Join award-winning author Christos Tsiolkas for the 2025 Ray Matthew Lecture, as he explores the idea of ‘Fence-sitting’, and its place in the modern world.

‘In our highly polarised culture, the idea of sitting on the fence is despised by all sides, abjured equally by intellectuals, politicians, journalists and activists. We are urged at all times – and for every occasion – to take a position. Yet is there a utility, both practical and ethical, in taking a breath, a pause, and refusing to land definitively on a stance? For me, that question has a further urgency in that I am of an age, where I reflect on previously staunch beliefs that have proven to be erroneous - or even malignant. Doesn’t that awareness now necessitate doubt and consideration? Or is sitting on the fence always a copout?'

Christos will examine these questions and the consequences for artists and writers. 

Attend in person

Entry to this event is free but bookings are essential.

Complimentary refreshments will be served in the foyer following the presentation.

Watch online 

The lecture will also be available online. Please make a booking and we will send you a direct link to the livestream event via email. Or you can join through the Library's YouTube channel

About Christos Tsiolkas 

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of eight novels – Loaded, The Jesus Man, Dead Europe, The Slap, Barracuda, Damascus, 7 ½, The In-Between - and the short story collection, Merciless Gods. Many of his works have been adapted for the stage and for the screen and have been published in multiple languages. He has written a monograph on Fred Schepisi’s The Devil’s Playground, for the Australian Screen Classics series, and a monograph On Patrick White, for the Writers in Writers series. He has collaborated with Patricia Cornelius, Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves and Irine Vela on the plays Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, Fever, and Anthem, and was co-writer with Spiro Economopoulos on the play, Non Parlo di Salo. His other plays include Viewing Blue Poles, Dead Caucasians, and Carburettor, and the adaptation of Loaded, co-written with Dan Giovannoni. 

In 2022 the Adelaide Festival staged Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, an oratorio written by Christos and Alana Valentine, with music composed by Joseph Twist. It was restaged at the Sydney Opera House in 2024 and Alana and Christos won an AWGIE for their libretto. Christos’s film script credits include the feature films Blessed and Little Tornadoes, and the documentary series, The Pool. He is a volunteer co-host (along with Clem Bastow and Casey Bennetto) of the music show, Superfluity, on community radio station, 3RRR. Christos is also an essayist and currently a film critic for The Saturday Paper. He is an ambassador for theatre group, Outer Urban Projects, in Melbourne, and a patron of Writers Victoria. In 2025, he was appointed to the council of Writers Australia for Creative Australia 

About the Ray Matthew Lecture

The Ray Mathew Lecture was established in 2009 as a major annual event for the National Library of Australia.

It is named in honour of the Australian poet and playwright, Ray Mathew (1929–2002), who left Australia in the late 1960s, never to return. Mathew spent most of the remainder of his life living in the New York apartment of his patrons, Eva and Paul Kollsman.

The Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust is a generous bequest, made to the Library by Eva Kollsman, to support and promote Australian writing.