Every May at around this time, the annual Sydney Writer Festival takes place in the Harbour city of Australia. Every year, a rich program of more than 250 literary and artistic events brings together lovers of books and reading for four days. The success of the festival grows every year and is now considered as a highly anticipated cultural rendez-vous for Sydneysiders.
Over the years, i have been a supporter and a follower of these series of events. Over the years, i have met a large number of writers both Australians and other nationalities. I had the opportunity to have long conversations with French-Russian writer Andrei Makine who was a guest at the festival twice ten years apart. I have also listened to many well known writers such us Louis de Bernieres, Robert Dessaix, David Malouf, Alan Hollinghurst, Richard Ford, Philippe Claudel and the list continues on. It is also during previous Sydney Writer Festival that i have attended inspiring talks given by Alain de Botton.
I have to admit when the program for this year came out i was a little bit disappointed with the content. This year, a real international "big name" was missing which is a shame because you do expect to hear from some literary icons. Saying this, i have enjoyed the events i attended during the four days and for sure the major highlight for me was listening during an hour the Australian playwright David Williamson answering to Andrew Upton, the hubby of Cate Blanchett.
Indeed Williamson is a well articulate man of culture who occupies quiet a unique place in the History of Australian Theatre. In nearly four decades of drama writing with over forty plays in his credits, David Williamson remains the quintessential Australian middle class observer who has based all his creative work on human behaviours and social encounters. An astute dramatist who will leave a rich Australian cultural legacy and most importantly future generations will continue to identify in these hundreds of characters created by him through the medium of theatre. His wife, Kristin wrote recently a voluminous and rather honest biography on him making the reading experience an intimate affair as David's life is unfold through the eyes of a woman who has shared all the ups and downs of a remarkable career and a tumulteous but successful personal life. I will be writing more about Williamson in the near future upon completing the reading of Kristin's book and maybe watching some of the iconic Australian movies that were adapted from his plays.
Speaking about Australian film and theatre, Graeme Blundell is another important figure who had an impressive acting career at the revival of Australian cinema portraying the heart-throbe character of Alvin Purple in couple of hugely successful movies. Graeme was a founder of Melbourne's theatre groups La Mama, The Australian Performing Group and Playbox. Graeme and David are issued from the same generation of hungry arty enthusiasts who made a fundamental contribution to the emergence of an Australian voice in the late sixties and early seventies. Currently, Graeme Blundell does lots of writing both as a columnist and as biographer. His memoirs "The Naked Truth" was published last year by Hachette Australia. Julia Morris is however from a younger generation. She is a voluble and funny performer who has worked greatly in Australian and British television shows.She is also a stand-up comedian touring regularly in international comedy festivals, having made appearances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for eight times. Her presence at the festival was because of her book "Don't you know who i used to be?" covering stories and memories of her life both here and abroad.
Now for something completely different; "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House" by Kate Summerscale could be a gripping experience of a true crime story that took place in 1860 in Wiltshire. I knew nothing about the forty five years old Summerscale who comes from a literary journalism background in England. Both John Le Carre and Ian Rankin have highly praised this book that will be part of my readings either this year or next year. So i will be revisiting the subject a bit later.
Another female writer from the UK but with Bangladeshi origins is Monica Ali. The first thing you notice listening to her is the determined attitude of a woman on mission. Her debut novel "Brick lane" raised few eye browses while "In the kitchen" her latest and third book have a contemporary London setting where, in the kitchen of the imperial Hotel, a staff force whose members are drawn from all over the world will portray an existence of low-paid misery. To bring a sordid touch, a death body is found in the cellars. I guess the story is to touch important issues such as national identity and the risky lives of foreign migrants
Being able to catch up with lots of events could be an impossible task. Every year, i missed out on few of them and the question of lost opportunity of discovering a new voice or learning more about a well established writer remains unknown. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for example is a Nigerian writer who won the prestigious Orange prize in 2007 for "Half of a yellow sun". Philipp Meyer has been compared to Richard Ford and Pete Dexter with his debut novel "American Rust" while crime writer Laura Lippman is another confirmed talent of the genre coming like Meyer from the United States of America.
Comments