Romy Ash

Those who love Alice Munro’s stories may never read them the same way again, knowing the choice she made to protect her daughter’s abuser.

“After my collection, the retrieval. There were no viable eggs. Nothing for the deep freeze. Would you believe it? The doctor’s face as she told me. She must have practised this face, but still, she had it all wrong. They should give those doctors acting …”

At 71, alternative rock and riot grrrl pioneer Kim Gordon is still making experimental music and visual art – and still refusing to please.

The work of award-winning graphic designer John Warwicker and his multidisciplinary design collective, tomato, is a rhythmic chaos, and a background to the past few decades.

For Michael Sheen – in Sydney to star in Amadeus, in which he performed more than two decades ago – past and present are inextricably entwined.

“The children’s cubby has the look of a big top. It’s the sort of blanket that is cotton-waffled, woven, and when the light shines through it, it looks holey, like surgical mesh. This morning the sun is coming through the windows on the east …”

Diana Nguyen, who has just co-adapted Alice Pung’s novel Laurinda for the stage, says laughter is the way through pain.

Katrina Sedgwick brings a rich background in performance and civic life to her new job as chief executive of the Melbourne Arts Precinct.

“I find every address I’ve ever lived at. They are written on old envelopes, her address on the front, ripped open, it’s not like she has a bone letter opener that lives on an oak desk. They are not in any order, they are not together or placed …”

Opera, says Barrie Kosky, is all about bringing the dead back to life – as will be seen in his Adelaide Festival production of The Golden Cockerel.

Behind Sjón’s multifaceted work – novels, poems, screenplays and some of Björk’s greatest hits – is a profound belief in the power of poetic imagination.

“Last night, in the charming, converted barn, as we swilled red-black wine in long stemmed glasses, she said: “I just feel when I get up for the fifth or sixth time that night, I just look at her and I think that maybe the one way it could end, that …”

As a homesick teenager from Bendigo, Alice Topp dreamed of dancing with The Australian Ballet. Now she is also a resident choreographer with the company, and only the second woman to hold the title. She speaks about the creative collaboration of her latest work, Logos. “We are in a vulnerable space together, and it’s a safe space and we’re free to have our own voice and it’s a really special journey for me. I can’t imagine creating any other way.”

A conversation at the desk of singer-songwriter Becky Sui Zhen.

A visit to the home of author, actor and founder of transgender support network Transcend, Rebekah Robertson.

A visit to Arts Project, the studio of sketcher Adrian Lazzaro.

A walk along Merri Creek with multimedia artist Lucreccia Quintanilla.

Watching the waves with surfer, photographer and documentarian Elizabeth Pepin Silva.

A walk through Toolangi State Forest with scientist and academic David Lindenmayer.

A walk through Kuranda, Queensland, with Indigenous fire practitioner Victor Steffensen.

In the kitchen with chef and author Julia Ostro.

A walk through the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art with choreographer and dancer Jo Lloyd.

A walk through the home studio of abstract artist Jake Walker.

Laurie Anderson has been a creative pioneer for decades, working across genre, time and place. Now 71 and still prolific, she continues to push boundaries with virtual reality projects. “You, yourself, your body kind of disappears and you have this incredible freedom to fly and to observe things that you wouldn’t be able to do in your body. So it’s almost like you’re as free as your imagination and you become your own imagination. It’s very, very thrilling.”

Visiting New Zealand poet Hera Lindsay Bird in Wellington.

A journey down the Whanganui River with Charles Ranginui.

Satirist Armando Iannucci has turned from his hit TV comedies Veep and The Thick of It to mining the lethal absurdities of the Soviet Union for his film The Death of Stalin. He talks about the comedy of power. “It seems strangely topical with all the talk about facts and alternative facts, new truths and old truths, and the authoritarianism too. It’s frightening.”

A visit to the studio of glass sculptor Emma Camden.

On the eve of the NGV Triennial, artist Candice Breitz turned a work about refugees into a work of protest directed at the gallery’s security contracts. “While I am grateful for the immense support I have received from the NGV,” she announced, “it would be morally remiss, in light of the above knowledge, for me to remain silent in the context of the current conversation that is taking place around the Australian government’s ongoing and systematic abuse of refugees.”

Housebound with an infant, the author watches the street life unfold.

Violinist Lizzy Welsh talks before her rehearsal for the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music.

As an actress on the rise, Angourie Rice is determined to find roles beyond the cookie-cutter teenage girls. Here, she talks about the importance of female representation, working with Kidman and Coppola, and frocking up for The Beguiled.

Frances Devlin-Glass stages Joyce’s Dublin, smell by smell.

Whether using toy-like puffins to explore the global financial crisis or woodcut typefaces to examine feminist theory, Emily Floyd’s art is grounded in deep thinking and subtle references.

Comedian Anne Edmonds serves up a slice of middle Australia.

Step-parenting with the author of The Other Mother, Kelly Chandler.

A walk through works curated by Bianca Hester and the Open Spatial Workshop team at the Monash University Museum of Art.

Heather Lawson and Michelle Stevens are deafblind performers whose work allows audiences to experience the world via touch, guided through darkness and silence.

A walk through Stonefields with Paul Bangay.

Are Melbourne band Client Liaison living inside an enormous performance art piece or are they taking the piss?

A virtual reality tour with Maralinga survivor Nyarri Nyarri Morgan.

Meeting Dr Andrew Cuthbertson of CSL, developers of Gardasil.

A head fundraiser in the Hardstaff household.

Adam Liaw, 2010 MasterChef winner, on his passion for keeping things simple in the kitchen.

In the studio with artist Elizabeth Newman.

Cindy Sherman has been lauded as an ‘artist of our time’ for her striking personal transformations.

A mid-rehearsal chat over a hurried lunch with Kip Williams.

Finding your bearings on a nostalgic island under the watchful gaze of the local rock wallabies.

Comic creator Jessica Hansell “smuggles things in through the disguise of lighthearted humour”.

From the roots to the Enz.

A sit-down with the stand-up Ben Elton.

Sydney Dance Company artistic director Rafael Bonachela on the emotion behind his work.

In Brisbane for an exhibition of his visual art, American auteur David Lynch talks about his sources of creativity.

How Rohan Anderson turned his unhealthy life around by becoming a hunter/gatherer.

From a sheepdog in Babe to Dickens’ women, Miriam Margolyes’s voice work is known throughout the world.

Shy Missy Higgins returns to the spotlight by sharing it with others.

Anouk van Dijk doesn't just think she can dance. She, and everyone else, knows she can.

What it's like to help bring more than a thousand babies into the world.

Now 55, much-loved actor Sigrid Thornton is back in the spotlight, performing for the MTC.

Author Jessie Cole strolls through the  northern NSW bush of her childhood, the setting for Deeper Water.

No one loves getting down and dirty more than mycologist Tom May.

Nobody does blonde and ditzy better than Wicked star Lucy Durack. But now this winning witch is also turning her creative powers to writing.

Singer-songwriter and family man Tex Perkins recalls the Joh years in Brisbane and getting his big break in music.

Romy Ash meets master of sound Michael Winslow

In the rehearsal room with one of Australia's finest actors.

David Vann talks about the real story behind A Mile Down.