Get ‘Em While They’re Hot
by Diana Jenkins
Well, here it is, already May: Sydney Writers’ Festival time again. Boy, that was fast. This time last year, I was fretting about what to wear to 5x15, the event I’m lucky enough to be involved with at the festival. My in-between body hadn’t yet popped into full pregnancy, so I just looked like I’d been steadily indulging a long-term fondness for custard tarts and Belgian waffles. Clothes weren’t fitting properly and all my shoes and boots were too tight. I was fretting: beyond co-curating and copywriting duties in the lead up to the event, I introduce the five speakers on the night. I get to hide behind a lectern onstage, but it’s still a big venue and a daunting job for someone whose ideal state is sitting alone in a silent room. In such public circumstances, a girl likes to feel good about her get-up if she can, especially when Richard Roxburgh is involved, so…the question of what to wear was unreasonably distracting.
Distracting is probably the single most accurate word to describe getting an event up at the festival while parenting two small children full-time. I’m constantly distracted on both fronts, unable to give undivided attention to either office or offspring. I’ve written copy on my iPhone while breastfeeding at 2am. I’ve distributed a press release while rocking my baby to sleep in my lap. I’ve discussed logistics while pacing playgrounds. It’s all a bit mad, really, but it’s far, far better than the alternative: not doing it. I feel the same way about travelling with small children: you either deal with the difficulties or… you… don’t… go. Right, then. Everyone is different, but I’m choosing work and travel every time.
I assume this is the same for all festivals, across all creative industries, but man, is there ever untold small stuff to sweat. Details, details – there are so many small but important details to manage. Working with SWF Artistic Director Jemma Birrell specifically to bring 5x15 to Australia has been my maiden behind-the-scenes foray into the world of literary festivals, and I honestly do not know how she and her small festival team do it for the festival at large. The sheer volume of events and ever expanding spread of venues (including of course the Blue Mountains for the Varuna SWF program), means attending to a really dizzying level of minutiae. I like to think that doing 5x15 is helping me outrun early onset Alzheimer’s, kind of like Sudoku, and with hundreds of events on her watch, Jemma’s mental agility must be second to none. I doff my cap, I really do. They work like wild things to deliver a world-class festival year after year, and we Sydney- and/or mountains-based bookish types should really show our appreciation by getting amongst it with gusto.
Varuna Alumni members are appearing at a wonderfully rich range of events throughout the week, both in Sydney and Katoomba. It’s been a very gratifying process, checking the SWF program against the Alumni Profiles. Just look at us all! What an impact Varuna writers have on our cultural landscape.
[One little note before I continue: if you’re an Alumni member appearing at the festival and your event doesn’t appear below, it’s probably because you don’t have your profile included in the Alumni Directory online. Please do send your profile plus a preferred pic to Varuna – you’re mad if you don’t.]
Anyone keen to catch sight of Varuna’s former Creative Director stands a fairly good chance right throughout the festival, but a Peter Bishop sighting is positively guaranteed at Yamakarra! Writing Community and Country (SR5), one of the events happening at the House. Peter will be in conversation with Suzanne Hall, Karin Donaldson, Elaine Ohlsen, Debbie Evans and Peter Thompson.
Don’t worry if you missed out on Prime Minister’s Literary Award-winner and Varuna alumna Felicity Castagna’s workshop Starting from Place (W11 – a sell-out, thank you very much): she’s also appearing at Get Your Poetry Up and Out There in Parramatta. Even better: it’s a freebie.
At the time of writing, you can still nab a seat at the table for Alumnus David Carlin’s workshop, Creative Non-fiction: Voice, Art and the Truth Thing (W23). His latest book is The Abyssinian Contortionist, a biography of his friend, the Ethiopian/Australian circus performer Sosina Wogayehu
Novelist, critic, teacher and Varuna Alumna Tegan Bennett Daylight may be found at the Carrington Hotel conversing with Joan London (SR16), author most recently of the greatly admired novel The Golden Age. Still in Katoomba, Tegan is talking about The Simple Act of Reading (SR18) with literary critic Geordie Williamson and novelist and academic Debra Adelaide, editor of the new collection of essays and memoirs of the same name.
Back in Sydney, don’t miss Tegan’s session with author Kate Grenville (44). They’ll be discussing Grenville’s latest book, the profoundly intimate One Life. Tegan’s session with Helen Garner (93), whose latest non-fiction work is This House of Grief, sold out in record time, but please don’t forget the power of the podcast. If you miss out on tickets, never fear: technology is here. Another one for the diary: Tegan’s first collection of interconnected short stories, Six Bedrooms, is being published in July. It sounds like compulsory reading.
