SYDNEY WRITERS’ FESTIVAL
PREVIEW BY LACHLAN JOBBINS
The Sydney Writers’ Festival is on again from May 19-25 at Walsh Bay, bringing together a bewildering array of local and overseas talent. It’s the time of year where a normally solitary activity becomes a public one. When else do you see so many people sunning themselves by the harbour with their noses in books’
With more than 300 events, including readings, panels, workshops, performances, films and exhibitions, the festival promises something for readers, writers and anyone interested in the world of ideas. There are sessions on politics, fiction, gender, indigenous Australia, Iraq and the US, journalism, new media, history, immigration and multiculturalism. Poetry is particularly prominent this year, as is food writing.
For writers, there are paid workshops on creating and marketing your work; getting published; freelancing for magazines; crime, travel and children’s writing; legal issues, and writing in plain English.
A lot of the events are ticketed, but there are many free sessions – just get there early to beat the crowds. The full program is available at www.swf.org.au – here are some recommended highlights:
‘ Jeannette Winterson’s opening address, Get a Book Get a Life! How Words Create Meaning (May 20, 6.30-8.00pm)
‘ Writers as Readers: Helen Garner, Luke Davies, Christos Tsiolkas and Samuel Wagan Watson on the works and writers who influenced them. (May 22, 6.00-7.30pm)
‘ 2007 Man Booker Prize winner Anne Enright in conversation with Ramona Koval (May 22, 8.15-9.15pm)
‘ John Gray, one of Britain’s great contemporary thinkers, in conversation (May 24, 9.30-10.30am)
‘ Luke Davies, author of The God of Speed and Candy, in conversation with Suzanne Leal (May 24, 12.30-1.30pm)
‘ Steve Toltz, author of A Fraction of the Whole in conversation (May 24, 2.00-3.00pm)
‘ Princesses, Pornstars and Lost Boys: Emily Maguire and Sam de Brito on gender in the noughties. (May 24, 4.00-5.00pm)
‘ Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for Australia: Leading Australian thinkers offer their wishlist with Robert Manne. (May 25, 9.30-10.30am)
‘ MCA Zine Fair: sell, trade or browse zines (May 25, 11:00am-6.00pm)
‘ Aliens Among Us: Triple J’s Craig Schuftan on the rock star as outsider, and why Dostoyevsky is as important to the history of rock as the Rolling Stones. (May 25, 12.30-1.30pm)
‘ Creative Dissent: Can a hip hop track, blog post or joke change the world for the better’ Featuring Ozi Batla (The Herd), Antony Loewenstein, Charles Firth (The Chaser), Alecia Simmonds and Amy Corderoy. (May 25, 2.00-3.30pm)
‘ Marathon Reading of George Orwell’s 1984, includes Victory Cocktails at 6pm and a Two Minute Love (May 25, from 2.00pm)
