Anne Summers: PEN Sydney Day of the Imprisoned Author Address 2026

Dr Anne Summers will deliver a special address to mark The 2026 Day of the Imprisoned Writer for PEN Sydney at the State Library of NSW on Tuesday, November 17 at 6pm. As well as focusing on the work of PEN Sydney, she will discuss her new book, Witness, an illuminating first-ever collection of her reportage, essays, interviews and articles. 

She revisits the vindictive politics of the Julia Gillard era, the unexpected legacy of Malcolm Fraser and the way John Howard upended the agenda for women’s equality. She explores the Mexican patron saint of drug runners, the terrorist bombing of an Ariana Grande concert and the women who marched against rape in war on ANZAC Day. And she reflects on the death of her mother, finally providing a headstone for a violent grandfather, sharing her name with a chain of sex shops and why she couldn’t throw out her swinging '60s wedding dress.

In a collection as varied and deeply considered as her own life, Summers tells the stories of the people, issues and moments that have shaped our past and are key to understanding today’s tumultuous world.