Sydney Writers’ Festival Live & Local
Australia’s most beloved celebration of literature, stories and ideas.
South East Arts, Headland Writers Festival and Bega Valley Shire Library present a LIVESTREAM of the Sydney Writers’ Festival sessions at Tura Marrang Library.
Join us for one of Australia’s most loved forums for literature, ideas and storytelling. Click on the links below to read more and BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE. All tickets only $5 each.
SATURDAY PROGRAM
Tura Marrang Library - Sunday 28 May, 10:00am-5:00pm
10:00am – 11:00am: A Life In Food - Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer.
Culinary icons Stephanie Alexander AO and Maggie Beer have inspired generations of home cooks and fundamentally transformed how we think about food. They reflect on their decades-long friendship, and their partnership in running a cooking school for Australians in a medieval villa in Italy. They also talk about their influential books on preparing, cooking and savouring delicious food, including their co-authored Tuscan Cookbook, which was recently optioned to be made into a feature film. They are joined on stage by cook, writer and presenter Adam Liaw.
12:00pm – 1:00pm: Crime and Justice - Helen Garner and Hedley Thomas
We are fascinated by stories of crime and how they unfold. There are no finer narrators of such stories than legendary author Helen Garner and The Teacher’s Pet podcaster Hedley Thomas, whose work explores the link between confronting terrible things that happen and the people who are involved. They sit down with Sarah Krasnostein to explore the compelling nature of crime and the pressing question of what happens when justice takes a lifetime – or if it never comes at all?
Four favourite writers come together to give the lowdown on having their works adapted into TV shows and movies and adapting the work of others. Hear from Eleanor Catton, whose novels The Rehearsal and The Luminaries have made their way to the screen; Holly Ringland, whose bestseller The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is being turned into a series starring Sigourney Weaver; and Tom Rob Smith, whose novel Child 44 became a movie with Tom Hardy and whose adaptations for the screen The Assassination of Gianni Versace have won him an Emmy and a Golden Globe. They chat with Benjamin Law.
4:00pm – 5:00pm: The Bookbinder Of Jericho - Pip Williams
Australian novelist Pip Williams drew wide acclaim for her bestselling debut, The Dictionary of Lost Words, “a marvellous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress” (Geraldine Brooks). Her new novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, covers similar terrain, with the story of a young British woman working in a book bindery who gets a chance to pursue knowledge and love when the first world war upends her life. Pip is in conversation with Cassie McCullagh.
SUNDAY PROGRAM
Tura Marrang Library - Sunday 28 May, 10:00am-5:00pm
10:00am – 11:00am: Barrie Cassidy and Friends, State of the Nation
Relive all the thrills and spills of the year in Australian politics with veteran journo Barrie Cassidy and his hand-picked squad of the country’s sharpest pundits. From ScoMo’s secret ministries to the climate reckoning of the Teal wave and the verdict on Labor’s first year in office, it’s all up for dissection as they take the pulse of the nation. Barrie shares the stage with Amy Remeikis, Niki Savva and Laura Tingle.
12:00pm – 1:00pm: Fifty Shades of Teal - MP Helen Haines, Simon Holmes
Last year saw Teal candidates spectacularly oust Liberal Party stalwarts from once safe seats and upend the electoral rulebook. Hear from a panel with different perspectives as they consider the role of issues like climate action and political integrity in the independent candidates’ victories, what their ascension reveals about the country’s mood for change, and how they might shape our politics into the future. Independent MP and The Indi Way contributor Helen Haines, The Big Teal author Simon Holmes à Court and The Teal Revolution: Inside the Movement Changing Australian Politics author Margot Saville speak with Barrie Cassidy.
Could you use some wise counsel? A panel of first-rate advice givers convenes to dish out wisdom, guidance and the occasional hot take on the thorny questions of our time and other vexing modern-day dilemmas. With speaker and storyteller Paul Callaghan (The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life), philosopher and Guardian advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, the internet’s most-loved agony aunt Daniel Lavery (Dear Prudence), and YouTube sensation and mental health advocate Nat’s What I Reckon (Life: What Nat To Do). They take to the stage with moderator Yumi Stynes.
4:00pm To be advised
PREVIOUS EVENTS
Nell Pierce WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN / VOGEL’S LITERARY AWARD 2022 In Conversation with Gabbie Stroud
Fri 3 Jun, 7:00 - 8:00PM at the Tathra Hotel
This is a FREE event brought to you by Candelo Books, Headland Writers Festival, South East Arts & Tathra Hotel.
