Breaking Bad Showrunner Vince Gilligan Is Coming To Australia To Answer All Your Questions

[Update April 11: Due to popular demand, Sydney Writers Festival have announced a second date with Vince Gilligan to follow on from the first; this one will be hosted by Benjamin Law from 9.30pm on Thursday May 1 @ Sydney Town Hall. Tickets here.]

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At the program announcement in Walsh Bay last night, Sydney Writers Festival artistic director Jemma Birrell saved the best ’til last: Breaking Bad creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan — currently putting together the excellent-sounding Bob Odenkirk-starring spin-off, Better Call Saul — is coming to Australia for the first time, for a conversation with Adam Spencer to be held on May 1 at Sydney Town Hall.

While on paper it seems an oddball choice for a writers’ festival headliner, Birrell made the point that some of the most exciting storytelling at the moment is happening on the small screen. “Vince is able to manipulate our sensibilities and make us question our own moral standpoint,” she said. “The heart of the festival is books but the art of writing is not only in books.” (In related news, the New York Times announced overnight that Breaking Bad lead Bryan Cranston was writing a memoir. So there’s that too.)

Gilligan’s appearance comes a few weeks before the actual festival kicks off on May 19, with other guests including Pulitzer Prize winning Alice Walker (The Colour Purple), The Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan bringing her latest book The Valley Of Amazement, and Iranian-American scholar and author Reza Aslan, author of the controversial Zealot: The Life And Times of Jesus Christ — and the man behind this brilliant Fox News smackdown.

Also leading the lineup is cult favourite Irvine Welsh, who’ll be batting off Trainspotting questions to talk about his latest novel, The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins; and the youngest ever Man Booker Prize-winner Eleanor Catton, who’ll be heading across the Tasman to talk about The Luminaries, and that time she hung out in bed with Lorde.

Other highlights include David Malouf celebrating his 80th birthday with a retrospective talk; former ‘court poet’ to Kim Jong-il, Jang Jin-sung, discussing his “electric expose of the inner working s of the totalitarian state and its propaganda machine”, Dear Leader; and Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and the excellent Super Sad True Love Story, talking about his new memoir, Little Failure – which comes with a trailer starring James Franco, Rashida Jones, Jonathan Franzen, Alex Karpovsky and more.

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For the full Sydney Writers Festival lineup, click here. Stay tuned for national tour dates, too.