Meet the Author

The ANU Meet the Author Series has been bringing writers, historians and commentators to Canberra for nearly four decades. Each event is a conversation with someone who has just published something worth arguing about, followed by questions from the floor.

This KNoT is not tied to a date. Pick any event in the programme that interests you, go, and submit your completion task afterwards.

Browse the programme at anu.edu.au/meet-the-author-series and pick an event. Most run 6–7pm at Kambri. Check the event page for booking — some are ticketed, most are free.

Read something about the author first: a review, an interview, or the book's opening chapter. You will get far more out of the hour if you arrive with a position to test rather than a blank page.

You will practise listening to an argument built over a whole book and compressed into an hour — and then testing it. Sitting in a room where a specialist is questioned by a general audience is one of the few places you see expertise meet scrutiny in public, which is a different skill from reading the book alone.

• ANU Meet the Author Series — upcoming events and the archive of past sessions
• Past events are regularly podcast and available through SoundCloud, linked from each past event's page

Sit near the front — the Q&A is where the interesting disagreement happens, and it is easier to catch the room from close up.

Do not restrict yourself to your own discipline. A KNoT you take because the topic is unfamiliar is usually the one worth writing about.

Past sessions are podcast on SoundCloud. Those are useful background for choosing an event, but this KNoT is completed by attending in person.

In 250–400 words:

• Name the event, the author, and the argument they were making.
• What did you think before, and did the evening change it? Be specific about what moved you, or explain honestly why nothing did.
• Write the question you would have asked, and say what you would have learned from the answer.