Newcastle Writer's Festival Saturday Re-cap

I spent a lovely, indulgent day at the Newcastle Writers Festival today.  I started my day by attending the Rough and Tumblr session with Siobhan Curran, Mark MacLean, and Michael Newton, hosted by Newcastle University creative writing lecturer Keri Glastonbury.  The three bloggers talked about the start and evolution of their blogs, and showed a selection of images from their blogs. For me, the biggest takeaway was that no matter what the medium (images or words), at the end of the day, what's most evocative to readers is the story that emerges.

Photo by Leonie Rogers

Then was the magnificent Kate Forsyth. Kate was not only enchanting (as you might expect), warm, and open, she also provided so many tips for writers (including some exceptional ideas for writers block) that I wish I'd recorded every word on tape.  Some of the advice I intend to implement immediately is to write a little synopsis each evening of what I plan to write the next day before I go to bed to get the subconscious to work for you.  I love her use of notebooks too to keep track of story ideas and create a working scrapbook for each novel. She showed us a rather pretty slim one she's carrying with her, but you can have a look at the completed notebook for her latest book The Wild Girl at Kate's blog.

Following that, was my session How Does Poetry Survive with John Knight, Christopher Pollnitz and Rob Riel. David Musgrave was held up in Sydney - we missed him (no one else wore a funny poetry t-shirt for one thing), but the show went on and my three panel members were extraordinarily lucid, offering insights on what it means to be a modern poet, poetry publisher, and poetry editor. Our discussion was wide ranging, including such things as publishing slam poetry, on critical editing, the tricky dance between editor, reader and poet, Pollnitz' gorgeous exploration of part II of Auden's "In Memory of WB Yeats" (one of my favourite poems) which he aligned perfectly with the topic, and lots more. The room was packed to the wall and we went just a bit overtime due to the enthusiasm of the rather diverse crowd and my desire to take all questions. 

Finally, I ended my day by attending the Newcastle, City of Poets poetry reading at Agosti Espresso on Darby Street, compered by the wonderful Judy Johnson, and featuring readings from a number of local poets including Ivy Ireland, Mark Tredinnick, Robin Loftus, Kathryn Fry, Glenn Beatty, Cassandra O’Loughlin, Jean Talbot, Clark Gormley, Linda Ireland, and a few others (including myself).  Judy did an excellent job of keeping us on track (even if not all of us kept strictly to our 5 mins...). It was certainly a delightful way to end the day for me, though there are more sessions this evening and another whole day of it tomorrow. 

The Slightest Hint of Magic: Kate Forsyth

As many of you will know (probably all too well as I keep cracking on about it), I'll be 'in-conversation' with Kate Forsyth next Saturday at the Newcastle Writers Festival. Kate is an amazing writer whose work seems to bridge every genre gap. She's written some 26 books, some for children, some for adults, and some that work perfectly for both children and adult.  A number of her books are true fantasy, rich with magic and myth, adventure and quests. Others are historical fiction, love stories, fairy tale re-tellings, picture books.  Kate also writes, and has had published, a number of essays and articles, and even poetry. 

Whatever she writes seems to have a touch of magic in it - sometimes just the magic of epiphany and character transformation, and sometimes overt magic of the sort that comes with high fantasy.  No matter how much magic Kate has in her work, it's always natural, subtly handled, and integral to and integrated with the plot.  Her latest novel is The Wild Girl, which I've reviewed here: http://www.compulsivereader.com/2014/03/10/a-review-of-the-wild-girl-by-kate-forsyth/. The Wild Girl is set during the Napoleonic Wars and tells the story of Wilhelm Grimm and Dortchen Wild, the young woman who told Wilhelm most of the fairy tales that made him famous.

Next weekend, Kate and I will talk about a wide range of things, including her 'creative journey', how she manages the balance between publishing and research, about what draws her to fairy tales, about the "silent" but fascinating women in history, about storytelling and what it means to be a professional storyteller, the conjunction between reading and writing, and many other things.  There will be plenty of time for the audience to ask Kate their questions and interact with us.  To get hold of tickets, either drop by here: http://www.newcastlewritersfestival.org.au/saturday-program/2014/2/13/kate-forsyth-in-conversation or you can spend a little more and chance a sell-out, by getting them at the door.  Either way, I expect this to be a fascinating and enjoyable session with just the slightest hint of magic.