Emerging Writers' Festival - this wheel shall explode

The zine fair that was once the total Festival has truly emerged -

sitting alongside our usual cultural icons in this Marvellous City of Literature and GT Fords.

A very fine ten day festival, and I  only got to a tiny bit of it. The wrap at Arts Hub reports director David Ryding expressing delight at a 55 year old writer's ability to get four publishers interested in her work due to contacts made at the festival.

People are, justifiably, making very agreeable noises all over - Estelle has given some great reports on 3000 Books especially - leaving me scratching my head saying, "Who IS David Ryding?" (apart from being the nice man who answered my complaint about the proposed change to the name of the Scrabble event some time last year, after my emerging comedian took part in it.)

Anyway. Early last year enterprising young theatre blogger Chris Summers of Theatargh went head to head with Ryding  about what he is hoping to achieve as festival director, and I feel is close to realising after only two years in the seat. It's a fine interview, and captures the feel of EWF in lots of ways - Ryding turns the interview format on its head and asks a few questions of his own, in much the same way his festivals do.

The program advisory committee has also played its part - with people of this calibre on board, a good result's guaranteed.

I enjoyed three sessions on Saturday. (My memory of one session I attended in 2006? or 2007 was that it was sloppy and unfocussed, but one session does not a festival make.) 

Ryding and his team seem to have gone all out to engage as many fascinating potential mentors for emerging writers in this state as they possibly could.

My only criticism of what I've seen is that with panellists of the quality I saw on Saturday at the Town Hall, they can afford to allocate more time to sessions or create more space.

The excellent State of the Divide panel started late and should have run at least another half-hour longer - it was a pity to bring these people from all over the country and only allow them about eight minutes each to speak (less for some, regrettably.) Simonne Michelle-Wells' presentation in particular was remarkable and I am waiting to link to her post summarising it, so watch this spot - ah, here it is.

Estelle  captured how this festival approaches the matter of assisting writers to emerge in a nutshell here:

'...it is easier to relate to the dilemmas and processes of people just embarking on their writing careers than it is to relate to, say, Helen Garner. Andrew Hutchinson: very funnily, head in hands, 'What if my publisher finds out that I can't write?'

The events I saw were sprinkled with these kinds of refreshing and sometimes fruity admissions, often beautifully put - David Mence, speaking at Honesty and Truth in Writing, heard 'historians' feet drumming down corridors' (or something like that) when he commenced researching his play on the founding of Portland at the State Library of Victoria.

It was good to hear from some imports from vital sources like Newcastle's amazing TINA festival (this old blogger might get up there one day, to see some 'colour and movement', as Dame Edna might say) - Scott Patrick Mitchell asked enticing questions around the topic while discussing his poetic street art project The Trickster's Bible.

Rachel Hills has posted some pointers from an earlier session I did not get to, and is a dynamo I am ashamed to admit I had not encountered. (Who don't you know, Ange?)

It was also great to meet Tom Cho, who came out and matched his face yet again to his new book at the Page Parlour, as the zine fair is now known, and to buy Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison's work, to buy the latest Blue Dog at the APC table, to visit Karen Andrews, and to see a constant crowd around Arlene TextaQueen's table (damn, I forgot to try to photograph that), to buy Mandy Ord's book from the author herself, and pick up a back copy of Tango.... yep, book budget blown again.

So keep the finance coming - this wheel's on fire, rolling down the road. (And affordable, too.)

Comments

[Simonne]

Shucks, thanks Genevieve! It's great to get feedback.
And, I agree, it was such a shame we didn't get all of the allotted time. The other panellists were so interesting, it would've been great to have more time for discussion at the end.
As for David Ryding, I've known him for at 16 years and can't say enough about his passion, drive, and talent!

[Estelle]

All too affordable, and yet now I am totally broke. Good times! I'm racing through my current read so I can finally get to Look Who's Morphing. I can't wait. I bought mine at the launch, but I was amused to see Tom's dual-tier pricing strategy at Page Parlour.

[genevieve]

Hmmm, that sounds more like an oversight than a policy to me. Enjoy all your purchases, Estelle, and thank you for your great reports - it has made my reblog here very easy indeed.

[genevieve]

Oh whoops no, I see on Twitter that is ezackly what he did. Hilarious.

[gracia]

Thanks ever so for the mention... g