Marian Keyes is not the only Irish writer on the agenda. Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn and its recent sequel Long Island, will be here – in conversation with The Age’s former books editor Jason Steger – as will Colum McCann.

Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey, whose Orbital took the coveted £50,000 ($102,000) award last year, is coming, as is Booker-shortlisted Dutch author Yael van der Wouden, to discuss her debut novel The Safekeep.

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Although the Gaza conflict is impacting the arts sector in Australia – as Sullivan says, “it is an incredibly charged landscape” – she says it does not affect her choices.

“The principle that I come to with programming is the writing first and foremost. We are a writers festival driven by craft and storytelling and voices, creating spaces for those writers to do their best work,” she says.

“I’m sure Israel/Gaza will come up in sessions across the festival, that is not something we are seeking to avoid or silence. I don’t want to determine what people might say.”

She recognises that not every writer or audience member will be in furious agreement and says that’s not something to be feared or avoided.

Cancel culture is on the agenda, with philosopher A.C. Grayling discussing whether or not it is possible to separate the artist from the art.

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Politically oriented events in this year’s festival have an Australian focus, Sullivan says, largely because of its proximity to the federal election (though the date is not yet known, it is likely to be within weeks of the MWF). Thomas Mayo and others will discuss reconciliation, justice and democracy in Australia, as well as the failed Voice referendum. This year’s First Nations curators Nardi Simpson and Daniel Browning will host an array of events within the program.

Other international guests include writer and translator Bora Chung (Korea); poet and author Norman Erikson Pasaribu (Indonesia); and Emirati scholar, teaching artist and poet Dr Afra Atiq (United Arab Emirates), plus locals Anita Heiss, Kate Grenville, Hannah Kent and Jamila Rizvi.

Sullivan, who was Wheeler Centre director of programming for eight years, says free, intimate events will be held throughout the festival at the Moat Bar, and a series of experimental performances will unfold at the Fringe Common Rooms space at Trades Hall.

“I want to do things differently and have new and exciting ways in but not at the expense of what the festival does well and has done for years.”

Melbourne Writers Festival runs from May 8-11.

The Age is a partner of the Melbourne Writers Festival.