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Farewell, MWF 2011
As we decamp from Beer Deluxe, accept that no, we can’t live in the magnificent BMW Edge, and unplug our laptops from ACMI powerpoints, I have to admit it’s nice to have some breathing space and an opportunity to reflect on another brilliant MWF.
Of course, there were some low points. For example, when the MWF team thought up the theme ‘Stories Unbound’, I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean that I should accost festival guests with questionable snippets of my life experience every time I had a wine (or eight). Plus, the usual festival dashing about meant that I didn’t catch all the sessions I wanted to; despite daily trying to one-up festival director Steve Grimwade in terms of how many I managed to see, I had to lie to beat him.
But I am always energised when I reflect upon MWF events, and my memories from the past eleven days provide no exception. Here are my 2011 festival highlights, in no particular order:
1. Peggy Frew’s reading at the launch of The Big Issue fiction edition. Like a lot of festival punters, I’m often in two minds about readings, but when Frew finished reading from her Big Issue story, ‘Camping’, you could hear the audience collectively, finally exhale.
2. Speaking with debut and early-career novelists Melanie Joosten, Jessica Au, SJ Finn and Raphael Brous about love, growing up, work and ghosts in Melbourne’s New Wave
3. The passionate and incendiary Mona Eltahawy on the uprising in Egypt and how it was inspired by and will influence the politics of the Middle East
4. Engaging in a bit of Julia Zemiro-love at Friday Night Live
5. The modest but utterly original César Aira discussing his slim novels and his unusual no-editing, ‘flight forward’ technique
While all these experiences are defined by having been part of MWF 2011, they are also springboards that will propel me into directed and engaged reading for the rest of the year and beyond.
As always, my thanks to the MWF team for an inspiring, varied, well-run and exciting festival. And this year, a guernsey too to Melbourne weather, which was mostly salutary, mostly kind.
What were your highlights from MWF 2011?
Blogs about the 2009 Melbourne Writers Festival
It has been wonderful to see the flurry of online activity that this year’s festival has generated on this blog, on Facebook and on Twitter. However, there has also been an extraordinary amount of blogging done elsewhere by both MWF guests and visitors.
Here is a list of all the bloggers we could find who wrote about MWF during the festival. The writing collected here is diverse and ranges from event reviews, interviews, personal reflections, festival wrap-ups and humorous takes on the festival. There’s a lot of content here but we certainly had a great time pouring over it all (and noting the feedback!) so we’re sure you’ll enjoy it too.
Finally, we did our best to make contact with everybody who blogged about MWF this year but if we did miss you then apologies and please feel free to submit links to your blog in the comments.
Blogging from within:
Official MWF bloggers Estelle Tang and Frenchelbow (Simon Keck) here at mwfblog.com.au
Philip Hensher, whose novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize, wrote about his visit to Melbourne for MWF here for the UK newspaper The Independent.
Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah wrote this post on her personal blog about her visit to Melbourne as a MWF guest.
Festival guest Angela Meyer is the author of the LiteraryMinded blog and she kept an incredibly comprehensive online diary during the festival:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8
Festival guests Jessica Au and Sophie Cunningham from Meanjin Quarterly wrote this piece about The Future of the Book session on Spike (Meanjin‘s blog).
Young adult and children’s fiction writer Julia Lawrinson blogs here on her Writing in the margins blog.
Artist Chay-Ya Clancy created the Federation Square word board installation, which so many of you had fun with. Chay-Ya did some behind the scenes blogging on her Stillness in flight blog.
MWF Copywriting intern Megan Burke covered MWF extensively throughout these posts on her Literary Life blog.
MWF related content from Readings, the festival’s official bookseller.
Blogging from without:
Freelance writer George Dunford covered the festival on his blog Hackpacker in the posts collected here.
On ANZ LitLovers LitBlog, the blog for the online reading group, Lisa Hill covered the festival on the posts collected here.
Perry Middlemiss, who has written online about Australian literature since 1996, filed these four reports on his Matilda blog.
Ghostlines author Nick Gadd wrote about MWF in these three pieces from his blog The writer in disguise.
Joyce Kwok, the author of the decisive guide to Melbourne Mel: Hot or Not, covered MWF in these posts.
Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer, covered MWF on these posts and a summary of those posts appears at The Specusphere.
Writer, reader and teacher Sherryl Clark filed these four reports on her Books and Writing blog.
Thuy Linh Nguyen wrote about MWF across these posts.
Kathryn Daley covered MWF in these posts on her A little bit of life blog.
Also check out:
Author Jon Bauer’s festival wrap-up
Planning With Kids on the Schools Program
Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum on the MJ Hyland masterclass
Emancipation of Eve on Marketing in the Info Age
eleventyone on Digital Publishing and McSweeney’s (Futuristic) Antipodean Adventure!
Words in progress on Award Winning Australian Fiction launch and Liner Notes: Michael Jackson’s Thriller
Ambrosia : A Memoir on Krissy Kneen (interview)
Just for fun
The satirical news blog The Late Breaker did a series of literary theme posts to celebrate MWF and they can be found here.
Idiot’s View on Writers Festivals
She bangs.
Jessica Au
The Whole Shebang is only for the hardcore. A 6-hour seminar clocking up seventeen writing and publishing experts who just want to help, it’s one of MWF’s flagship events.
I slipped in just as Meanjin‘s Jessica Au was discussing publishing internships and how they can assist you with writing. Jessica started out as an intern at Sleepers Publishing, then moved on to an internship at Meanjin, where she is now employed as an editorial assistant. Her tips? The task of going through the slush pile, also known as the unsoliciteds, can help you find out what publishers are looking for. She also found internships good for building up a basic industry knowledge. Networking? Check. They’re a good way of getting a foot in the door, and help open up opportunities organically: Jessica found out about the Meanjin internship through contacts she made at Sleepers. But above all, she urged, make sure you still have time for writing.
The audience was curious to know what else she had learned, particularly in regard to submissions. More wisdom: cover letters shouldn’t just be like a blurb. Don’t feel like you have to sell your writing too hard; publishers love reading good stuff. Put as much care into the cover letter as you do into the story itself.
Melbourne Writers Festival blog 