My 2019 Sydney Writers’ Festival: A Wrap Up!

2019 was my first Sydney Writers’ Festival! Well, actually… it was my first writers’ festival, period. Which of course made it even more of a super interesting and exciting time that it would already have been. If you read my post recently about writing organisations, you’ll know that I’m on the hunt for connection with other writers, in any form… And while I don’t really feel that I achieved that at the 2019 SWF, I did learn a lot. And I still have hopes of one day finding the ‘right fit’ semi-local writers’ group!

Of course, I had huge plans for going to everything under the sun. But with 5 days jammed full of events, and without the aid of a mysterious benefactor and a Time-Turner, that was a little unrealistic.

What Did I Manage to See at the Sydney Writers’ Festival?

If you saw my original post on my Facebook author page (here), this image will no be surprise to you. If not, welcome to my intended Sydney Writers’ Festival:

Needless to say, I aimed a little too high.

Forest for the Trees

Forest for the Trees is Writing NSW‘s one-day seminar about everything Aus writing/publishing. It included sessions with authors like Jane Harper (author of The Dry, Force of Nature, and The Lost Man—two of which I’ve read and are excellent) and Michael Sala (The Last Thread and The Restorer). It also had a Nielson BookScan presentation, a discussion about the increasing role of literary journals in publishing books, and more.

Probably one of the best bits was listening to various authors talking about process and their approaches to their differing genres/intentions. But it was also incredibly informative to consider what books are currently most popular in Aus (heads up, Romance is a fave and not going anywhere anytime soon).

Favourite part: listening to Jane Harper talk about the role of setting in her novels and how she achieves that distinct sense of place.

Friday at the Sydney Writers’ Festival

I packed as much into my Friday as I possibly could… Well, with the exception of some later night events. When you live an hour’s train ride from the city, late night events really lose their gloss! Still, I got to 3 events and one workshop, and I’d call that a pretty good attempt for the day. (Especially with public transport factored in!)

The Right Way Up

This was an awesome event, hosted by David Blaazer, that looked at the right of populism on the far right in contemporary Australia. [Note: the dictionary defines populism as: a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.]

The panel comprised Greg Barns, George Megalogenesis, Scott Ludlum and Jenine Khalik, and the discussion was thorough and very, very interesting. The conversation basically centred around the use of populism by the far-right movement in Australia to continue to gain legitimacy and traction within mainstream Australian society. It was fascinating, if depressing.

Favourite part: ‘We need to deal with our history and accept that Australia as a nation was built on a foundation of white supremacy. That needs to be confronted.’

Know Your Place

Fatima Bhutto and Elaine Castillo (both of whose books, The Runaways and America is not the Heart respectively, sound amazing) were hosted by Rosanna Gonsalves for this event. Discussing the repeated description of authors of colours as ‘identity writers’, these three women examined how the use of this label serves to reinforce white writing as neutral/dominant and ‘the norm’.

Part of what I found particularly fascinating about this presentation was the discussion of concepts of identity: how belonging is constructed, how our identity (as an individual and a community) is constantly in flux, and how writing is about making visible what’s invisible.

Bhutto’s comment that, ‘once you become a writer, you accept that you don’t know anything,’ really resonated with me. I enjoy the concept of writers as beings who are always seeking to learn more, to know more, and to see more.

Favourite part: ‘what makes novels interesting is how people survive the everyday.’

The Biographer’s Task

This was probably the event I was most excited for during the Sydney Writers’ Festival. The reason why is fairly self-evident, but for anyone who’s new here, that’s because I’m currently writing my paternal grandfather’s biography… which, as I write it, I realise I’ve never actually written a blog post about. Huh.

Anyway, Judith Brett, whose newest biography–The Enigmatic Mr. Deakin–also sounds really good (you can see I came away with lots to read), hosted the workshop. A group of 9 of us sat in a small room in the Green Square Library (which is AMAZING) and discussed our personal projects and differing facets of biography. Judy did a great job of facilitating a learning discussion designed to make us question what we knew, what we wanted to achieve, and how best to achieve that goal.

I think what this workshop really served to do for me was to point out a lot of small points where I can improve, and reinforce the importance of tying your subject into the larger world around them. It also, of course, raised more questions that I’ve yet been able to answer! But, of course, that was the point.

Favourite part: considering the bigger story behind the subject and how the author needs to hold that in mind while remaining focused on the subject.

Antony Beevor on Arnhem

James met me at Town Hall that evening for this hour-long event with Antony Beevor. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting… but it wasn’t for him to spending 45 minutes summarising the battle for Arnhem. Still, he is an incredible public speaker, and, not surprisingly, has an entrancing way with words. We really enjoyed it, and bought and got two books of his signed, so can’t complain!

Favourite part: learning SO much about Arnhem!

My Saturday Sydney Writers’ Festival: Boys to Men

The juggle of Friday’s public transport requirements had nothing on the weekend’s. Why? Because Sydney decided it would be a great weekend to do trackwork along the T8 line. What line are we on?

Yeah.

Thus, when I packed up to head in for The Bloomsbury Set event (having already piked on the free morning options), I discovered transit would take me a little longer than expected. Scrap that: a lot longer. I’d left an hour to get in for that event, and it wasn’t enough (disappointing, as I really wanted to go to it!).

Despite being tired as all hell & really not wanting to go in, I’d paid for the Boys to Men: The Masculinity Crisis event. And anyone who knows me knows I’m too cheap to not go to something I’ve paid for (most of the time). So I made the long trip in.

SBS presenter Janice Peterson hosted Clementine Ford and Adam Liaw for the discussion, and it was really excellent. Delving into the fundamental misconceptions surrounding ‘toxic masculinity’ and gender identity, it was well-run, stimulating, and incredibly informative.

Favourite part: ‘People are incredibly malleable and we can adapt to various circumstances (such as the social change to drink-driving and public smoking being unacceptable). So why don’t we do that with racism, sexism, etc.? Because people don’t want to cede their power.’

Wrapping Up My Sydney Writers’ Festival: How to Lose a Country

Neither of us wanted to go on Sunday, but James and I saddled up and headed into Carriageworks to listen to Ece Temelkuran discuss her new book, How to Lost a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship. (Which, incidentally, neither of us even realised was a book until we were browsing the bookshop prior to the event… So, of course, we bought it.)

This was another occasion where the tenuous state of the current sociopolitical situation in Australia was forcibly driven home. As was the susceptibility of all democratic nations to forget their underlying principles and descend into authoritarian norms. It was a bit depressing but also incredibly thought-provoking.

Favourite part: ‘People make jokes/laugh at right-wing populism, because they feel that as long as they can laugh about it, it won’t be serious. This provides a form of community with other like-minded people and so the anxiety around the situation… but it doesn’t not help us resolve the issue.’

For anyone who is keen to see what was on offer, the Sydney Writers’ Festival will be gradually releasing over 100 podcasts over the coming months. I’m definitely keen to discover what else I missed out on.

Until next week!

–A.