Nearly finished

Whilst Louise and her Tim-Tam-eating volunteers were spending their weekend stuffing envelopes to get Steve’s school program out in the mail today (yahoo!),  I was blockaded in my office for a marathon long weekend of plotting and planning.  And the result?  The program is stunning.  Can I say that about my own program? I think I can because the program’s strength is, of course, the writers who are taking part. And, this year more than in the past, I’ve had a gold-mine of new talent from which to choose. Fabulous young writers from Australia and elsewhere who are writing with breath-taking energy and originality. Many will be featured in this year’s festival – Steven Amsterdam, Reif Larsen, Wells Tower, Andrew Westoll, Petina Gappah and Evie Wyld are some of those bold young voices you’ll be hearing. In the last three years the MWF has seen debut authors blitz the festival’s best-seller list – Alice Pung and Nam Le both out-sold their more experienced colleagues and the festival is developing a reputation for being the best place to find new talent.

There has been a recent campaign to save Salt Publishing, a UK poetry publishing house which was started by John Kinsella and has many Australian poets on its list. The campaign “buy just one book” will save the press from its financial doom through the power of one. After you’ve bought one book from Salt turn your collective financial power to supporting debut writers. Next time you are in Readings make sure you include “just one debut author” in your take-home books. Be there at the beginning when a new career takes off. Be responsible for launching the great writers of the next generation. Get some zing into your life with the freshness of their writing. Impress your friends with your prescience and recommend a debut author as your bookclub ‘read’.  Get hooked.

Rosemary
Fesitval Director