Byron Bay Writers Festival explores ‘words without walls’

Literary buffs from around Australia and abroad are gearing up for the Byron Bay Writers Festival being held from Friday, August 6 to Sunday, August 8.

Whether your interests lie in sport, journalism, literary fiction, history or humour, there’s a plethora of panels, conversations, marquee sessions, launches, workshops and readings to suit everyone. Pre-event workshops start from Monday, August 2.

Once again, this year Southern Cross University is one of the strong supporters of the Festival and on opening day has sponsored the visit and ‘Keynote Conversation’ by Megan Stack, the US author of one of the most extraordinary war books ever written and the Moscow Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times.

Ms Stack’s book ‘Every Man in this Village is a Liar’ has received wide critical acclaim. Ms Stack has reported on war, terrorism, and political Islam from 22 countries since 2001.

She was awarded the 2006 Overseas Press Club of America’s Hal Boyle Award for best newspaper reporting from abroad, and she was also a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for her Iraq coverage.

A review of her book by Booklist said her work was: “Beautiful, savage, and unsettling … a deeply human memoir about the wars of the 21st century. It is an indispensable book of our times. Stack’s soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are ... Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity, the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims.”

Also on opening day, Southern Cross University creative writing lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Moya Costello, will be chairing a session in the SCU marquee on ‘Keeping the discourse alive: the work of the literary magazine’. During the Festival she will also host ‘In Conversation’ sessions with authors Kirsten Tranter and Victor Marsh.

Thursday August 5 is ‘Schools’ Day’ at the Festival and hundreds of teenagers from the region’s schools will be attending to meet with authors and hear interesting speakers.

This year the Festival site returns to its traditional lakeside home on the gorgeous rolling lawns beside North Beach (formerly the Byron Bay Beach Resort) and the SCU marquee will be hosting a jam-packed schedule of wonderful speakers.

The Southern Cross University information stall will be the place to visit if you want to learn more about the courses offered at the University - either on campus or by distance education. The University has a great reputation for teaching creative writing with many graduates already successful published authors.

The SCU room at the Byron Bay Community Centre, Jonson St, Byron Bay, will also host a number of very special events.

In the SCU room on Friday night, August 6, at 7.30pm, you can join the Festival poets and winners of the Byron Bay Writers Festival Picaro Poetry Competition for an evening of lyrical language, rollicking rhyme and powerful poetry.

Pre-festival workshops in the SCU room include a workshop with author Alan Close titled ‘Extreme memoir’ (Monday August 2); author Kim Falconer on ‘Cast the spell: finding magic in immersion’ (Tuesday August 3); Amy Barker on ‘Breaking through: getting your first novel published’ (Tuesday August 3); Daniel Ducrou on ‘Writing young adult fiction’ (Wednesday August 4); Irina Dunn on ‘Preparing a publisher’s proposal’ (Wednesday August 4); and ‘Nuts and Bolts: a publishing industry primer for Australian writers’ (Thursday August 5).

Ticket sales have been strong since the program was released with workshops, features and food events filling up quickly, Festival director Jeni Caffin said.

“Once the program is out there, it’s tantamount to revealing the entire contents of my head for the past six months, and one has to trust that potential audiences will find the result as interesting as I have,” she said.

“I hope readers will relish the exciting program we have put together. One event that I yearn to attend is the traditional Saturday afternoon Thea Astley lecture in the SCU marquee. This year it will be Rodney Hall deliberating on the lost art of reading.

“We’ve taken as our motto this year ‘words without walls’ and the enormous range of writers featured in the program certainly contain some of the biggest thinkers and writers of today.
“There are writers from beyond our shores, but yet again the heart of the program remains proudly Australian.

“We have a wealth of new voices participating for the very first time, including brave young writers and those at the peak of their powers.”

Tickets for the marquees and all feature events, workshops, breakfasts, lunches and dinners can be found at www.byronbaywritersfestival.com or by calling Jetset Byron Bay on (02) 6685 6262.

Photo: Sponsored by Southern Cross University, US author Megan Stack will give the ‘Keynote Conversation’ at this year’s Byron Bay Writers Festival.