Countdown to Byron Bay Writers Festival

I've been in a lot of aeroplanes lately - flying out from Melbourne, flying in novels, and in dreams. Sometimes the ports look similar. Familiar, unfamiliar. My life is literature, is writing, is reading, and always passion, and there are good and bad things about being intertwined with fiction, about consistent imagining. It can be expansive, … Continue reading Countdown to Byron Bay Writers Festival

A few sessions at Writers at the Convent, 2010

I caught three sessions at Writers at the Convent last weekend – run by Reader’s Feast Bookstore, held at the gorgeous Abbotsford Convent. The session ‘We’ll always have Paris’ featured chef Shannon Bennett (Shannon Bennett’s Paris) and Elizabeth Bard (Lunch in Paris) who is a New Yorker living in that magical city. Bennett is a Melbourne-based chef/restaurateur … Continue reading A few sessions at Writers at the Convent, 2010

Chairing panels at writers’ festivals: a few things I’ve learnt

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2009 'Blogging, Dissent & Solidarity' session. Kadek Adidharma, Dian Hartati, yours truly, Ng Yi-Sheng & Antony Loewenstein. Pic from official festival Facebook page. I've attended several writers' festivals over the last three years, and in the past year have begun to chair or sit on panels at some of these. … Continue reading Chairing panels at writers’ festivals: a few things I’ve learnt

10 things about Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2009

After Ruby J Murray's On Writing in the World: Ten Things About Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2009. 1. Flying over the top end - veiny, crater-filled land, mercury lakes and billabongs. The corny sea creature carpet at Darwin airport where there's a smoking area and men in matching shirts drinking VB. Realising in the … Continue reading 10 things about Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2009