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PROGRAM OF EVENTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
Venue: Railway Institute Hall, Thirroul
FESTIVAL PREVIEW
7.00 – 9.00pm Poetry reading by Orkney Island poet Pamela Beasant, introduced by Sue Barnett. Story by Lynne Cook, introduced by Judi Morison. Canapes, drinks and good conversation.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
Venue: Thirroul Community Centre Hall
SESSION 1
9.30 – 9.40am Welcome to country – Aunty Barbara Nicholson. 9.40 – 9.50 Director Victoria Keighery’s welcome. 9.50 – 10.00 The Hon. Linda Burney opens Festival. 10.00 – 10.40 The Hon. Linda Burney discusses her biography Unfinished Journey with her biographer, Noel Beddoe. 10.40 – 11.00 Morning tea. 11.00 – 11.30 Awards for the festival’s Writing Competitions. Winners or representatives to read out winning entries. Ann Collaery and Denise Russell to MC. 11.30 – 11.55 Lynn Woodley interviews Robyn Cadwallader about her book, The Anchoress. 11.55 – 12.30 Panel on the assassin’s veto and free speech with Chris Masters, Nonee Walsh, Marcus Craft. Co-ordinator: Denise Russell. 12.30 –1.30 Lunch.
SESSION 2
1.30 – 1.50pm Paul Sharrad talks about writing his biography of Thomas Keneally. Chair: Victoria Keighery. 1.50 – 2.10 Joe Davis: ‘Travelling with D.H. Lawrence in Taormina and Thirroul’. Introduced by Marion Jacka. 2.10 – 2.35 Panel on writing as political action. Marcelo Svirsky, Jess Moore, Brian Martin. Co-ordinated by Helen Wilson. 2.35 – 2.55 Script writer Stephen Guest in conversation with Karen Crowe. 2.55 – 3.15 Afternoon tea. 3.15 – 3.35 Robert Hood talks about writing on the edge. Chair: Sue Cragg. 3.35 – 4.05 Connecting the writer and reader – writing book reviews: Tim Douglas, Mark Mordue in conversation with Ann Collett.
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4.05 – 4.25 Gillian Barlow discusses indigenous writing with Karine Shellshear. 4.30 – 5.30 Literary quiz. Compered by Michele Moore and Denise Russell.
SESSION 3
7.30 – 10.00pm Words Out Loud. MC: Tim Allen. Singer-songwriter Sandon Groves to open the night. Four writers talk for 10 minutes about important writing moments in their writing careers: Robert Hood, Robin Cadwallader, Marion Halligan and Noel Beddoe. Refreshment break. Poetry Out Loud: Ron Pretty, Aunty Barbara Nicholson, John Stokes, Marcela Hayes, Mark Mordue, Victoria Keighery, Karine Shellshear, Frances Patterson. Story Slam: True stories in 5 minutes. Audience to judge winner. Hal Pratt, Michele Moore, Bruce Loomes, Karine Shellshear.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
Venue: Thirroul Community Centre Hall
SESSION 4
9.30 – 10.00 Writing after work: Judi Morrison, Pat Simmons, Yasmin Mobayad co-ordinated by Victoria Keighery. 10.00 –10.30 Can the novel save the world? Shady Cosgrove, Karine Shellshear and Karen Lane talk with Lyndall Fowler. 10.30 – 11.05 Multi-prize-winning novelist Marion Halligan in conversation with Dorothy Jones. 11.05 – 11.20 Disapol Savetsila presents a monologue and talks about play writing. Chair: Rika Wedlock. 11.20 – 11.35 Morning tea. 11.35 – 11.55 Climate fiction for young adults: Cat Sparks. Chair: Josie Castle. 12.00 – 1.00pm Debate: Novels need heroes. Compere: Marion Jacka; Judges: Jane Lymer and Tim Allen. Affirmative: Josie Castle, Dorothy Jones. Negative: Clare Woodley, Cat Sparks. Raffle draw & Festival close.
BOOK ONLINE
thirroulreadersandwritersfestival.org
Any profits will be donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
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MEET THE PRESENTERS GILLIAN BARLOW is
an architect and writer who writes about Aboriginal issues, including her family. Her PhD was on Aboriginal housing and will be published in December 2016 by Saddle Road Press. Her writing has appeared in numerous journals and sites, including Off the Margins and TEXT magazine’s Special Edition No 17, Mud Map: Australian women’s experimental writing.
PAM BEASANT is a poet from the
Orkney Islands in Scotland. She works as a writer, editor and arts officer. Her books include Running with a Snow Leopard and Orkney: A Celebration of Light and Landscape with photographer Iain Sarjeant. Her poems appear in many anthologies and she has received writing fellowships in Britain.
