Bibliotherapy LET’S TALK WRITING 16-22 May 1HERSA1 S001 2 swf.org.au SYDNEY WRITERS’ FESTIVAL GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES SUPPORTERS Adelaide Writers’ Week THE FOLLOWING PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS Affirm Press NSW Writers’ Centre Auckland Writers & Readers Festival Pan Macmillan Australia Australian Poetry Ltd Penguin Random House Australia The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance Perth Writers Festival CORE FUNDERS Black Inc. Riverside Theatres Bloomsbury Publishing Scribe Publications Brisbane Powerhouse Shanghai Writers’ Association Brisbane Writers Festival Simmer on the Bay Byron Bay Writers’ Festival Simon & Schuster Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre State Library of NSW Créative France The Stella Prize Griffith REVIEW Sydney Dance Lounge Harcourts International Conference Text Publishing Hardie Grant Books University of Queensland Press MAJOR PARTNERS Hardie Grant Egmont Varuna, the National Writers’ House HarperCollins Publishers Walker Books Hachette Australia The Walkley Foundation History Council of New South Wales Wheeler Centre Kinderling Kids Radio Woollahra Library and Melbourne University Press Information Service Musica Viva Word Travels PLATINUM PATRON Susan Abrahams The Russell Mills Foundation Rowena Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM Margie Seale & David Hardy Dr Kathryn Lovric & Dr Roger Allan Kathy & Greg Shand Danita Lowes & David Fite WeirAnderson Foundation GOLD PATRON Alan & Sue Cameron Adam & Vicki Liberman Sally Cousens & John Stuckey Robyn Martin-Weber Marion Dixon Stephen, Margie & Xavier Morris Catherine & Whitney Drayton Ruth Ritchie Lisa & Danny Goldberg Emile & Caroline Sherman Andrea Govaert & Wik Farwerck Deena Shiff & James Gillespie Mrs Megan Grace & Brighton Grace Thea Whitnall PARTNERS The Key Foundation SILVER PATRON Alexa Haslingden David Marr & Sebastian Tesoriero RESEARCH & ENGAGEMENT Susan & Jeffrey Hauser Lawrence & Sylvia Myers Tony & Louise Leibowitz Nina Walton & Zeb Rice PATRON Lucinda Aboud Ariane & David Fuchs Annabelle Bennett Lena Nahlous James Bennett Pty Ltd Nicola Sepel Lucy & Stephen Chipkin Eva Shand The Dunkel Family Dr Evan R. Soicher. In eternal memory. Carole Ferguson Pamela Souvlis Michelle Filler H.K. Tey Pty Ltd Lauren Fink Jody Yesner CULTURAL PARTNERS & FOUNDATIONS Andrew Freeman SWF BOARD Deena Shiff – Chair David Marr Peter Collins AM QC Lena Nahlous Guy Hedley Kathy Shand Elizabeth Johnstone Emile Sherman SWF STAFF Jemma Birrell Travis Green Artistic Director Ticketing & CRM Manager Jo Dyer Richard Cox Executive Director Ticketing Coordinator Kate Steinweg Walter Mansfield Program Manager Ticketing Coordinator Jeanmarie Morosin Head of Children’s & YA Programs Andy Lysle Head of Festival Production Tamara Press Liam Nesbitt Head of Development Ground Transport Coordinator Hannah Dickson Partnerships Manager Mel Colvin Live & Local Project Coordinator HOSPITALITY PARTNERS MEDIA PARTNERS Liz Astey Benython Oldfield Head of Operations & Production Festival Publicist Natasha Younger Kate Mayor Finance & Administration Manager Associate Publicist Rani Haywood Tessa Feggans Head of Marketing & Digital Program & Administration Assistant Luke de Zilva Digital Marketing Manager With thanks to: Aimee Huxley Dana Holder & Elizabeth Bentley Marketing Coordinator Copywriters Misty McPhail Volunteer Coordinator 1HERSA1 S002 Welcome SWF 2016 3 swf.org.au A Message from the Artistic Director Contents arly one morning, I happened upon an issues we’re facing today in a thought-provoking City & article by Ceridwen Dovey in The New series called Thinking Globally. Are we witnessing Walsh Bay 4-16 Yorker, ‘Can Reading Make You Happier?’ the end of Europe? Should there be a universal Ceridwen’s piece explored the ancient right to migration? Just how big is Big Brother? In 5 concept of bibliotherapy, and spoke about another fascinating series, Writers Talk Politics, we Guest Curators Eliterature’s meditative and restorative focus on France, America, China, Ireland and India, effects in terms of mental health, and unearth each country’s cultural and political City and Walsh Bay improved relationships and the ability to empathise preoccupations through writers who know the with others. I liked where this was going. Books terrain intimately. Event Liftout are indeed places we can lose ourselves and at the Hear from Yeonmi Park, who escaped the 12-13 same time find the answers to whatever we might brutality of the North Korean regime; Xu Zhiyuan, be searching for, even if we don’t quite know what the man described by Ai Weiwei as ‘the most that is. A good festival, like a good book, should important Chinese intellectual of his generation’, Thinking Globally 14 bring real-life benefits – joy, solace and a new and Emma Sky, who exposes what went wrong in understanding of the world. Iraq in her acclaimed book, The Unravelling. 