Sydney, Monday 05 May 2025: Two heavyweights of Australian literature and music, a father and daughter duo no less, were the headline act for our recent Ramsay Writers Event, open to the public for the first time.

Anna and Peter Goldsworthy, renowned and award-winning figures from the worlds of literature and music, delighted a packed audience at Sydney’s historic venue The Mint, with readings from their works, insights about their creative practices and delightful familial recollections. It was one of the rare times the pair have appeared together on stage to explore and celebrate their contributions to Australian cultural life.

The Ramsay Writers Series is a Centre initiative designed to showcase established and emerging Australian writers. For the past two years the series has focussed on Australian poets and been invitation only, drawing from Australia’s writing community. In 2025 the series is broadening its scope to include other writing practices and opening itself to a general audience.  

Anna Goldsworthy is an award-winning writer, pianist, festival director and Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at Adelaide University. Her debut memoir Piano Lessons was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. She has written extensively for the stage, providing librettos for Graeme Koehne’s opera A Christmas Carol, and most recently creating the stage play, Welcome to Your New Life.

As a pianist, Anna performs extensively throughout Australia and internationally and is a founding member of Seraphim Trio, whose recordings include the ARIA-award-winning Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds for Decca. Anna has directed numerous festivals, including the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, the Coriole Music Festival, and the Music and Mountains Festival in Queenstown, NZ.

Peter Goldsworthy combines writing with the practice of medicine and has won literary awards across a range of genres, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction, and, together with composer Richard Mills, the inaugural Helpmann Award for Best New Work for the opera Batavia.

His 1995 novel Wish has been reissued in the Text Classics series, his 1988 novel Maestro as an Angus & Robertson Australian Classic, and Honk If You Are Jesus (1992) in the Untapped Heritage series. His novels have been widely translated, and adapted for the stage, as have his short stories. He has also written opera libretti for the composers Luke Styles and Graeme Koehne. Online, his poetry can be read and heard at The Poetry Archive and read at The Poetry Foundation. His most recent book is The Cancer Finishing School.

Anna presented to the audience first, reading passages from an article she wrote for The Monthly magazine as well as from her first book Piano Lessons. Both readings prompted her to reflect on her family’s influence on her writing, from watching her father’s transformation into a writer and proofreading his early works, to family subject matter both she and her father have drawn on in their works, both in memoirs and re-imagined for fiction.

Peter Goldsworthy read First Day at School and The Blues and excerpts from his book The Cancer Finishing School, which he wrote following his multiple myeloma diagnosis. Peter discussed how his diagnosis made him reflect not just on his illness but on patients he had previously diagnosed. He remembered being encouraged to write about his cancer by Clive James, and reflected on the effects of the medications on his writing, as well as the perverse ‘gift’ of cancer as subject matter.

In discussion with Ramsay Centre Academic Director Professor Diana Glenn, Anna explained how she decides what to include in memoirs and her belief that fiction is always informed by life experiences. Peter agreed that while you didn’t have to experience something directly to write about it, he believed lived emotion and experiences give depth to any subject matter you choose to write about.

Together with Diana, the pair also discussed how their dual professions, Anna as musician and writer, and Peter as doctor and writer, had influenced their craft, their thoughts on AI, and the hilarity of working together.

To join our mailing list for future events including Ramsay Writers, email ramsayevents@ramsaycentre.org

Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098/ sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org