Writers Festival Day 1 :: Friday 22 February
| Time | Dolphin Theatre
All Dolphin Theatre sessions are FREE |
Festival Tent
All Festival Tent sessions are FREE |
The University Club Theatre All University Club Theatre sessions are FREE |
Octagon Theatre |
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery |
| 9.30–10.30 | Living the Dream
Carmen Michael and Clotilde Dusoulier are two young women who ditched their day jobs and followed their passions for travel and food respectively. Join them in a conversation about stepping into the unknown and following your dream. |
Love and Desire
Victoria Hammond, Douglas Kennedy and Toni Jordan consider writing about intimacy and desire. |
Self Portraits
Three authors with fascinating life experiences, Michael Gawenda, Kate Llewellyn and Pauline Nguyen discuss their lives and recent memoirs. |
The Politics of Faith
Religion has become a hot issue socially and politically. Can personal faith survive these pressures? Do we need an urgent 'climate-change' response if religion is to become a force for good rather than a justification for violence? Stephanie Dowrick, Waleed Aly and Randa Abdel-Fattah consider political and personal ideas about faith, religion and our collective future.
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| 11.00–12.00 | Harsh Critics
Young audiences can be the toughest of critics but Terry Denton and Dave Hackett are two authors who have unlocked the secret to making them laugh. They compare notes on writing for kids.
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Gastronomic Musings
Lucy Malouf and Stephen Downes discuss writing about food and restaurants and whether the life of the food writer is as delicious as it sounds. |
Displaced
Marcella Polain and Louise Doughty consider displacement and exclusion in their writing. |
Spotlight on Christopher Koch
Twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award Christopher Koch discusses his new novel, The Memory Room, a psychological study of espionage, secrecy and obsession. |
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| 12.30–1.30 | Mentor and Apprentice
Kate Llewellyn and Catherine Cole discuss their early creative influences, mentorships and the different journeys they have taken as writers. |
A Flash or Slow Burn?
Nicki Greenberg, Victoria Hammond and Glyn Parry consider the inspiration for their latest books, whether there was a moment of insight or a gradually evolving concept and the journey from first idea to finished work.
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The New Rome?
Cullen Murphy considers the similarities between the rise and fall of the ancient Roman empire and present day America. |
Writer As Activist
Can words really make a difference? Miles Merrill, Dominic Knight, Julian Morrow and Gideon Haigh consider the power of words and writing for political change. |
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| 2.00–3.00 | The Scene of the Crime
Atmosphere and place are important ingredients in crime novels. Shane Maloney and Marion Halligan discuss the settings of their latest novels. |
The Secret Pulse of Time
Leading science journalist Stefan Klein illuminates the highways and byways of time. He answers fundamental questions about time, and gives a fresh perspective on our everyday lives.
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Secrets and Lies
Christopher Koch, Maureen Freely and Tan Twan Eng discuss themes of secrecy, lies and obsession in their latest novels. |
Australian Flavour
Australia's cuisine and restaurant scene has evolved enormously over the last 20 years. Stephen Downes, Greg Malouf and Pauline Nguyen consider some of the changes they've seen. |
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| 3.30–4.30 | Is Life Too Short?
How long is too long? How short is too short? Do readers care about length - or does size not matter? Nathan Englander, Susan Midalia and Gideon Haigh consider length in all its guises, from short stories to novels, essays to treatises. |
Defining Places
A sinister shopping centre, an Australian coastal town called Desperance and a delapitated zoo are the settings for three new novels by Catherine O'Flynn, Alexis Wright and Neil Cross. They consider how these settings define their narratives and the importance place plays in their writing.
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Will the Real Writer Please Step Forward?
Miles Merrill, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Bruce Atherton and Bevan McGuiness are four writers working in different mediums - spoken word poetry, young adult novels, journalism and fantasy fiction. They discuss their writing processes, both professionally and personally. |
Spotlight on Tim Harford
The author of The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford, discusses his new book The Logic of Life in which he sets out to prove that life's craziest episodes - love and divorce, drugs and gambling, even racism or office politics - can be explained by looking at how we respond rationally to what is happening around us. |
The Poetic Voice
Three outstanding poets, Craig Sherborne, Tracy Ryan and Caroline Caddy share their poetry. |
| 5.00–6.00 | Emotional Journeys
Maureen McCarthy, Glyn Parry and Donna Mazza consider times of change in their character's lives.
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Chamber Duo 1
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