15 Sydney Writers’ Festival is a week-long The charismatic Yanis Varoufakis, former Nights at the Wharf extravaganza of ideas and literature. In 2016 we finance minister of Greece, opens up about his have an exhilarating array of authors bringing new book and his recently launched pan-European The Curiosity their wisdom, knowledge and imaginative whimsy political movement. Oxford scholar Peter 17 to Sydney. Frankopan gives a dazzling alternate view of Lecture Series Opening this year’s Festival is wunderkind Kate world history as seen through the Silk Roads, and Tempest, dubbed a young Patti Smith, and one of the Jean-Christophe Rufin, co-founder of Médecins Workshops 18 most spectacular performers I’ve seen. After award- Sans Frontières, walks another route, the Camino winning books of poetry and a critically acclaimed Another one of Australia’s most celebrated de Santiago. album, Kate has a new novel that’s defined by the writers, David Malouf, interviews Pulitzer Prize- Nights at the Wharf are irresistible this Children's & searing truth she’s known for. Her work is electric. winning poet and poetry editor at The New Yorker, year. Don’t miss Adam Spencer speaking with Young Adult 19 Jonathan Franzen speaks with Anna Funder Paul Muldoon. This will be an incredible meeting gravitational wave expert, astrophysicist Janna about Purity, his compelling, amusing and sharply of minds. Levin. See People of Letters, Night of the Nerds satirical portrait of relationships and family Hear inspiring personal stories across the and Rebecca Vaughan who gives a dramatic Suburban & dysfunction. We also have a whole session devoted Festival week. Zelda la Grange, Nelson Mandela’s interpretation of Austen’s Women, performed most 20-21 to Jonathan’s rich, varied and often unexpected private secretary, remembers her life by his side. evenings. Catch the Festival’s most uninhibited Regional reading life. Richard Glover, Magda Szubanski and New York conversations with an intriguing range of writers Feminist icon, writer and activist Gloria Times columnist Roger Cohen share stories of their at the Late Night Salon. One guest is podcast Business Bites 21 Steinem returns to Australia for the first time since lives and upbringing that are brave and surprising. sensation, Starlee Kine, previously of This the 1980s to share stories about life, travel and Drusilla Modjeska talks books, friends and lovers American Life, now the host of Mystery Show. 21 adventure. In another session at the Wharf she’ll in Second Half First. Julia Leigh opens up about her In the Children's and Young Adult program we Live and Local convince you why women should rule the world. memoir, which speaks of her gruelling experience launch Best of the Fest, our new venture with the An epic novel about the attempted assassination with IVF and the dreams we have for our lives. Board of Studies, with events for students featuring Participants 22 of Bob Marley was a brilliant choice for last year’s In today’s cultural and political landscape, some of the Festival’s most dynamic thinkers. Man Booker Prize, and we welcome its Jamaican- Stan Grant is an essential voice. His new book There’s also our School Days Program, with born author Marlon James. is a powerful meditation on race, culture and luminaries such as Michael Grant, Claire Zorn, Venues & The great Julian Barnes, who also won the Man Australian identity. Judith Rossell and Liz Pichon. Jon Klassen, Bookings 23 Booker Prize for The Sense of an Ending, speaks At Parramatta’s Riverside Theatres Kerry author of I Want My Hat Back, and John Boyne, about The Noise of Time, an immersive parable O’Brien gives the lowdown on Paul Keating, Bob who wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, also WEBSITE VISIT SWF.ORG.AU about power, art and control, which fictionalises Brown shares his optimism, and Suad Amiry feature in both the children and adult programs. On TO CATCH UP ON ALL THE the life of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. revisits home through Palestinian stories. Sunday May 22, kids and teens take over Pier 4/5 FESTIVAL NEWS. Beloved British novelist William Boyd discusses James Rebanks, the Herdwick Shepherd, hails for the first time ever, as we run four free venues, his new book Sweet Caress, and shares his insights from the Lake District in England, where his family all with their own brand of mischief and mayhem. TWITTER GET THE LATEST into screenwriting in an exclusive masterclass. has lived for over 600 years. His bestselling book Our closing address goes directly to the heart UPDATES AND JOIN THE Jeanette Winterson brings The Gap of Time, about the rituals of life on the land will make you of the relationship between a writer and her CONVERSATION USING #SYDNEYWRITERSFESTIVAL a modern take on The Winter’s Tale with all the dream of returning to a more simple life. reader. Hanya Yanagihara is one of this year’s grandeur of Shakespeare and her own particular In contrast, Vivian Gornick lives and breathes most anticipated guests, with her Man Booker- FACEBOOK VISIT US AT lyricism. Jeanette is a wildly imaginative storyteller the streets of New York, with all of their chance shortlisted novel A Little Life both inspiring FACEBOOK.COM/SYD- who has no peer. Her talks are extraordinary. She’s encounters. Her book, The Odd Woman and the City, adulation and polarising critics across the world.