Tours highlighting the library’s history and archives will be held as part of this year’s Seniors Festival, and members are welcome to attend.

In recent years, these tours have been very popular with people attending Seniors Festival events, and they provide a terrific opportunity to introduce the library to a new audience. We thank members for their patience while these tours are underway.

Tours are free but bookings are required as numbers are limited. Bookings can be made using this link.

More information on the Victorian Seniors Festival can be found here.

Matsuo Bashō (1644 - 1694) was the supreme Japanese haiku poet who greatly enriched the 17-syllable haiku form and made it an accepted medium of artistic expression.

His contribution and influence on the development of haiku will be the topic of a talk in the library by Alice Wanderer, a member of Melbourne’s Fringe Myrtles haiku group.

Interested in haiku from an early age, Bashō at first put his literary interests aside and entered the service of a local feudal lord. After his lord’s death in 1666, Bashō abandoned his samurai status to devote himself to poetry.  Moving to the capital city of Edo (now Tokyo), he gradually acquired a reputation as a poet and critic and in 1679 he wrote his first verse in the new style for which he came to be known.

The Talk will be held on September 7 at 2pm. This event is free for members and guests. Bookings can be made through Trybooking using this link.

The Partridge String Quartet is back in the library in August, with a varied program including works by Schulhoff, Britten and Harrison.

The quartet formed at the National Academy of Music in 2017 and have quickly established themselves as engaging and dynamic artists.

They won the inaugural 2019 Queensland International Chamber Music Competition, the 2018 ANAM Chamber Music Competition and the 2017 Musica Viva Chamber Music Prize.

The performance will be held on August 30 with doors opening at 5:30pm for a 6:00pm performance. This event is free for members and $20 for guests. Bookings can be made through Trybooking using this link.

Affinity Quartet is returning to the library after a European stint to perform Beethoven's first foray into string quartets, the Opus 18, over three Friday evenings.

The Opus 18 is considered by many to be an expression of total mastery of the string quartet form. With these six compact and ground-breaking string quartets, a young Beethoven, still in his twenties, created a striking new direction for this intimate medium.

The first of these performances by the rising stars of the next generation of Australian chamber musicians will be on September 6, when they will perform String Quartet no. 1 in F minor and String Quartet no. 6 in B-flat major.

The performance will be held on September 6 with doors opening at 5:30pm for a 6:00pm performance. This event is free for members and $20 for guests. Bookings can be made through Trybooking using this link.

5 Islands Press author Sue Lockwood will launch her superb collection, The Flowering Dark, at the Melbourne Athenaeum Library on the 31 August. Anne M Carson will launch the book, and 5 Islands Press Managing Editor, Mark Tredinnick, will be your MC.

Sue's elegant "Last Train", which is included in the collection, is featured in the first edition of an exciting new online poetry journal, The Marrow, launched 30 June by Audrey Molloy, Daragh Byrne and Natalie Bührer. You can read "Last Train" and the other fine poems in this first edition on www.themarrowpoetry.com/issue-one-contents

Here's what renowned poet Judith Beveridge had to say about the book: "Compelling and wise, these poems argue that poetry must be a matter of passion and deep engagement with craft...a masterful collection that sings line by line."

The launch will be held on Saturday 31 August at 3:00pm. This event is free but bookings are essential and can be made through Trybooking using this link