NOEL BEDDOE has published three adult novels: Autumn, Yalda Crossing and On Cringila Hill; poetry and five novels for young adults. The adult novels were nominated for the Miles Franklin Award and On Cringila Hill was also nominated for the NSW Premier’s Prize for fiction. Noel has also written a biography of Linda Burney, Unfinished Journey. THE HON. LINDA BURNEY is the new
federal MP for Barton and the first Aboriginal woman to serve in the federal House of Representatives. She is the former Deputy Leader of the State Opposition in NSW and the subject of a biography by Noel Beddoe. As part of the 2012 Sydney Festival, Burney performed as herself delivering her inaugural speech to the NSW Parliament in a theatrical production called I am Eora.
ROBIN CADWALLADER lives
outside Canberra. She has published reviews, prize-winning poems and short stories, a non-fiction book about virginity and female agency in the Middle Ages (2008), a poetry collection, i painted unafraid (2010), and an edited collection of essays on asylum seeker policy, We Are Better Than This (2015). Her first novel is The Anchoress (2015).
ANNE COLLETT teaches English
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Literature at the University of Wollongong. She has a particular interest in poetry, women’s writing, visual art and the post-colonial world.
LYNNE COOK lives in
Wollongong. She is a Varuna alumna and has had work published in local and national anthologies. She has won many awards for her short stories.
SHADY COSGROVE is
the author of the novel What the Ground Can’t Hold (2013) and the memoir She Played Elvis (2009), which was shortlisted for the Australian Vogel award. Her short stories and articles have appeared in Best Australian Stories, Antipodes, Southerly, Overland and various newspapers.
MARCUS CRAFT has more than 20 years of experience as a journalist and editor for newspapers, magazines and websites in Australia, the UK, South Africa and the US. With his journalist wife Genevieve, he publishes 2515 Coast News, 2508 District News and The South Coaster tourism guide. KAREN CROWE has an interest in alternative modes of screen exhibition, and has worked on film festivals in the Illawarra and in the UK. She is completing a PhD on the revival of country cinemas in NSW and believes in a future for sub-minute cinema. JOSEPH DAVIS has published nine
books and written hundreds of articles on the literature, art, politics and environment of the South Coast. He has also produced four Illawarra art catalogues and co-curated last year’s Illawarra bicentenary The Road to Wollongong (1815-2015) exhibition.
TIM DOUGLAS is the Editor of The
Weekend Australian Review. He has written widely on the arts and culture during his 16-year career as a journalist in Australia and Scotland.
Illawarra songwriters’ competition, as well as the Thirroul Seaside Festival Talent Quest. In 2016 he won two prizes at the Illawarra Folk Festival for songwriting.
STEPHEN GUEST is a Bellambi screenwriter. Two of his scripts have won international awards: a drama, The Other Side of Normal, won the Grand Jury Prize for the 2013 New York Screenplay Contest. It was optioned by Silver Heart Productions. A periodaction-adventure was a finalist in the 2013 London Film Awards. MARION HALLIGAN’S books
include Spider Cup, Lovers’ Knots, Wishbone, The Golden Dress, The Fog Garden, The Point, The Apricot Colonel, Valley of Grace, Goodbye Sweetheart, collections of short stories including Shooting the Fox, a children’s book and books of autobiography, travel and food. In 2006 she was awarded an AM.
ROBERT HOOD has
written science fiction, fantasy, crime and horror. He has published young adult novels, collections of short fiction, an adult epic fantasy novel, children’s books and over 130 short stories. A 820-page retrospective collection of his spectral work, Peripheral Visions: The Collected Ghost Stories, was published in 2015.
DOROTHY JONES is a former professor of English at the University of Wollongong who has published many articles and book chapters of literary criticism. In particular she has written about post-colonial women writers, including Marion Halligan. She has published a collection of literary essays on women’s writing, A Kingdom and a Place of Exile. VICTORIA KEIGHERY
is the festival director. She squeezes what poetry she can into arts policy, grant applications, strategic plans, handbooks on obscure arts practices and conference papers.
SANDON GROVES is a KAREN LANE loves anything involving 16-year-old local singer/songwriter/ musician. In 2015, he won the Inaugural
time travel or cats. Karen created The Writers’ Boot Camp because she says the one thing all writers, budding and
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professional, need is someone to whisper/shout, “Start writing!”
BRIAN MARTIN is a professor of social
sciences at the University of Wollongong. He has published 15 books, most recently Nonviolence Unbound and The Controversy Manual, a practical guide for understanding and participating in scientific and technological controversies.
