CR Newsletter March

Photo by Renato Abati from Pexels

Happy march, fellow book lovers.  The March Compulsive Reader newsletter is now on its way to you, featuring reviews of new books like Meowku by Patricia Carragon and Flight by Robert Anthony Gibbons, Asylum Garden: after Van Gogh by Alan Catlin, Nina’s Memento Mori by Mathias Freese, and The Land of Last Chances by Joan Cohen. We also have lots of new interviews, including exciting new author Holden Sheppard, as well as two new audio interviews at Compulsive Reader talks.  There are two fantastic new giveaways too, and of course the full round-up of literary news from around the globe.  If you’re a subscriber it should be hitting your inbox very soon.  If not, you can sign up straightaway here: http://www.compulsivereader.com.  It’s free and we just send out the one email a month.  If you can’t wait for it to arrive, you can view it in your browser now.  Happy reading!

Festival Season: IF Festival in Maitland

We’re nearly in that lovely time of year when literary festivals abound. Are there too many? Nah. The questions we’re discussing in these festivals and the ongoing collaboration between readers and writers is more critical than ever. I’ve got three festivals in a row where I’m involved in panels, as moderator and presenter.
The kick off is the inaugural Indie Festival (IF) in Maitland: https://ifmaitland.org  All of the panels are completely free!  There are also a range of excellent workshops (not free but very inexpensive), and keynotes (also free). My sessions are on Saturday the 29th of February.

 I’m starting the day with the aptly titled The Importance of Regional Writers Festivals, moderated by David Graham. Joining me on the panel will be Creative Kids Tales’ Georgie Donaghey, UQld’s Dr Kim Wilkins and UMelbourne’s Dr Beth Driscoll, both highly respected, multi-published academics who are working together on the project Genre Worlds: Australian Popular Fiction in the Twenty-First Century. This session is going to be a cracker opening to the day. The session is followed by a series of Flying Island pocket book launches led by Flying Island’s very erudite Editor-in-Chief (who is launching his own new book on the day) including Michael Crane, Susan Fealy, Clark Gormley, Geoff Page, Kerri Shying, Melinda Smith, Gillian Swain, and George Watt. What a line-up! I’ll be personally launching both Melinda and Gillian’s new books and what an honour that is. My next session is called Just Walking the Dog, which I’ll be moderating, featuring poets Gillian Swain and Brian Purcell. We’ll be exploring the development of poems from initial idea through to release into the world and judging from our initial interactions, this is going to be an incredible conversation, full of fun and insights. Finally, phew, I’ll be moderating a panel on Independent and Community Publishing with Kit Kelen, Georgie Donaghey, and Jennifer Sharpe from Daisy Lane Studios about the different pathways to getting published independently. Come and learn from the best! Once again, all of these sessions are absolutely free of charge (but first in best dressed, so get in early), and there will always be time at the end for questions and audience interaction - you are the most essential part of this! So if you’re able, please come join me on the day - that’s Saturday February 29th around 230 High Street (there are a few venues), Maitland NSW.