a city-wide conversation as we kick off Brisbane Writers Festival tomorrow with some Word Play fun!

Bookings are coming in thick and fast for sessions on this year's Main Festival program, but there is still plenty of opportunity for you to join our growing community of readers.

Each morning across the next five days, we'll compile a hit-list of the day's Festival highlights for you to come along and enjoy! Remember, you can book online, by phone, or in person at the peachy Festival box office once we're in full swing.

Read on for today’s Daily Dozen, a round-up of events that we think you’ll love and that, amazingly, still have tickets available! Must be your lucky day. Credit cards at the ready...

1. Quick! Grab your teen and nab a front row seat for YA superstar/2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Meg Rosoff or much-loved local gal Rebecca Sparrow at Word Play.

2. Kick BWF off with a bang at Lionel Shriver’s Opening Address on Thursday night with a stirring oration from a prolific and forthright author. You can also hear Lionel discuss family legacies in Inheritance, or her powerful new novel The Mandibles.

3. Got a teenager or YA fan in the house? Don’t miss award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author (and international superstar), David Levithan, as he talks about his latest book You Know Me Well, or hear him in the Ultimate Book Chat with Meg Rosoff as part of our Love YA! program. 

4. Prepare to be polarized as Neil Strauss eats his words about love and monogamy and reveals his path to redemption in his latest book, The Truth.

5. Be inspired and delighted by the unique musical journeys of Barry Jones, Davinia Caddy, and Hugo Race in INSPIRE: SONG.

6. Australia's national treasure Tom Keneally and his daughter Meg reflect on their gripping new crime fiction series, The Soldier's Curse.

7. Richard Fidler's Talking Turkey might have sold out, but join everyone’s favourite conversationalist as he ponders personal truths in Collective Memory.

9. Canadian ex-Twitter executive Kirstine Stewart shares her insight into women in leadership and the digital revolution in her Good Thinking lecture. 

10. American-South Korean journalist and author Suki Kim shares bizarre and intriguing stories and personal reflections on the numbing effect of 'sameness' from her time posing undercover in North Korea.

11. Bestselling American author Justin Cronin delves into the underworld of his Passage trilogy. Stephen King describes it as “one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction”. It's THAT good.

12. Ponder the big issues – like Professor Larissa Behrendt’s thoughts the future on indigenous affairs – and the small as 'that movie guy' Marc Fennell, comedy legend Alexei Sayle and criminal mind Caroline Kepnes admit Everything I Know, I Learned From Television.

What about free events, we hear you say? As always, our BWF in the ’Burbs program brings authors to a Brisbane City Council library near you. Over at the leafy St Lucia campus of UQ, join investigative journalist David Bandurski and friends for our BWF at UQ event series. And here at the State Library precinct, don’t miss two superstar panels of crime authors in the Maiwar Green on Friday night – BWF’s First Offenders and BWF’s Most Wanted.

So many events, so little time!  Get in quick to nab your last chance tickets, and we'll see you at the Festival.