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2009 Brisbane Writers Festival
About the 2009 Festival
Over 250 authors will appear in 150 events over five word-drenched days, from September 9-13 at 2009 Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF). A perfect storm of writers from around the globe will converge at State Library of Queensland, each ready to put words into action.
Under the guidance of new Artistic Director, Jane O'Hara, Brisbane Writers Festival welcomes all voices; the new and familiar; the locals and internationals; on the promise of a week where words rise above all else. The range of writers is extraordinary: literary luminaries; writers who live dangerously in the hope of telling the tale; authors who write with fictional blood; great thinkers who craft big ideas for the small page; those who want us to laugh and think and others who just want us to laugh.
It's an honour to be directing the Brisbane Writers Festival and I am excited at the breadth of voices appearing. Whether you like crime writing or cooking; rock and roll or memoir; global thinkers or memoirists; this Festival will make you feel welcome, says Jane O'Hara, of her inaugural event. O'Hara, a former teacher, and previous director of both Brisbane Writers Festival and the Brisbane Ideas Festival schools' programs, is especially proud that the Opening Night Address will be presented by Noel Pearson, speaking to his upcoming Quarterly Essay, On Education which will also be launched at the Festival on Sunday 13. The Festival's Closing Address will be given by Thomas Keneally, whose new book Australians: Origins to Eureka, illuminates great characters in our history.
Literary light, Tracy Chevalier's Festival visit coincides with the international launch of her new book. As in her popular Girl with the Pearl Earring, Remarkable Creatures opens a fictional window to the past, with Chevalier's fine depictions of women. O'Hara says Chevalier's appearance is complemented by several of O'Hara's own favourite Australian writers, all of whom attend BWF with new books in hand; Marele Day, Marion Halligan and Linda Jaivin. And a Festival coup is M.J. Hyland, whose This is How, has received much acclaim since recent publication.
Hyland will appear in events with others whose words draw literary blood. And among them is creator of Dexter, 'the ethical killer'; Jeff Lindsay (USA). Lindsay will be joined in his criminal deliberations by other best-selling crime writers, including Lisa Unger (USA, new book Die for You) and Gregg Hurwitz (USA, new book, We Know). Hurwitz lives the stuff of his books; he's gone undercover into mind-control cults and hung out with Navy SEALS - all in the name of research. And keeping them all honest will be one of Australia's most famous cops, Clive Small; former detective and current ICAC investigator (new book Smack Express-How Organised Crime Got Hooked on Drugs).
If you could ask Bettina Arndt anything, what would it be? Think about it; because you will get the chance at Ask Bettina Arndt Anything (Thursday, September 10). Arndt hopes to set the conversational tone at frank and fearless; with other BWF events also inviting mature discussion about sex. Brisbane's own Krissy Kneen will be there, with a brand new erotic memoir, Affection; the author-always-known-as-Gretel Killeen will examine mid life with her new book, The Night My Bum Dropped, while comedian Julia Morris promises to raise the laugh metre as high as she can with Don't You Know Who I Used to Be?
And while we're laughing, let's mention global phenomenon and blogger (and Festival birthday boy) Christian Lander, whose spoof on white, middle class, socially conscious North Americans, www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, propelled him out of a day job and onto the Conan O'Brien TV show. Lander will mix it with local spoofers, Chaser's Dominic Knight and Chris Taylor.
Back to the stuff serious people like: in Welcome to the Urban Revolution, Jeb Brugmann (Canada) hopes to create local revolutions to make big cities sustainable. The United Nations listens to him and so should we. Journalist/photographer/scientist, Andrew Westoll (Canada) brings us The Riverbones; Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname, a story about indigenous South Americans battling for human rights and ecological preservation in a modern world.
And as we are a mid-GFC Writers Festival, Norb Vonnegut (USA) gives us the fictional financial thriller, Top Producer; while John Talbott (USA) gives it to us straight in The 86 Biggest Lies on Wall Street. "I couldn't avoid the economy as a subject, given the crisis. It's great to have such poignant writers ready to share their views of a post GFC world," says O'Hara.
Some authors will shock and others enchant, with depictions of the Middle East and Asia; Tania James (USA) weaves an Indian family tragedy set around a coveted Green Card in Atlas of Unknowns; Padma Viswanathan (Canada) uses her Brahmin family's history as inspiration for The Toss of a Lemon, a fictional journey traversing six decades in the life of an Indian family; and Medical professor, James A. Levine (USA), found literacy where he least expected, in the slums of Mumbai. His novel, The Blue Notebook, reflects his experiences there. Photographer Lana Slezic (Canada), did not find what she anticipated, on assignment to document Afghani women post Taliban-rule; it was worse and she stayed two years to produce her book Forsaken. Dutchman, Joris Luyendijk's ability to speak Arabic thrust him into Middle East reporting, both pre and post 9/11. His book Fit to Print, is both insider and outsider's view; and he's here to tell us that quality journalism is impossible for reporters covering non-democratic countries.
Indigenous voices include Sam Watson Sr, on the subject of his play, Oodgeroo; and artist, Judy Watson, on the publication of Judy Watson: Blood Language. Author Sarah Maddison, interviewed thirty indigenous activists and community leaders for her book, Black Politics, which will be discussed at BWF.
Maori writer, Hinemoana Baker, will share her poems of praise, love and gratitude with BWF audiences. And on a deeply personal note; Wayson Choy (Canada) brings us his moving memoir Not Yet: a memoir of living and almost dying, his reflections of what family really is to a gay man. He will be in discussion with Australian memoirist, Gabrielle Carey, who chronicles life with her ailing mother, in the new book Waiting Room: a memoir.
Two young Brisbane authors emerge from the cocoon to debut at BWF with striking first novels. Amy Barker's novel, Omega Park, is set in a Qld housing commission estate and was inspired by her own childhood. Barker won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award Emerging Queensland Author prize in 2008 with the manuscript. Kirsten Reed's debut novel The Ice Age, is said to echo Kerouac; with an American road trip; with tension between an adolescent girl and the man she seeks safety from. It's always a thrill when authors are published for the first time, and I'm excited to feature two young Brisbane women with new novels, says Jane O'Hara.
Artistic Director, Jane O'Hara, has created a new riverside venue at the Festival. The Breezeway, featuring a beer garden/coffee shop and alternating stages, will house events from cooking with Ben O'Donoghue (Ben's BBQ); conversations about grumpy rock'n'rollers with Cold Chisel's Don Walker (new memoir, Shots), more music memories with Sports' Stephen Cummings (new rock memoir, Will it be Funny Tomorrow Billy?) and the annual BWF Saturday Chaser night where only the bravest Festival authors dare tread. O'Hara says locals can meet writers for nightly drinks in the Breezeway Beer Garden, which she hopes will provide great tropical memories for Festival guest authors.
The Brisbane Writers Festival acknowledges the assistance of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Department of Education and Training, and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.