Panel - Travel Writing through the lens of Father-Son memoirs

Simon Cleary's and Kári Gislason's travel memoirs involve their sons as participants in the journeys they undertake, and in conversations and reflections about fatherhood and growing up that take place along the way. This session will explore Simon & Kári’s experiences of travelling with their boys, and give Dominic and Magnús the chance to voice their own experiences of the travels and the evolving nature of father-son relationships. And what they really think of their fathers’ books!

Simon Cleary is a writer and barrister. Simon’s most recent book, Everything is Water – a finalist in the Queensland Literary Awards Work of State Significance Award for 2025 – is shaped by his 344 km journey by foot along the banks of the Brisbane River from its source to Moreton Bay. Everything is Water explores the ways rivers connect people, landscapes and ecologies. Simon is also the author of three novels – The Comfort of Figs (2008), Closer to Stone (2012), and The War Artist (2019) – and his work has featured in artistic and musical collaborations and includes poetry and shorter fiction.  

Dominic Cleary is a 22-year-old economics and arts student at the University of Queensland, with interests spanning anthropology, history, rock climbing and travel. His studies have encouraged a broader curiosity about how societies organise themselves and how cultures develop. Combined with an appetite for adventure, this curiosity has led him to spend his university breaks backpacking through the Balkans, the Caucasus and, most recently, West Africa with his dad. A highlight of the trip was an unforgettable, if freezing, journey through the Sahara in an empty iron ore wagon.

Kári Gíslason is a writer and academic who teaches creative writing and literary studies at QUT. Kári was awarded a doctorate in 2003 for his thesis on medieval Icelandic literature. He is the author of The Promise of Iceland (UQP, 2011), which told the story of return journeys he’s made to his birthplace, and the novels The Ash Burner (UQP, 2015) and The Sorrow Stone (UQP, 2022). He is the co-author, with Richard Fidler, of the bestselling Saga Land (HarperCollins, 2017), which won the Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2018. His most recent book is a memoir of fatherhood set in Corfu, Running with Pirates (UQP, 2024), a work that draws heavily on conversations between Kári and his sons Finnur and Magnús. He has also written works of travel journalism, essays, reviews, and radio scripts. His current project is a crime novel set for release in mid-2027, and a podcast co-produced with Richard Fidler called Viking Lives.

Magnús Gíslason is a student who is currently completing Year 12 in Brisbane. In 2022, he took part in his father Kári’s journey to Greece that is featured in the family memoir Running with Pirates (UQP, 2024).

Discover more about the Eumundi Writers Festival here: https://eumundiwritersfestival.com.au/