A mid-festival update from the Melbourne Writers Festival
Our staff have been enjoying the Melbourne Writers Festival over the past week. As the final weekend of the festival looms, here’s what we’ve loved so far, and what we’re still looking forward to.
Stella Charls has seen almost everything
I’ve been helping out at the Writers Festival, and was lucky enough to park myself in the Deakin Edge theatre for pretty much the entirety of the first weekend. My bookmarked international guest right from the moment the program launched was Rob Thomas, creator of two of my favourite TV shows, Veronica Mars and Party Down. In conversation with the wonderful Clementine Ford, Rob was as quick-witted and hilarious as one would expect, and his genuine shock at having such a vast, passionate Australian fan base was pretty touching. I’m a huge fan of the festival’s decision to program a stream of events on writing for television, and highly recommend the screen events taking place over this weekend, including Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, How We Watch, Love My Way and Australian TV Now.
A large focus of the opening weekend was the place women hold in Australian media today. While I did witness Mark Latham’s public breakdown last Saturday afternoon, this controversial performance was countered by a string of panels featuring incredibly strong, smart women speaking to the changing nature of feminism in Australian media. Latika Bourke, Gay Alcorn, Christine Kenneally, Jamila Rizvi, Anne Summers, Ita Buttrose, Jessica Rowe, Mary Delahunty, Annabel Crabb - these women encompassed such an array of varied opinions, and it was inspiring to hear from them.
The stream of events last Sunday was titled ‘Reading Now’, focusing on the books readers love and what reading can tell us about the world. Graeme Simsion and Lianne Moriarty had their audience in stitches, and offered a fascinating discussion on the role of a book’s cover and the pros and cons of having your work translated and marketed all over the world. I adored ‘Dubious Consent’, the session with Krissy Kneen and SJ Watson on taboos in fiction. These authors obviously appreciated each other’s work, and it was a treat to hear them read from their novels and offer fascinating insights into the real-life responsibilities of authors who explore sexual fantasy on the page.
The opening weekend ended with an honest and hilarious panel of memoirists, true-crime authors and playwrights sharing what happened in real life after their published stories ended. Maggie Mackeller, Liam Pieper, Rebecca Starford, Matthew Condon and Declan Greene spoke in turn and were all brave enough to speak frankly about their own lives in ways that both moved and delighted their audience.
On Monday night I was involved in the first ever Moth StorySLAM in Australia, an amazing night of storytelling that will continue every month at Howler in Brunswick. If you haven’t been to a storytelling night before, or haven’t listed to The Moth podcast of stories then I emphatically encourage you to do so! It felt like such a privilege to be in the room as each brave person took to the stage to speak uninterrupted for five minutes about their own lives. I can’t wait for the next session (although not convinced I’ll be brave enough to ever put my own name in the hat to speak).
Emily Harms is looking forward to Naomi Klein and Eleanor Catton
I am blocking out my weekend to see Booker-Prize winning author, Eleanor Catton speaking on her literary influences as I absolutely adored The Luminaries. Of course I can’t wait to see Naomi Klein on Saturday evening talk about her fabulous latest book This Changes Everything on the war capitalism is waging on our planet.
Angela Crocombe had fun at the Alice in Wonderland event
The festival’s YA Salon on Alice in Wonderland was a lot of fun. Six authors spoke about what the book meant to them, beginning with Leanne Hall showing us her Alice tattoo and talking of spending a psychedelic weekend in Melbourne city where she felt like Alice down the rabbit hole. Allyce Near showed us some different filmic interpretations of Alice, and Andrew McDonald spoke about it through his teenage self, working at the Pancake Parlour, where the highlight of a shift was the opportunity to walk around the shopping mall dressed as the Mad Hatter and holding the hand of a waitress dressed as Alice. Fun times and a fitting tribute to perhaps one of the strangest, trippiest but most beloved children’s books of all time.
