Sydney Writers' Festival: one more time...

Sydney Writers' Festival

Being in Sydney in May, as winter approaches, is not all bad, no not at all. The weather is bright and mild, the sea sparkles, and it's that time of year again...a festival of books, ideas and conversation that fills five days of invigorating talk at the Sydney Writers' Festival. Do check out the link -- several of the talks and panel discussions are up there to listen to, in case you missed the bright cold days on the Harbour.

Not bad at all. 

This year there were deck chairs in the old pier for late comers (or the lazy) who missed out on seats at a favourite session. There was the usual characterful ambience of the Walsh Bay wharf district, a new 'Cafe at the End fo the Wharf' where coffee and the papers, and a panel of journalists and visiting authors could help you kick start you day, as you checked through the program for your sessions of choice.

There were politicians, journalists, poets, creative new writers and venerable established writers. There were speeches, quirky presentations, panels, discussions, and plenty of audience questions. Many were the deep and meaningful questions of live and literature debated around the cafe tables, many the cups of coffee sipped and glasses of wine quaffed. Many the books bought and authors with signing cramp. Many the famous names and the new discoveries.

Now which ones are unmissable?

Literary enthusiasts at the Wharf

Check out some podcasts from the 2013 festival here. A couple of my favourites:

IS RHETORIC DEAD IN THE AGE OF THE SOUNDBITE' AT SYDNEY WRITERS' FESTIVAL, SUNDAY 26 MAY 2013

Last year the Prime Minister electrified the world with her misogyny speech. But this was a rare exception, and few modern political speeches capture the imagination in this way. Has our political discourse been reduced to slogans? And what does this mean for our democracy? Executive Director of the Lowy Institute Michael Fullilove discussed this and more  at Sydney Writers' Festival with author and ex-speechwriter for Kevin Rudd, James Button, Federal Member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull, political journalist and social commentator Annabel Crabb and Executive Director of the Plain English Foundation Neil James. SYDNEY WRITERS' FESTIVAL 2013 CLOSING ADDRESS BY CLAIRE MESSUD In his essay, ‘Imaginary Homelands’, Salman Rushdie addresses the alienation of the displaced: ‘if we do look back . . we will not be capable of reclaiming precisely the thing that was lost . . . we will, in short, create fictions, not actual cities or villages, but invisible ones, imaginary homelands’. In this year’s Closing Address at Sydney Writers’ Festival, Claire Messud, who juggles American, Canadian and French identities and who spent her formative childhood years in Sydney, spoke about a writer’s rootlessness in the global era, and the underpinning importance of ‘imaginary homelands’ – including this one – in her storytelling.

Waiting on the speaker, Sydney Theatre

Ticket haul

Walsh Bay, Sydney: SWF has the best venue in the world.

Next year's SWF? 19-25 May 2014  Diary. Now.