As Australian Society of Authors Professional Development rep in WA I feel duty bound to attend the Perth Writers Festival. I must admit that having been for so many years, this year my weary author brain pondered whether I’d give it a miss. That was until I attended the launch on January 11th at the State Theatre. This year will see a combination of some old favourites plus some very exciting new initiatives. Here are my initial picks.
Katherine Dorrington introducing the line up for 2017 © The Ponder Room
Courtyard Sessions
First up there’s the addition of the State Theatre Centre to the mix. 2017 will see several sessions take place away from the UWA campus, at the State Theatre. If the launch night was anything to go by these sessions are probably already sold out or near to. Running from 5pm until late on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th the line up includes Adrian Todd Zuniga Literary Death Match, plus spoken word artists Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, Omar Musa and Ziggy. On the Friday night the evening include a competition where four authors perform a short excerpt their work and a panel of judges decides a winner. Is this a literary nod to Masterchef? I hope no one brings a blamange.
Then on the Saturday Nick Earls’ work The Wisdom Tree will come to life through music and readings with local performers. Later Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire follow with their show Women of Letters which focuses on the lost art of letter writing.
Shaping the Mind
Saturday night also brings us Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, the pioneer for neuroplasticity and author of the best seller The Woman Who Changed Her Brain. As someone with a slightly wonky brain I’ve thought about buying this book many times so it will be terrific to hear this talk. Only trouble will be making it to the Courtyard Session in time as this talk is being held at the Octogon Theatre Saturday 25th 6-7pm.
Katherine Dorrington introducing the line up for 2017 © The Ponder Room
Reflections on Grief
You may wonder why someone would want to spend a Friday afternoon disgussing grief. Having written a book, run workshops on this topic and experienced loss myself, I will be intrigued to see what these artists have to say. The session has artists represented from Russia, Canada, Syria and WA which will also make it interesting. Friday 24th 1-2pm.
The Museum of Water and Pondering Our Most Precious Liquid
Okay yes I should attend this one given my prediction to ponder, but it also looks really interesting. Amy Sharrocks is inviting people to help build the WA edition of the award-wining Museum of water. People can bring their own water along to donate to the museum, just make sure you include a story about why you brought it. Some examples are melted ice from Antarctica, billabong water or tears. Sounds intriguing. The Museum is at the Reflection Pond on Saturday and Sunday, while the talk is on Sunday 26th 2.30 – 4pm.
Family Day, Kid curated
Another fantastic initiative is having a group of ten kids curate the family day offering, brilliant. The weekend just happens to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter too, so everyone is invited to dress up and join in various themed events. With Peter Helliar dropping in to chat about Frankie the Fish it could be a very interesting day for young and old. On a personal note I am thrilled to see my friend James Foley’s new book Brobot is featured, make sure you catch one of his sessions.
The kids curating Family day Perth Writers Festival 2017 © The Ponder Room
Others of interest are:
- The Book Doctor where patients will receive a reading passport and recommendation;
- Two metre high six metre wide Harry Potter mural that is just waiting to be coloured in;
- Small voices louder installations, megaphones at the ready;
- Australian of the Year Deny Adut;
- Crime authors Dan Box;
- Short story writer Len Liu;
- Lindy West, the outspoken Seattle writer who has recently withdrawn from twitter;
- Omar Musa who is always interesting;
- Richard Fidler discussing the transformative journey he took to Italy and Turkey with his son;
- William McInnes who always provides some light relief as he discusses Australian life;
- The Power of the Podcast workshop with Dan Box.
So turns out it’s not a very short list and that’s before I look at the program in depth. As I ponder my current list:
- I can predict one things for sure, my brain will be reaching capacity around about 6pm on Friday.
- Guess I should cancel all meetings on Monday.
- Get in quick for your tickets.
I’ll report back after the weekend, so stay tuned.
More information can be found at PIAF Perth Writers Festival 2017.
