1 August 2024 Susannah

Writers’ Festivals

Bonnie Garmus, 2024 Sydney Writers Festival

I recently took part in a session at a regional Writers’ Festival. Such festivals have become incredibly popular in the past decade, and today over 35 different literary festivals are offered in New South Wales alone. I have friends who plan their lives around particular festivals and would never dream of missing them. The Sydney Writers’ Festival has been taking place since 1997 (the picture above is Lessons in Chemistry author, Bonnie Garmus who was on their 2024 program), and the oldest in the world is the Cheltenham Literary Festival in England, which started in 1949.

For some readers, a book only truly comes alive when they hear the author discuss it. Others prefer to keep book and author separate in their minds, and so stay away. Some find them elitist, or complain that they have strayed too far into the area of politics. However, they are today big business and fast-growing tourist attractions. They encourage people to buy books (always a good thing), generate a sense of camaraderie amongst readers and writers, and they give authors who generally lead solitary professional lives the opportunity to connect with those who have loved their books.

Literary festivals can these days be very specialised – the BAD Crime Writers’ Festival, Jewish Book Week, Blak and Bright (for First Nations literature) and Muslim literary events, are just some examples.

However, literary festivals can also have problems. Those who can write are not necessarily good speakers, and audiences do sometimes have to sit through mumbling or dull talks. There can also be a problem with these literary events not being balanced – too many politically correct topics, too much current political content or pressure (anti-Israel groups wanting Jewish authors banned, for example), too much assumption that everyone in the room has left-wing views. I get weary of the British and white people being blamed for all the problems of our current world! When a part-Indian author who has written a book partly based on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway complains bitterly about Woolf not mentioning India enough in her 1924 novel and states that India was utterly essential to Britain at that time, I lose any desire to buy or read her book. I also think that it’s becoming harder and harder for writers to express themselves freely if their opinions don’t fit the current inclusive views. It’s important that festival organisers remember to include literary fiction that simply tells a good story. Books being discussed don’t have to have trendy gender, racial and political elements.

A phenomenal amount of work goes into organising such events and they can be huge fun. They celebrate a love of literature, which is always a good thing. With the really big festivals, visitors have the chance to choose amongst many talks on at the same time, but smaller festivals, with smaller budgets, don’t always have that option, so need to remember that balance is important too.

Are you someone who attends writers’ festivals? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Comments (12)

  1. Yvonne Read

    Hi Susannah,
    I do so agree with all that you have written.
    My husband and I recently sat through an excruciating session at the BWF where a very left wing author held forth and if that was not uncomfortable enough , his language was unacceptable using f and b words liberally.
    We were in the middle of the audience and felt it would be too disruptive to stand up and leave but we really wanted to.

    I still go to authors talks but will be vetting them before hand as much as possible.
    And by the way, a number of the sessions at the BWF were great.

    You don’t have to post my reply but I am so glad that you have put into words what I have been thinking and I feel that I’m not the only one who is critical sometimes.
    Best wishes Yvonne

    • Susannah Fullerton

      I am glad you agree with me, Yvonne. There just needs to be more balance. I also felt that 15 Acknowledgements of Country in one day was seriously overdoing it.

  2. Mary Anne Strachan

    I agree so much with your comments Susannah. The art of writing and simply enjoying a writer’s ability to create a captivating world, can, at times, be subjugated to all the negative forces you mention. Such a pity.
    Mary Anne

    • Susannah Fullerton

      Yes, it is a pity. There needs to be balance and the recognition that not every person attending thinks the British are evil and that any views not strictly left-wing are morally wrong.

  3. Toni Pollard

    I am a self-confessed writers festival junkie. I have attended all 20 annual Ubud Writers and Readers Festivals in Bali, and the Byron Bay festivals for the last 16 years. And of course endless sessions of the Sydney writers festivals. Even went twice to the short-lived Snowy Mountains WF long ago where I met a young Sulari Gentil. To me these festivals are sheer pleasure – meeting writers, hearing their back stories and how they came to write , being in a milieu of books and writing and like-minded people. There is a real buzz!. Ubud, in its setting overlooking a vast grassy ridge with the holy mountain, Gunung Agung popping out of the cloud at times, is magical. I love the political sessions, often from journalists who have written books – lots of ABC and SMH greats are on these panels and foreign journalist who can give an entirely different perspective to 8nternational issues. They are invariably brilliant writers and speakers with their careers depending on their way with words. Sometimes I have to remind myself to go a session on pure literature. Rarely does one hear a poor speaker- I’m sure writers are selected for their ability to “perform” in public. And writers festival are about more than just books- there are related performances, concerts, art exhibitions, films, feast, cocktail parties showcasing the local culture, especially in Ubud. I’ve met some of the greats in literature, both international and Indonesian – and the many young emerging Indonesian writers whose works I translate for the annual anthology. Perhaps the highlight moment over the years was when Alexander McCall-Smith came over and introduced himself and chatted to my small party of friends at a cocktail party at one of Ubud’s most beautiful 5-star hotels, Amandari, where he was the guest of honour. Then there was the time in Ubud running into the gorgeous Sebastian Faulks in a clothing shop- he came out of a change room where he’d been trying on shirts and apologised to us profusely for his semi-naked state – we assured him we did not mind one bit.

