Just a few more sleeps and it all gets started: you might remember I’ve been waiting for the Perth Writers Festival for ages. I’m looking forward to getting a huge dose of inspiration both for reading and writing.

Special events – Some evening experiences

While most of the events of the Perth Writers Festival are free – and I have to say again how fantastic that is, and I hope that never changes – they usually hold some evening presentations, daytime workshops and special events like lunches that require tickets. And that’s more than fair. This year my mother and I will be heading off to three of the evening events (at just A$20 each), starting off on Thursday with an outdoor picnic “book club” with Stella Rimington, then Saturday evening with “Stories of the World” featuring six different novelists, and then finally we’ll be at the closing event on Monday night when one of my new favourite novelists, Sebastian Barry, will be there.

I looked into enrolling in one of the workshops this year, as last year I missed out by not booking ahead of time – but any that I’m slightly interested in are on at the same time as other (free) presentations I don’t want to miss.

Main programme highlights, according to me

There is so much to choose from – for three full days, there are four or five parallel sessions of presentations, panels and writers’ chats. I’m excited just looking at the programme (really, I am – call me a book nerd if you will!). A panel that looks at using parts of your own life in your writing – and the damage it can cause – intrigues me; some travel writing of course gets me interested as well, although I don’t (yet) know the authors involved in that panel (Mark Dapin, Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl); there are several sessions in which Kate Grenville’s taking part, and I’m sure she’ll be fascinating; and having just read Julienne van Loon’s novel set in the Pilbara, the panel looking at novels set in north-west Australia has got a big ring around it from me.

There’s so much more cool stuff to do too – families with book-loving kids must be loving all the sessions with children’s authors (most of them are free too). I’m just getting all excited in advance and will be ready to report back next week – although it might take me a few days to process all the inspiration I get. Last year my brain was shell-shocked for weeks – hopefully this time round it’s grown a little more resilient.

Tags: Perth Writers Festival

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