POSTED: 12 OCTOBER 2010
Experiences of the Brisbane Writers Festival
Brisbane a cultural backwater? Forget it! The city’s South Bank precinct was a hub of activity in September as writers and would-be writers (from all over Australia and the world), flocked to the 2010 Brisbane Writers Festival (BWF) at Queensland’s State Library. The Valentino Exhibition at the nearby Gallery of Modern Art added to the festival atmosphere. People of all ages mingled, the 1950s and 1960s retro fashions of many of the younger ones, on display alongside baby-boomers’ traditional jeans, tee-shirts, blouses and shirts. The odd beret, caftan, cravat, scarf or throw-over, were perhaps concessions to ‘cool’, or simply to ‘look the part’.
During the five-day event (with over 30,000 attendees), a smorgasbord of topics was covered by the more than 300 presenters.
A former prime minister, Bob Hawke and his author wife, Blanche d’Alpuget, shared the secrets of surviving life in the public eye, the latter also discussed her updated biography, Hawke: The Prime Minister, described as ‘a meticulous portrait of a wily, brilliant politician, uncompromisingly ambitious and at the height of his powers’. Mr Hawke also spoke about one of his many obsessions – cricket. Among other big-name presenters were journalist-broadcasters, Jana Wendt and Mike Carlton and best-welling British writer, Simon Winchester.
Robert Forster, the Brisbane-based former member of indie rock band, The Go Betweens, spoke of influences on his music and writing. Reflecting in a laconic and humorous way on five years in London where weekly trips to the local library provided an endless supply of books, he cited Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Miles Davis, plays such as Waiting for Godot, and ‘others you could read in an hour’, the work of top fashion-model-turned-poet, Ann Sexton’s confessional facts-type poetry, writing from late-1920s Germany, and gay writing ‘especially if written before the 1960s, where the view from the edge seems to be more exciting’. Books by Jane Austen and Raymond Chandler and Shawn Levy’s Rat Pack Confidential ‘about Frank and Dean’ (detailing the exciting, high-flying, albeit tragic lives of the famous 1960s ‘rat pack’) also appealed. And added to this eclectic mix and at times seemingly-dark and moody combination, was a teenage involvement with a surfie group where ‘reading surfer magazines’ was high on his agenda. So the writing method he described of starting work with a very large blank sheet of paper, lead pencil and erasure, and adding words and ideas in ad hoc fashion all over the page, until something formed (perhaps like Pro Hart throwing paint at empty canvases), all seemed to make sense.
Of particular interest too were academic, lawyer and indigenous rights campaigner, Larissa Behrendt, discussing her novel, Legacy; comedian, and author of The Happiest Refugee, Anh Do, whose various presentations centred on stories from Brisbane’s refugee communities and young lawyer-turned-novelist, Jessica Rudd (the daughter of another former prime minister, Kevin Rudd), who spoke of the seminal influences of her politically-charged family life on her writing. She also chatted with her good friend, Ellie O’Gorman, about the uncanniness of writing a novel (Campaign Ruby) where the story of a politician losing his job, later became a reality for her father.
Each session was chaired by very capable and often high-profile people and concluded with a question time (with the caveat: No Comments or Statements, Please!) Workshops offered a variety of courses: creating criminal characters; writing one’s life story, family history, romance stories or reviews; getting published; learning how to self edit, being some. Across the board, the program was wide ranging: for those interested in science, there was the ABC’s Robyn Williams’ interview with Marcelo Gleiser about how reality is measured; and, Hamish McDonald, Susan Wyndham and Mark Aarons spoke about investigative journalism. Not surprisingly, people turned out in droves to hear Catholic priest-activist, Father Peter Kennedy’s talk on ‘the most dangerous man in the Vatican’ (the Pope), in a session which clashed (time wise) with one where sex therapist, Bettina Arndt, shared her research about what men want in bed.
