SYDNEY WRITERS' FESTIVAL 2023

The Jibb Foundation supported two In Conversation events 2023. 

Two-time world debating champion Bo Seo and former High Court justice Michael Kirby examined how we might better listen to and disagree with each other in an era of increasingly harsh and divisive discourse. They discussed Bo’s new book, Good Arguments, part memoir of how he discovered the art of debating as a shy, conflict-adverse child, and part treatise on why the pillars of good debate – fact-finding, reason and persuasion – offer an antidote to political spin, fake news and social media slugfests. 

Trinidadian-British poet, novelist and musician Anthony Joseph was awarded the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize in 2022 for Sonnets for Albert. A series of elegies to his mostly absent father, it explores the wider edges of Caribbean masculinity, loss and longing, drawing praise from the judges as “a luminous collection which celebrates humanity in all its contradictions and breathes new life into this enduring form.”  Anthony discussed his craft and career, spanning five poetry collections and three novels, with Felicity Plunkett.