Sydney Writers' Festival

Best for: Wine fans
Wine and Words: Christian Lander
Los Angeles-based blogger turned best-selling author  matches the satirical musings in his book Stuff White People Like to four courses of spicy Mediterranean food from Ottoman chef Serif Kaya. All tongues will be kept superbly oiled by a range of accompanying wines from the good oilers at Richmond Grove.

Best for: Booker worms
The Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize is the ultimate accolade for modern writers. Australian winners include Thomas Keneally for Schindler's Ark in 1981, Peter Carey for Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001, and DBC Pierre for Vernon God Little in 2003. Here, former judge Kate Summerscale and former long and short listees Monica Ali and Mohammed Hanif share their experiences of the Man Booker rollercoaster.

Best for: Germanophiles
The Baader Meinhof Complex
New film The Baader Meinhof Complex chronicles the notorious Red Army Faction, which undertook murders, shootings, bombings, kidnappings and a plane hijacking... but why? The film's writer Stefan Aust attempts to explain in a post-screening pow-wow.

Best for: Wendy' wit
An Evening with Wendy Harmer
Multi-talented humourist Wendy Harmer started life as a caustic comedian but now has a swag of fine books under her belt. She talks about Roadside Sisters, the story of three friends hurtling into middle age via a road trip up Australia's east coast.

Best for: Living history
Stories from the Stolen Generation
Pastor Bill Simon, the first Aboriginal minister to be ordained in Redfern, and Lorraine McGee-Sippel, a Yorta Yorta woman, share their stories of growing up in a special afternoon blended with poetry readings by Emma Jones and Elizabeth Hodgson.

Best for: Rock dinosaurs
Rock'n'Roll Lives
Two icons of Australian music - former Cold Chisel songwriter Don Walker and The Sports' Stephen Cummings - have recently published their memoirs and will share a rash of road stories and pub laureate laments.

Best for: Travel junkies
Wanderlust
Australians are the world's prime exponents of wanderlust, but what makes a true travel adventure? Can the global wanderings of Cook and La Perouse ever be replicated? Is there any uncharted territory left to explore? Adventurers and travel writers Chris Bray, Lincoln Hall and David Smiedt will wander and wonder.

Best for: Verse votaries
Poetry as Passion: A Tribute to Dorothy Porter
The legendary late Sydney poet, arch prose combustionist and author of The Monkey's Mask, Wild Surmise and El Dorado and is remembered via readings from her peers and the re-voicing of her own favourite poems. Sun 24 May, 2.30-3.30pm, Free. Bangarra Theatre, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay.
ONLINE: Read our Colourful Sydney Identity tribute to Porter online!

Best for: Wise guys and femmes fatales
Peter Corris in conversation with Graeme Blundell
Peter Corris, the Raymond Chandler of the northern beaches, recently published the 34th title in the Cliff Hardy collection and his 60th book overall. Here he talks about his prolific writing life and his recent heart-stopping brush with the great beyond.

Best for: Stargazers
An Evening Under the Stars with Kate Grenville
Kate Grenville beautifully captured the first collisions and collusions of white and black Sydneysiders in The Secret River. Now, inspired afresh on the nation's beginnings via the 1790s notebooks of astronomer and Eora sympathiser William Dawes, she has uncoiled The Lieutenant, a similarly poignant picture of this city's soul. Grenville's talk tonight at the SH Ervin Gallery (Observatory Hill, The Rocks) is followed by an evening's stargazing through the telescopes in celebration of 2009 as the Year of Astronomy.

Sydney Writers Festival runs 18-24 May

More book reviews and literary events in Sydney? Sign up to our weekly newsletter