How to review a Writers Festival (Perth Writers Festival 2013)

What makes a sane person turn their back on three glorious days of sunshine, to huddle indoors from 9am to 8pm? For me it was the promise of critical thinking, wordsmithing, extraordinary debuts, great conversations and inspiring tales that will keep me on the writing treadmill. Three days, 14 sessions and one workshop later I wasn’t disappointed. Below is a brief summary of my time. More posts about specific events will follow after I unpack my notebook and decipher the scrawls therein. But first the question remains … how to review a gumbo of a Writers Festival?



China Mieville and Margaret Atwood at PWF 2013 © The Ponder Room




I could ponder about the well-known authors in attendance. The In Conversation sessions with the thought provoking Kate Grenville, the delightfully thoughtful Robert Dessaix, and the thought chasing Michael Leunig.

I could talk about the delicious interplay between China Mieville and Margaret Atwood as they took us into new worlds. Worlds where made up words were essential to both set the scene and avoid law suits from well established brands. Clearly though words were not always necessary as Margaret was utterly enamoured with the etchings on China’s arms.

I could reflect on the new Out of the Box Series focusing on Television writing, where the cream of the field gave us behind the scene insights into what’s important. Tips like making sure that the catering was right, or an impassioned plea that all writers be treated with respect, regardless of their genre.

I could point out that this same sentiment was raised in the early morning 50 Shades of ChickLit session. Here Anita Heiss, Zoe Foster and Susan Johnson lamented why female literature is not taken seriously, and praised the introduction of the Stella Prize, a comment reflected on in many sessions that followed.

I could talk about Shamini Flint and Parker Bilal’s take on Crime Writing and how a smear of blood can be used to discretely highlight important social issues taking place on foreign shores. That and Shamini’s secret … ‘when in doubt [her character]can always stumble across another body’, something more difficult for memoir writers … hopefully.

I could ponder on: the sojourn into the imagination of China Mieville; the future of reviewers in a 24 hour news cycle; the unfortunate timing that meant Kate Grenville’s session was held before the audience had had an opportunity to see The Secret River; or the quirky additions to the already stunning university grounds.

But these ponderings would take up more time and space than I have for this post. No I will ponder on these later. Instead I think I’ve stumbled across a simpler method.

As I look at the far end of my desk I see six books waiting for inspection. I had a strategy this year – I banned myself from the bookshop until 5pm each day. Turns out an earlier raid would have been impossible anyway, as I was constantly on the move to the next session. And so my desk now leans slightly downward under the weight of six new books. They were:

• As I Was Saying – a collection of musings by writer, translator and broadcaster Robert Dessaix 
• The Wolf and the Watchman: A CIA childhood – by international journalist Scott Johnson 
• The Rosie Project – a debut novel by Graeme Simsion 
• The Age of Miracles – a debut novel by Karen Thompson Walker 
• The Exotic Booze Club – by former National Geographic documentary maker Brian Armstrong 
• The Essential Leunig: more than 40 years of cartoons – by Michael Leunig

Others that would have made it onto the list if there’d been no strategy in place, and a limitless bank balance, were: something by China Mieville, Margaret Atwood, Shamini Flint and Steve Worland.

My absolute stand out though was spending five hours in the presence of Michael Leunig. In his three hour workshop we lucky few sat spellbound, just delighting in listening to him riff on various topics. Two more In Conversation style sessions just cemented why he was rightly crowned A Living Treasure.

The only thing left to ponder is … which book to start first. Oh and I guess which session to post about first too. These review and profile pieces will be spread out of the coming weeks.