CHRIS MASTERS
worked as a journalist on Four Corners for many years and has won several Walkley Awards. He has also written four books. In 2007 he won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Literary Work Advancing Public Debate. He has been awarded the Public Service Medal and the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society in Journalism.
YASMIN MOBAYAD is a Geelong-
based writer and editor. She is pursuing a PhD in creative writing. She has written monologues for performance, articles for the media and is the editor of Prjktr Mag, and co-founder of lowercase poetry.
JESS MOORE is an Illawarra activist who works for the community vegetable growing project Green Connect. She was a founder and spokesperson for StopCSG Illawarra.
MARK MORDUE is a
writer, journalist and editor. He won the 2010 Pascall Prize for Australian Critic of the Year. He has published the travel memoir Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip and the poetry chapbook Things That Year. He is working on a Nick Cave biography, as well as two books of poetry dealing with rail travel and a year spent living in Thirroul.
JUDI MORISON is a local writer
who has recently completed a historical novel set in the English Midlands and north-west NSW during the 19th century. The work was inspired by, and is loosely based on, the stories of her Gamilaraay great-grandmother and her Welsh great-grandfather.
Illawarra. She is a poet and academic who has worked as a lecturer in Aboriginal Studies at UNSW and UOW. In 2014 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Wollongong.
RON PRETTY’S eighth book of poetry, What the Afternoon Knows, was published in 2013 and the third edition of his Creating Poetry in 2015. He published 230 books by Australian poets in his 20 years (1987-2007) as publisher for Five Islands Press. He has taught writing in Australia and overseas. DENISE RUSSELL is the festival’s program director. She is author of two non-fiction books: Women, Madness and Medicine (2001) and Who Rules the Waves: Piracy, Overfishing and Mining the Oceans (2010), and many articles and book chapters. She also founded the journal Animal Issues. DISAPOL SAVETSILA
is a playwright who has been published in anthologies. In 2013 he won the ATYP’s national monologue competition and Stringybark’s Future Times Award. He took part in Sydney Theatre Company’s Rough Draft program. He is a writer with Theatre versus Everything, which produced a play at Crack Theatre Festival 2015.
PAUL SHARRAD has published books on Indian and Pacific writers and articles on writing from many countries. Recently he has published poetry and short pieces on Thomas Keneally. He is working on a study of Tom Keneally’s literary career. KARINE SHELLSHEAR has been a reviewer of poetry for Poetry Australia, and has had her own poetry published in Australia and overseas. She is working on a memoir of the Sydney beach suburb of Bronte in the 1960s and is bringing together a biography of her late husband, architect Colin James.
DR AUNTY BARBARA NICHOLSON is a PAT SIMMONS is a writer of poems,
senior Wadi Wadi woman from the
short stories and flash fiction. Her work
has been published in anthologies and children’s magazines and she has won writer competitions in Australia and the UK. Pat lives at Scarborough with her menagerie of dogs, cats, guinea pigs and rabbits.
CAT SPARKS is an
award-winning author, editor and artist. A 2012 Australia Council grant sent her to Florida to participate in Margaret Atwood’s The Time Machine Doorway workshop. She is finishing a PhD on climate change fiction. Her debut novel will be Lotus Blue (Talos Press).
JOHN STOKES is on a campaign to
write deep literature in plain English. He is widely anthologised, has won or been short-listed for many prizes and long-listed for international awards. His Fire in the Afternoon won a 2015 National Writing and Publishing Award.
MARCELO SVIRSKY
teaches politics and international studies at the University of Wollongong. His last monograph After Israel: Towards Cultural Transformation (2014) has received critical acclaim, and an Arabic version has been published. He is working on a study of the possibilities of ‘shared life’ in Palestine.
NONÉE WALSH
worked as a journalist for ABC radio and online for three decades reporting on the environment, science and the law. She won a Walkley Award in 2003 for reporting from the Waterfall train crash after being rescued from a carriage. She now manages the website and social media for the International Association of Women in Radio and Television.
HELEN WILSON occasionally writes on environmental and cultural topics. She edits The Greens NSW members’ journal, GreenMail. LYNN WOODLEY is an editor, speech
writer and compiler of policies, plans and reports. Her writing is routinely sprinkled with magpie selections and quotes from her eclectic reading.
The Thirroul Readers & Writers Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support of Culture Bank Wollongong, www.culturebankwollongong.org.au. Thanks to the Hon. Sharon Bird, Member for Cunningham, Friends of Wollongong Library, 2515 Coast News, Illawarra Folk Festival, Judi Morison and Lynne Cook for their support. Cover illustration by Hal Pratt.
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COAST NEWS
designed this guide for the 2016 Thirroul Readers and Writers Festival.
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