August 25: In an ANU/Canberra Times meet the author event from 6pm, Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty will be in conversation with Tracy Smart on Doherty's An Insider's Plague Year, an illuminating glimpse into the scientific response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Manning Clark Auditorium, Kambri Cultural Centre, ANU. Registrations at anu.edu.au/events.

The ACT Writing and Publishing awards are designed to recognise, reward and promote ACT-region authors whose works have been self-published, or published by a small publisher. The 2021 awards are open to books published in the prior year; 2020, in the categories of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and children's books. ACT Writers also administers a range of family-funded awards: The Anne Edgeworth Emerging Writer's Fellowship; the June Shenfield Poetry Award and the Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award. Applications for the ACT Writing and Publishing Awards close on Friday, August 27. Entries for the June Shenfield Poetry Awards close on Sunday, August 29. Entries for the Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award close on Monday, August 30. See: actwriters.org/annual-awards.

The 2021 John Hinde Award for Excellence in Science-Fiction Writing is open for entries. It offers $10,000 for the best produced script of the previous year and professional support for the best unproduced script of 2021. It is open to all AWG members, including Full, Associate, and Student members. Entries close on August 27, 2021. awg.com.au.

August 26: Poetry at Manning Clark House. 11 Tasmania Circuit, Forrest, at 7pm, features K.A. Nelson, Rosa O'Kane, Moya Pacey and Sandra Renew. $10 entry. Bookings essential on Trybooking.com.

August 12: Kim Rubenstein, author of The Vetting of Wisdom: Joan Montgomery and the Fight for PLC, will be in conversation with Frank Bongiorno at 5pm. RSVP info@paperchainbookstore.com.au or phone 6295 6723.

August 25: Christine Sykes' book Gough and Me: My Journey from Cabramatta to China and Beyond will be launched on Wednesday, August 25 at 5pm. RSVP info@paperchainbookstore.com.au or phone 6295 6723.

August 17: At 8pm, the Translations Book Club will discuss Jayant Kaikini's short story collection No Presents Please (trans. Tejaswini Niranjana). Registrations: musecanberra.com.au.

August 25: Ozlit Book Club's August book at 6.30pm is Krissy Kneen's family memoir The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen. New members are welcome but spaces are limited. musecanberra.com.au.

For consideration for Litbits, email litbits@canberratimes.com.au by 5pm Monday.

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