Launch, Friday 17 July 2026
6pm
Celebrate with us as Helen Garner opens the 2026 FlemKen Writers’ Festival.
Hosted by Bakery Hill Distillery and catered by the incredible team at Moroccan Soup Bar, the evening will also feature local slam poet, Mo Sudi.
Ticket costs include a tour of the distillery and tastings, and dinner.
3 hours
@Bakery Hill Distillery, 411 Macauley Rd, Kensington
Saturday 18 July 2026
10.30am
Located in North Melbourne, within coo-ee of neighbouring Kensington and Flemington, Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) is the government archive of the State of Victoria. With over 100 kilometres of digital and physical records from 1836 to the present day, PROV is a treasure trove of archival material. Within its walls are inquest files, passenger records, wills and probate, Cabinet records, land and property files, adoption and care leavers records, and thousands of photographs.
Join two local historians as they share their journeys through the state archives, and discover how history and forgotten characters can be brought to life through public records and the stories within.
With Dr James Bradley and Katherine Sheedy.
60 mins
@Flemington Library, 313 Racecourse Road
Saturday @ Flemington Library
Saturday 18 July 2026
12.30pm, Flemington Library, 313 Racecourse Road
Join us for a poetry lesson-slash-workshop. It will be a stylistic refresher and a blues sonnet deep dive, as we awaken our inner poets and mine our sorrows to write our own blues sonnets.
Facilitated by Mr Green, (English teacher- 5 stars), and the inimitable Mo Sudi, our local slam poet.
90 mins
@Flemington Library, 313 Racecourse Road
The Curiosity Sessions
Pull up a chair and eavesdrop on candid conversations between local thinkers and writers as they share their work, challenges, and ideas.
Saturday 18 July 2026
3pm
Locals, Katherine Brabon and Laura McPhee Browne frequently set their books in areas where they have lived and draw heavily on their inner lives as urban millennial women. Or do they? Join them as they discuss their work and how they navigate what makes it to the page.
Introduced by Miranda Nation, award winning author, screenwriter and director (and fellow local).
60 - 80mins
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
Saturday 18 July 2026
5pm
An award-winning author, Murray Middleton’s most recent novel, No Church in the Wild, is set in Flemington. Written from multifarious perspectives as they navigate difficult terrain, including a racial profiling court case, its chorus of voices have ‘real bite, real sting and real tenderness’ - Christos Tsolakis
Tony Birch’s most recent novel, Women & Children, is set in working-class, inner-city Melbourne, and follows 11-year-old Joe Cluny over the summer holidays. It won the 2024 The Age Fiction Book of the Year and is considered by many to be his most personal novel.
Join them as they discuss writing the inner city, and perspectives - in storytelling, in publishing and in life.
Introduced by Najma Sambul, an insightful and incisive Melbourne-based journalist and writer, and producer of community storytelling performances through the East African Women’s Foundation.
60 - 80mins
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
Sunday 19 July 2026
2pm
Join local lawyer and host of In That Case podcast, Joel Townsend as he talks with Professor Jenny Hocking about her years long legal battle to release the ‘Palace letters’. This correspondence, between the Queen and governor-general Sir John Kerr, revealed the role of the Queen in Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s dismissal.
60-80 mins
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
Words and music
Saturday, 18 July
8pm
Combining live music performance and storytelling, The Village Square captivates with stories of love and loss, misfortune and mirth. Featuring renowned cellist Zoe Knighton, guitarist/composer Robbie Melville, and the singular Richard Piper as The Narrator. Evocative, enchanting, human.
60 mins
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
FREE
Sunday 19 July 2026
from 4pm
To close out the festival, we’re thrilled to welcome Damon Smith and the Melbourne Blues Appreciation Society at their House of Blues - aka our very own festival hub, the Flemington Kensington Bowling Club. FlemKen poets, this one’s for you too: stretch your creativity and have your very own blues sonnets brought to life by the band.
Facilitated by local spoken word slam poet, Mo Sudi, and Mr Green.
2 hours
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
The Workshops
for young story makers of the inner northwest
FREE, registrations essential, places limited
Writers’ camp: a two-day 100 Story Building run writing event for emerging young writers, ages 13 - 17.
10.30 - 1.30pm, Saturday 18 July 2026, a 100 Building Story fiction writing masterclass.
12 - 2pm, Sunday 19 July 2026, the opportunity to return for some quiet writing time, and the chance to further workshop your ideas.
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
FREE, registrations essential, places limited
10.00 - 11.30am, Sunday 19 July
Facilitated by the wonderful crew from 100 Story Building, FlemKen children (aged 8-12) are invited to this creative storytelling workshop. They’ll learn about collaborative storytelling and decision-based narratives, create their own stories, and have the chance to share them with peers, parents/carers and their community.
90 mins
@Flemken Bowling Club, 407-411 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
In a world of increasing disparity, we are keen to give the young people of FlemKen and in the inner north-west of Melbourne an equal opportunity to access our youth programming. As such, these events are free, and you need only register yourself or your young person in order to participate.
There is, of course, a cost in putting these events on. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a bit of a Medici arts benefactor - and if you have the means and the inclination to support our young people in their creative endeavours - this moment is for you.
We would gratefully receive a $25.00 contribution towards our youth programming. 100% of monies raised this way, and across the festival generally, will go to 100 Story Building and the writers’ incredibly modest fees and to supporting delivery of this endeavour.
You’ll have our eternal thanks - and quite possibly a warm fuzzy feeling, (but not a tax deduction as we are not set up for that).
In a world of increasing disparity, we are keen to give the young people of FlemKen and in the inner north-west of Melbourne an equal opportunity to access our youth programming. As such, these events are free, and you need only register yourself or your young person in order to participate.
There is, of course, a cost in putting these events on. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a bit of a Medici arts benefactor - and if you have the means and the inclination to support our young people in their creative endeavours - this moment is for you.
We would gratefully receive a $25.00 contribution towards our youth programming. 100% of monies raised this way, and across the festival generally, will go to 100 Story Building and the writers’ incredibly modest fees and to supporting delivery of this endeavour.
You’ll have our eternal thanks - and quite possibly a warm fuzzy feeling, (but not a tax deduction as we are not set up for that).
Snag a festival t-shirt (and help us cover our costs)
Wear a great piece of local art by Wally and help us pay for the insurance necessary to put this on. Win, win.
Fancy some pre-reading?
