Day Two The second day of the festival brought the New Yorker event I had been waiting for, The New Yorker: What’s the Story? This time set at BMW Edge, with a smaller cast from the magazine – editorial director Henry Finder, staff writer David Grann and music critic Sasha Frere-Jones. Though the Keynote may [...]
READ MOREAugust, 2012
Critics, upstarts and PowerPoint devils: Notes from the Melbourne Writers Festival — part one
Writers festivals are my favourite time to be in any city. The streets are buzzing and there’s an excitement about discussions of writing, politics and ideas. I’ve been lucky enough to be travelling a little this year for writerly events. I’ve been to the Sydney Writers Festival, Varuna, and next month I’ll be in Newcastle for the National [...]
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‘I don’t write for people who already know what they think’: Interview with Anna Krien on Us and Them
‘Let’s not kid ourselves. The injustice is complete. This is not a debate over whether our treatment of animals is unethical or not. It’s unethical. We know this…The question is: just how much injustice do we want to partake in?’ Earlier this year, Anna Krien wrote a Quarterly Essay on our nuanced and often contradictory [...]
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Lisa Dempster emerges as new Melbourne Writers Festival Director
The Melbourne Writers Festival launches next week, and is Steve Grimwade’s last as festival Director. It has been an unusual time in the literary festival scene, with the Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Emerging Writers’ Festivals all changing Directors. Yesterday afternoon, Bookseller + Publisher announced that Lisa Dempster, outgoing Director of the Emerging Writers’ Festival (EWF) [...]
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