Maryam Master in conversation with Ben Quilty

Join Maryam Master and Ben Quilty in-conversation to celebrate the release of Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Exit Through The Gift Shop tells the story of twelve-year-old Ana who is discovering that life is absurd. She might have terminal cancer but she still has to endure insults from Alyssa (Queen Mean) Anderson. Ana's on a wild roller-coaster of life and death, kindness and cruelty, ordinary and extraordinary. And she's got a few things to do before she exits . . .

About Maryam Master

Maryam Master was born in Iran and moved to Australia when she was nine. She is a screenwriter and playwright who loves creating shows for young audiences. Maryam has adapted three of David Walliams' books for the stage - Mr Stink, Billionaire Boy and The Midnight Gang - as well as Oliver Jeffers' The Incredible Book Eating Boy, all of which premiered at the Sydney Opera House and toured across Australia. She also collaborated with Australian Children's Laureate Leigh Hobbs on Horrible Harriet: Live on Stage. She began her career in TV, writing for shows like Home and Away, Blinky Bill and the Jim Henson Co's Bambaloo. In 2011 she was selected by Sesame Workshop as the writer for Elmo's tour of Australia. Exit Through the Gift Shop is her first novel.

About Ben Quilty

Ben Quilty is known for his distinctive style of oil painting (he won the Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist and friend Margaret Olley), examination of masculine culture, expression of psychological interiors, and others which show his engagement with a range of social issues, such as the death penalty, asylum seekers, and massacres of Indigenous Australians.