    If you are interested in hearing the pro- case for the absolute joy of writers festivals have a look at my free online web book which is an illustrated compilation of 20 years of the chatty emails to family and friends about the Ubud festival and my time each October at festival time staying with my son and granddaughter who lived in Bail – Toni‘s Bali Jottings. (It was a Covid lockdown project and Cheryl Hill of JASA helped me with the technology.)
    https//:tonibali.weebly.com/ Or just google tonibali.weebly or and it will come up. Even if you just read the intro “Books and Bali” and perhaps dip into a particular year you will get the picture. And perhaps rush to book your ticket to Bali!

    • Susannah Fullerton

      I love your enthusiasm, Toni. Thanks for all your comments. My own experience of Writers Festivals has not been as overwhelmingly positive as yours, but of course I will keep seeking out authors I’d love to hear and will keep attending. I’ve taken part in them and heard some great talks, but I’ve also heard some dreadful ones, and I do find that the balanace is too political for me. I’m very middle-of-the-road in my politics and dislike so many left-wing views being aired, while little time seems to be given to the other side. Nor do I need 15 Acknowledgements of Country in one day of a festival!

  4. Hi Susannah,

    Love this whole piece, but particularly: “It’s important that festival organisers remember to include literary fiction that simply tells a good story. Books being discussed don’t have to have trendy gender, racial and political elements.”

    In many ways I feel like the pendulum needed to swing – but now I’d be happy for it to swing back again. The children’s book industry, for example, I think has done a wonderful job of looking at itself, seeing that it was too white and mainstream, and then activating change by calling on diversity and inclusion writers to send in their stories, so children’s books are now representative of the many kinds of children that exist. But I totally agree that ALL stories do not have to include the elements you mention.

    Similarly, a world class choreographer friend of mine is finding it tough to get work at present in Europe – he’s been told to his face that he’s too white. Yes we need the inclusion, but do we need it at the expense of people who are just supremely good at what they do? (Particularly when you look at this man’s track record and see his work has been INclusionary to fault, the entire way through his career!)

    So, anyway, thanks for writing about this issue as it applies to Writers Festivals. Great thoughts, AND from the others who have commented. Thank you all!

  5. John

    I heartily agree with the general thrust of your article, with the caveat that, being of Irish convict descent, and having lived in Scotland for 18 years and England for 12 years, including two Scottish referenda, the re-convening of the Scottish Parliament after 300 years, Brexit, and the rise of Boris Johnson, I do not mind seeing the English blamed for all that is wrong with the world 🙂 and I am used to seeing it 🙂 but I would not extend that to Scots.

    More seriously, I best know the Edinburgh, Bath and Adelaide Writers/Book/Literature festivals. I LOVE the Adelaide one. Almost all events are held in a park next to the city centre, all free, with between two and four events occurring at any time. So one can freely walk at any time from one to another. Typically, there is a left-of-centre political talk at the same time as a purely novel-based one. I joke that that it is the AGM of the Labor Party’s literary society, but it generally includes an occasional centrist Liberal and some militant Greens, and one can also avoid the politics entirely without difficulty.

    This of course is consistent with your point about larger festivals.

    I find the Sydney festival much more awkward as it is physically dispersed and usually involves fees. I normally find too little choice at the smaller festivals to justify the expense of going.

  6. Therese

    I would like to be one of those readers you refer to who “prefer to keep book and author separate in their minds ” but I’m influenced by knowledge of writers’ private lives.
    I’ve enjoyed the stories of Canadian writer, Alice Munro, for some time but recently I learned something about her personal life that greatly disturbed me. Now I’ve discarded all her books.

  7. Margi

    I definitely like literary/writers festivals. However, like you, I have noticed the trend to include more political content. Novelists have always addressed the issues of the day or in history. For example, Devotion by Hannah Kent has a heroine and queer love story set in the early settlement of South Australia that is beautifully written. It isn’t trendy, but intrinsically compassionate and moving. I have no problem with gay,blak, trans gender stories as long as long it’s not token, but Is great literature! I have noticed this in the poetry scene too. The best writers challenge our perspectives by putting us in the other’s shoes, not just tick the diversity box.
    As for writer’s festivals, I love Newcastle’s. They get great writers, including regional ones, excellent panels with facilitators that ask great questions and listen rather than talk about themselves (so annoying). There are lots of poetry events! It doesn’t seem as commercial as Sydney. And Newcastle is a beautiful setting by the river and the ocean.

  8. Robin Warner

    Hi Susannah

    Couldn’t agree more with your comments on writer’s festivals. I used to attend some sessions of the Southern Highlands Writers Festival but now find that most sessions are skewed towards quite divisive political topics and none of them really appeal. I found that the recent Kiama Readers festival had a more balanced approach.

    Robin

    • Susannah Fullerton

      I think the bigger festivals that offer more choice give you the chance to ignore the divisive and political, but smaller festivals do need to think carefully about balance. I rarely read any book that is political and don’t want to attend Writers Festivals that are packed with politically correct issues and books.

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