The Bendigo Writers Festival is fast approaching and whether you are a budding writer, professional or freelance, or just someone who loves to put pen to paper, the Bendigo Writers Festival is sure to strike some form of interest for you.
From August 11 – 13, the Bendigo Writers Festival will be featuring some well-known household names, comedy acts, talented writers, poets and many more in a number of events. Welcoming you to the festival is a four part discussion Where We’re At (the theme of this year’s festival), which will see David Astle interrogate Maxine Beneba Clarke, Rebecca Huntley, Leigh Hobbs and David Marr on issues such as culture and race, politics and society, the communications revolution, and the state of the planet. This opening is always a treat, with light-hearted talk about serious matters and one to kick-start the brain and open the mind.
But wait, that’s just the beginning!
Across the three days there will be a plethora of guests, topics and events to enjoy and discover. Guests include international best-sellers Dava Sobel, Kenan Malik, David George Haskell and Elizabeth Kostova, courageous commentators including Susan Carland, Clementine Ford, Rebecca Huntley, David Marr, Cathy Wilcox and Louise Miligan, word wizards such as Miles Merrill, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Robert Dessaix, Bryan Dawe, Patti Miller, Marie Munkara, Michael Pryor and Brigid Delaney, as well as poets, scriptwriters, cartoonists, novelists, memoir writers, crime writers and historians.
There is also a performance by Spare Parts Puppet Theatre of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival for the young and young at heart, John Safran talking about his new book ‘Depends What You Mean By Extremist’, a fast-paced hour of spoken-word performance hosted by Slam Poet Miles Merrill, and a conversation with Dava Sobel and David George Haskell hosted by Leslie Cannold.
There will be a range of workshops which will serve to ignite your own writing skills, with mini courses in setting up conflict and characters, developing a framework for a story, and tips and techniques which every writer needs to know about.
The final send off for the 2017 festival is sure to not disappoint, with hilarious double act Judith Lucy and Denise Scott discussing ‘After the Disappointments’ with their good friend Kaz Cooke on the Sunday evening. This fantastic female trio invites you to eavesdrop in on their conversation about embracing mediocrity, their personal successes and their personal disappointment with their lack of failure, yet all with a witty and ironic twist which is sure to entertain all. It’s the perfect event to close the Bendigo Writers Festival 2017 which is set to be huge success.
When & Where: Bendigo Writers Festival, various locations in Bendigo – August 11 – 13.
Tickets can be purchased via bendigowritersfestival.com.au.
Written by Ruby Cairns
