Magazine

No, we haven’t been smuggling illicit substances into the country stuffed inside cuddly toys and ‘antique’ furniture. In MWF’s tribute to season 2 of The Wire we have our very own shipping container down by the river. (Ah, season 2, what a bitter pill…)

Inside this imposing black behemoth you will find a cavalcade of free events programmed and hosted by the finest literary magazines and journals on these Antipodean shores. For those who popped their heads in last weekend, you would have borne witness to the delights provided by Overland, The Lifted Brow, Going Down Swinging and Kill Your Darlings. This weekend sees Meanjin, Ampersand, harvest and The Big Issue fronting up to stare you down.

The lineup: Meanjin (Sat 10am-130pm); Ampersand (Sat 130pm-5pm); harvest (Sun 10am-130pm); The Big Issue (Sun 130pm-5pm).

Now, what do they all have in store? I can and now will exclusively reveal a bit more than what’s in the program. Meanjin have Adrian Hyland giving us the lowdown on synaesthesia, as well as readings from Ruby Murray and Belinda Rule, and conversations betwixt eds Sophie Cunningham & Jessica Au and Ben O’Mara & Michael Harden. Bam!

Ampersand take the reins with ed Alice Gage introducing us to Bad Idea’s Dan Stacey & Alyssa McDonald, with guest spots from Miles O’Neil previewing his Fringe show and Gavin Pretor-Pinney starting a global society from his back room (or his container, in this case).

On Sunday harvest have readings from Emmett Stinson, Anjum Hasan & Jake Adelstein talking about the chapter that was cut from his book. Watch out for Poetry Fight Club too, with David Astle doing a Tyler Durden and trying to smackdown the pretenders (including, sadly, me ‘rapping’, oh dear).

The weekend comes to a close with The Big Issue trotting out the heavy hitters. China Mieville will play a huge game of exquisite corpse, Mic Looby talks columns, whilst Chris Womersley & Toni Jordan get into the nitty gritty of fiction.

Yes folks, all this is FREE. Get down to that container this weekend and be quick if you want a comfy seat. S’all in the game, yo.