Getting ready for the MWF
JA
August 19
Folks, the Melbourne Writers Festival kicks off in less than a week – in case you’re still twiddling your thumbs, here’s a likely selection of events to crack your teeth on:
Writing Indigenous Australia
Writers talk about their relationship with Indigenous culture and the challenges of writing about it.
Taking part in this enlightening discussion are Rod Moss (The Hard Light of Day), Hannah Rachel Bell (Storymen), Gary Presland (The Eastern Kulin) and Larissa Behrendt (Home).
When: Sunday Aug 29, 5.30-6.30pm
Where: BMW Edge
Meanjin, Overland and Going Down Swinging: Birthday Stories
Celebrate the combined existences of three of Australia’s most prominent literary magazines – Meanjin (70 years), Going Down Swinging (30 years) and Overland (56 years).
How did they begin, and why? How have they developed and where are they headed?
This is a FREE event
When: Sunday Aug 29, 2010, 5.30-6.30pm
Where: Festival Club, ACMI
Meanland: Big Ideas: Copyright versus Creativity
The internet and digital technology is challenging traditional notions of copyright, but many authors are finding new and innovative ways to circulate their work — and to make a living while doing so. Acclaimed SF writer, blogger and commentator Cory Doctorow looks at the perils and opportunities of this brave new world.
When: Thurs Sept 2, 2010, 6-7pm
Where: RMIT Capitol Theatre
Best of The Fest
An early evening, late-night-TV-chat-show-type of event featuring some of the festival’s special guests in conversation about their latest work.
Features Alice Pung, Bryce Courtenay, Ben Pobjie, Steve Kilbey and China Mieville. Hosted by the glorious Catherine Deveny and Daniel Hurt.
When: Friday Sept 3, 6-8pm
Where: BMW Edge, Federation Square
Meanjin @Magazine
Join Meanjin for a morning of literary snapshots as they host Magazine at the MWF – Ben O’Mara talks to Jessica Au on the anxieties of being a (semi) professional writer; Ruby Murray shares her Alan Marshall Short Story Prize winner ‘The Things that Lucille Did’; Belinda Rule reads from ‘The Secret of the Dark Elves’; and Michael Harden and Sophie Cunningham discuss the impact of liquor licensing laws on Melbourne’s bar, restaurant and music culture.
Magazine also features festival guests Adrian Hyland (Diamond Dove), Darren Shiau (Heartland) and Gregory Day (The Grand Hotel)
This is a FREE event.
When: Saturday 4 September, 10am–1.30pm
Where: River Terrace, Federation Square. (Go here for venue map)
The Communal Voice
Books with a host of characters require commanding authors to corral them. Anjum Hasan (Lunatic in my Head), Barbara Trapido (Sex and Stravinsky) and Eduardo Antonio Parra (No Man’s Land) discuss the ways many voices can be united in the service of story and how a powerful narrator can be the jewel in a perfect story’s crown.
When: Saturday Sept 4, 4-5pm
Where: ACMI 1
Living in the ‘70s
‘The Me Decade’, with its social revolutions and political dramas, is explored by Guardian Columnist of the Year Francis Wheen and Miles Franklin winner Frank Moorhouse. Why did the ‘70s deliver such cultural change?
When: Saturday Sept 4, 5.30pm-6.30pm
Where: BMW Edge
Small Places, Big Ideas
How have three very different writers captured the essence of Tasmania, its life and its politics. Anna Krien, Amanda Lohrey and Nicholas Shakespeare discuss what makes the Apple Isle different.
When: Sunday Sept 5, 1pm
Where: BMW Edge
White Noise in a Networked World
Feeling overwhelmed by Facebook, Twitter, email, texts and RSS feeds? Drawing from her essay in the June issue of Meanjin, Kate Crawford talks to Sophie Cunningham about the history of noise from the 18th century onward – what lessons we can learn about managing the digital noise of today, and how do we go about literary publishing in a networked media world?
When: Sunday 5 Sept 2010, 5.30pm
Where: ACMI Studio 1
Australian Centre Literary Awards 2010
Join the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, in congratulating the winners of the Peter Blazey Fellowship ($15,000 award to further a work in progress in the non-fiction fields of biography, autobiography or life-writing) and the Kate Challis RAKA Award ($25,000 award for indigenous poets). Presented by Sophie Cunningham, and hosted by Kate Darian-Smith.
When: Saturday 28 Aug, 4pm
Where: Festival Club
Our Friends
- Overland
- Alien Onion
- Ampersand Duck
- Andrew McDonald
- A Pair of Ragged Claws
- Arts Victoria
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Ben Eltham
- Bookshow blog
- CAL
- City of Tongues
- Crikey
- darkly wise, rudely great
- David Astle
- Elmo Keep Does Stuff
- The Ember
- Fly the Falcon blog
- Going Down Swinging
- Griffith Review
- Hackpacker
- Harvest
- HEAT
- Island
- Killings blog
- Literary Minded
- Lorraine Crescent
- Lynden Barber
- Mandy Ord
- Marcus Westbury
- Matilda
- Meanland
- Melbourne University Publishing
- Mel Campbell
- The Monthly
- Musings of an Inappropriate Woman
- Oslo Davis
- Paul Callaghan
- Read, Think, Write
- Sleepers Publishing
- Sorrow at Sills Bend
- SPLOG
- Tom Cho
- Virgule
- Wet Ink
- Wheeler Centre