An undisputed highlight of the festival was hearing of the backgrounds and life experiences of Archie Roach, Shane Howard and Neil Murray, who talked about influences on their singing and writing, and some of their iconic songs which, with illustrator, Peter Hudson, have been made into children’s books. The audience listened in awe to the fantastic voices of Howard (Solid Rock), Murray (My Island Home) and Roach (Took the Children Away), with Archie paying tribute to his late wife who passed away earlier this year. Whether a reminder of Archie’s late spouse or stories of the stolen generations, the poignancy of the moment wasn’t lost on the audience. There was not a dry eye in the room.
While rushing from session to session was reminiscent of getting to university lectures, a veritable army of wonderful volunteers helped attendees navigate their way to venues. Folk buzzed around the common room downstairs and queues formed in front of authors who all looked very happy to be signing and selling their books. In catching up for a cuppa at the cafe and surrounds, there was much chatter and exchange of ideas, with writing-festival aficionados espousing the merits of similar events. As well as Brisbane’s festival, Byron Bay was touted by many as being ‘very good’.
Chairing a discussion on crime writing, journalist and actor, Graeme Blundell, introduced the experts including well-known and very humorous Scottish crime writer Val McDermid of (the not-so-humorous), Wire in the Blood fame. Panellists provided interesting insights about their approaches to work, the audience concluding that for some, crime writing may not be as forensically-based as some might think!
Long-time Canberra press gallery journalist, Lenore Taylor (formerly with The Australian and now with The Sydney Morning Herald and a regular on the ABC’s Insiders program), gave the audience some terrific insights into Canberra politics. She joined political commentator, academic and author, Patrick Weller to discuss the hectic work, hopes and mundane routines of Australia’s federal-government ministers. In another session, Taylor described how she and co-author, David Uren, in writing their book Shitstorm: Inside Labor’s Darkest Days (which outlined the challenges for former prime minister, Kevin Rudd and his team), did not predict what lay ahead. Speaking with the knowledge of an insider, she expressed some scepticism about the polling (that showed that Labor would lose an election with Rudd at the helm), opining that since the full nature of the polling was not available, it could have been interpreted selectively by the ‘plotters’ to justify their decision to oust Rudd. ‘We’re yet to unpack that story’, she said.
Speaking about Brisbane, Robert Forster teamed with Matthew Condon who has written about the city of his youth, and William McInnes, who, with his usual honesty and bluntness about his boyhood suburb, Redcliffe, regaled the audience, including with stories about his father’s zany personality, and eccentricities, and details of being lost in a new, outlying Brisbane suburb and his brother dubbing (albeit inadvertently) Redcliffe, as ‘the end of the earth’. Matt Howard, chosen for his self-described ignorance of Brisbane, led the debate. Of growing up in the leafy middle-class, ‘bohemian-free’ Brisbane suburb of The Gap, Forster noted: ‘At around the age of 13 or so, I was getting the sense that something was happening in New York, Sydney, Paris, London, but I also had the sense...it wasn’t happening in The Gap!’ Presumably it was that kind of thinking that had motivated him to leave Brisbane.
The sentiments of a segment entitled Populate and Perish, were best encapsulated by a panellist quoting an Aboriginal friend: ‘White man speak with fork-lift truck.’ Journalist and broadcaster, Peter Mares, and science professor, Ian Lowe, explored various approaches to migration and population and an economy where environmental protection is often seen as ‘an optional extra’. Topics canvassed included the reconciling the issue of large empty houses and a shortage of accommodation – ‘if only people would share’; builders’ and developers’ interests; planning issues; and the contradictions of ‘solving traffic problems by building more roads...based on ideas that fuel will always be available’. On a brighter note, the panel highlighted the good works of highly-renowned architects, Col James and Glenn Murcutt, and those of former federal housing ministers, Tom Uren and Brian Howe.
Based on the BWF, writing festivals can provide educational, entertaining and informative fora which cater to the literary tastes of many people, ranging from the esoteric to the practical. They also provide excellent opportunities to meet like-minded people, including respected and successful authors.
[The BWF’s partners include: 612 ABC, State Library of Queensland, The University of Queensland, The Australian, and the Queensland Government.]