A PLACE NEAR EDEN by Nell Pierce
Nell Pierce’s A PLACE CALLED EDEN is the 2022 winner of The Australian / Vogel’s Literary Award that has launched the careers of over a hundred Australian authors. The award is one of Australia’s richest and most prestigious awards for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five.
‘Lyrical, gritty and compelling ... a story of haunted truth-seeking.’- CAROLINE OVERINGTON, The Australian
‘A skilfully written, insightful novel ... absorbing and a pleasure to read.’- HSU-MING TEO, previous winner of The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award for Love and Vertigo
A Place Near Eden explores the concept of truth, the flaws in memory and family, and the Australian adoption and foster system set against the backdrop of the Far South Coast's rugged coastline.
Please register your attendance online.
If you could make the soundtrack to your life, a mixtape, what songs would you choose?
Almost a Mirror is an edgy mash up of live music and storytelling, based on Kirsten Krauth’s popular and critically acclaimed novel and podcast series of the same name.
Press play on Side A and take a journey through music from the late 70s-80s — where the post-punk world of St. Kilda’s Crystal Ballroom collides with the pop icons of Countdown.
Join Kirsten and extraordinary ensemble on this deep-dive into the iconic songs of the era – Wide Open Road, (I’m) Stranded, Alone With You, Shivers, a dash of Duran Duran and The Cramps – from the elegantly wasted to the neon lights.
The show is a collaboration with some of Australia’s top musicians including singer Angie Hart (Frente), singer / songwriter Michael Simic (Mikelangelo), vocalist / composer / performer Inga Liljestrom, composer / sound artist Zoë Barry, singer / songwriter Heath Cullen, and singer / multi-instrumentalist Michael Mooney (Canada’s le trouble).
Kirsten’s writing hauntingly evokes the power of music to infuse our lives, while diving deep into loss, beauty, innocence and agency. Almost a Mirror reflects on the healing power of creativity and the everyday sacredness of family and friendship in the face of unexpected tragedy. Like fireflies to the light, characters Mona, Benny and Jimmy are drawn into the orbit of the Crystal Ballroom and the post-punk scene of 80s Melbourne, a world that includes Nick Cave and Dodge, a photographer pushing his art to the edge.
Almost a Mirror was shortlisted for the 2021 SPN Book of the Year Award and the Penguin Literary Prize, and was named in The Guardian’s ‘20 Best Australian Books of 2020’. The podcast revolves around Australian songs and includes interviews with Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper, Tex Perkins, Mick Harvey and The Triffids.
8pm 20 & 21 MAY 2022 AT THE TATHRA HOTEL
DISCOVER NSW VOUCHERS ACCEPTED AT CHECKOUT
This is a free event, sponsored by HeadLand Writers Festival, South East Arts, Tathra Hotel & Candelo Books.
WHAT: The Quest for Eden-Monaro: Eleanor Robin OAM PhD in conversation with Kristy McBain MP.
WHEN: Monday 16 May @ 7PM
WHERE: Tathra Hotel
The book, The Quest for Eden-Monaro – A core sample of Australian democracy is a biography with a particular lens examining what makes a good, popular federal Member of Parliament. It does this in telling the stories of two representatives who each held the seat for 25 years or more, Sir Austin Chapman (incumbent 1901-1926) and Allan Duncan Fraser CMG (over two terms between 1943 and 1972) before Eden-Monaro came to hold the reputation, over a 50 years period, as Australia’s national bellwether.
The book carries an interesting Foreword by Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History at the Australian National University, and endorsements by veteran psephologist Malcolm Mackerras and Member for Eden-Monaro, Kristy McBain. Prof Bongiorno calls it ‘politics in the raw’ and includes the line ‘It is not, however, the familiar ‘top-down’ variety but a politics from below, a story of ordinary people and those they choose to represent them’. Chapman and Fraser’s political careers, of course, are set in the context of national politics where both were key players during critical eras in Australian history.
From Eleanor Robin
About me, I live quietly at Narooma, am elderly, but have enjoyed a long writing career – beginning as a cadet on The Canberra Times, reporting for The Sun News-Pictorial from the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery; after having three children, working in information sections of the Federal Public Service, including managing the information program of the Australian Heritage Commission and being a major writer for the Australian Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. I hold a Doctorate in Philosophy (History) from the University of Tasmania and received an OAM in recognition of my services to the conservation of Australia’s natural, Aboriginal and cultural heritage. My last book, Swanston Merchant Statesman (also pub. ASP) was short and long-listed for a few awards and is still selling OK in Tasmania and Melbourne.
