Sydney Writers Festival

Slow novels, wonky name tags and art in spite of despair

Jun 02, 2024

Dearest Readers,

Long time no post.

Last week I attended Sydney Writers Festival and left feeling so galvanised by the exchange of ideas I witnessed.

On Thursday I saw Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies, Matrix and her latest novel The Vaster Wilds who was in conversation with Melanie Kembrey. Having not heard Groff speak before I was immediately struck by her warmth and willingness to share parts of herself and her writing process.

Lauren Groff said two things that really hit home….

The first was when she described writing as ‘a series of small eruptions of beautifully controlled failure’ which had me whipping out my notes app to write the quote down. She spoke on how she likes to write a first draft and then never read it again - starting from scratch with her second draft and writing longhand rather than using a computer.

I was shooketh.

The second thing she said was in relation to the opening of her new bookshop in Florida , an act of resistance against the US Book bans that are happening in the states (which, of course, deeply disturb me). She spoke about burning books and quoted Joan Baez in saying that ‘action is the antidote to despair’ .

It made me cry and reminded me of my own journey of opening the shop during the middle of COVID. I had been so anxious during this time and unable to get out of bed. It was in the opening of my bookshop that I found a community for myself and a purpose in the sharing of books and ideas.

You can find Lauren’s books here and read about her process further in this NYT article.

Another highlight of the festival was meeting my literary icon Ann Patchett. She told me I looked beautiful (!!!) and was ever so gracious as to take a picture with me (thank you Bloomsbury girls, Hannah and Hermione, for facilitating this encounter).

Look at my arm around Ann - comfortable much?! #besties #strangerdanger

Can I just say that prior to this picture being taken I tried to unpin my badge to straighten it and it poked me in the boob (through the lacey dress) and I frantically had to re pin in it as it wouldn’t budge. Hence why my name tag is WONKY.

We also had the great privilege of meeting Paul Lynch - winner of the Booker Prize 2023 for his novel ‘Prophet Song’ which from all reports is devastating. He was a very cool guy with an interest in film and records and a dream to travel to Japan to buy more records to take them back to Dublin.

Side note: What is it with the Irish and their lack of punctuation ? The Bee Sting was the same (although I managed to get through The Bee Sting and totally loved it). Eek!!!

On Friday I went to see the Feminist Firebrands panel which showcased the dazzling Jennifer Robinson, Sisonke Msimang and Hannah Ferguson. During this panel I went on an emotional rollercoaster. I laughed, I cried and then wanted to scream.

These extraordinary women volleyed their opinions on the current state of our country’s epidemic of domestic violence and one of the things that really stood out to me was the data.

1 in 4 women have experienced domestic violence. Most of them with someone who they know.

ONE IN FOUR. That means that there is probably someone reading this substack who is experiencing DV and I might not ever know who it is until it’s too late. It is so grim.

We need to start believing women. The recent result of the Lehman trial and the discovery that musician Cassie was not in fact lying when she claimed that P. Diddy was abusing her are just two examples in the last month alone that speak volumes.

It is sickening and I for one do not feel safe even going food shopping anymore, living close to Bondi Junction.

I was so impressed by the grace of the women on stage, despite talking about such disastrous things and realised that both Jen and Sisonke are WA locals, which is obviously a flex for our state. We have both their books in store.

Charlotte Wood, in a seperate in conversation with Beejay Silcox spoke about the power of ‘slow novels’ where nothing much happens and having read lots of these lately I can attest to their strength.

Some books I thought of as she was speaking were:

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
We All Lived in Bondi Then by Georgia Blain (things DO happen but they are short stories and quite isolated incidents.
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Long Island by Colm Toibin

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I am, of course, obsessed with young women doing extraordinary and inventive things. So you can imagine my extreme delight in seeing Katy Hessel speak about women in art. Her enthusiasm and passion for the subject was unbridled and I loved hearing about the journey that brought her to where she is now.