Alumna Roanna Gonsalves is appearing in A Pack of Lies: Narration in Fiction (35) with writers and academics Paul Dawson and Anna Westbrook and short story writer Ellen Van Neerven. They’ll be examining the intrusions, irritations and consolations of narrative voice in this free Sydney session. Roanna is also appearing at Keeping Language Alive (232), looking at the challenges of minority languages in translation.
Catch Alumna Erin Gough at Keeping it Real: Realistic Issues in Teen Fiction (242). She’s appearing with other widely acclaimed YA authors, including Melina Marchetta and Laurie Halse Anderson, to talk about writing teen worlds without wolves. Erin’s first novel, The Flywheel, published in 2015, won Hardie Grant Egmont's Ampersand Project.
Another member, the non-fiction author, essayist and speechwriter Lucinda Holdforth, is hitting the main stage at Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Theatre) for a candid chat with the feisty former Premier of QLD in Anna Bligh: Through the Wall (119). If pollies aren’t your first pick, Lucinda returns to Ros Packer Theatre for a rollicking good time with the wildly popular author himself in Anthony Horowitz: Moriarty (212).
In the Sydney event Quickies and Corsets: There’s More to the Story of Women and Sex, Lee Kofman, subject of the March Member Interview, dismantles stale concepts of ‘what women want’ in a free session also featuring Marie Le Moelm, Krissy Kneen and Jane Caro.
I hope a couple of you are among the lucky few to snap up tickets to Lee’s workshops; Writing What Makes You Blush (SR4) at Varuna and The Craft of Dialogue (W17) in Sydney are both sold out. If you’re in the mountains, you can still catch Lee in conversation with fellow Alumna and award-winning memoirist, the wonderful Catherine Therese (SR12). They’ll be at the Carrington Hotel discussing Lee’s book, The Dangerous Bride (SR12).
Alumna Suzanne Leal, novelist, facilitator and former lawyer, is a very busy bee at the SWF this year, appearing in no less than five events – phew! She’s talking crime on a cracking panel that includes another Varuna writer, Virginia Peters, author of the forensic examination of familial relationships amidst an unsolved crime, Have You Seen Simone?
You can see True Crime: Morality, Money, Entertainment and the Truth (SR26), at Bondi Pavilion. Suzanne’s other sessions are Myself in Pieces: How to Write a Life (51); Nick Earls and Wayne Macauley: Is it Time to Turn Off? (129); and Reading History Through People (215). Suzanne’s session with Ramona Koval and David Leser, Fathers Lost and Found (158), has sold out, but look out for the podcast of this and other sessions.
A Varuna lifer in more ways than one, the inimitable Patti Miller is working the festival circuit with her latest memoir. In Sydney, Writers on Writers: Musings in the City (162) sees Patti and Amit Chaudhuri reflecting on the cities that inspired their latest works, while Looking Inwards, Writing Out (239) focuses on navigating a life through writing.
In the mountains, head to the Carrington Hotel for Patti Miller: Ransacking Paris (SR10); Patti will be talking about the book and the year she spent in Paris with Katoomba’s Mr Congeniality himself, Varuna Alumnus, novelist and poet Mark O’Flynn. Mark’s session Poetry in Place (SR3) is certainly in the right one: see him at Varuna for this and Poetry Circle (SR6).
Acclaimed poet Deb Westbury is another Varuna Alumna with a busy dance card. She’s joining the Poetry Circle at Varuna with Mark, as well as appearing at Poetry in Place. Deb’s third Varuna event sees her running Trees, Memory & Imagination: A Creative Workshop (SR1).
Those eagerly awaiting The Natural Way of Things, the new novel by award-winning Alumna Charlotte Wood, out in October, are going to have to be patient in more ways than one. Charlotte’s session Joan London: Truth and Love (25), with the acclaimed author of The Golden Age, has sold out (a fact that elicited an anguished cry when yours truly attempted to get one).
Tickets are still currently available for Charlotte’s conversation with the wonderfully talented American author Amy Bloom, in Amy Bloom: Lucky Us (52). Lucky indeed. Excuse me while I go book my bum on a seat forthwith.
So there we have it – talk about packed to the rafters with Varuna writers. My own role in 5x15 means this year I’m fortunate enough to be welcoming the ACO’s Richard Tognetti, chef Adam Liaw, crime writer Michael Connelly, investigative reporter Kate McClymont and novelist, rapper and slam poet Omar Musa, whose debut Here Come the Dogs recently landed on the Miles Franklin long-list. They’ll be telling their unscripted tales at Roslyn Packer Theatre on Saturday 23 May and I promise you this: a good time shall be had by all. Come if you’re able. You can find details and booking information here.