10:00-11:00am

Torn Awake: Forrest Gander in Conversation

With an "unflinchingly curious mind," celebrated American poet and writer Forrest Gander has become known for the richness of his language and his undaunted lyrical passion. A novelist, essayist and translator, and one of the most accomplished poets of his generation, Forrest Gander speaks to Ivor Indyk about the need for a writer to see more than two ways at once and his search to express the originality of the ordinary.

Author: Forrest Gander
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $40 ($35 concession)
 

11:30-12:30pm

The Authority to Tell a Story

Trevor Shearston writes about Papua New Guinea with an authority unique in Australian literature. He discusses his new novel Dead Birds, which is set in pre-colonial Papua, and narrated by an utamu, the spirit of a beheaded man. The story is based on the 1877 journey of Italian naturalist Luigi D'Albertis and his crew as they travel up the Fly River in search of new specimens, ethnographic artefacts and the much-prized birds of paradise. He discusses his work with ABC correspondent Sean Dorney.

Author: Trevor Shearston                 
Chair: Sean Dorney
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $40 ($35 concession)
 

LUNCH

12:30 – 1:30pm

1:30-2:30pm

Conflicting Desires: A New Reading of Edith Wharton

Selected as one of the Washington Post’s 10 best books of 2007, award winning biographer Hermione Lee’s new work delves into every aspect of Wharton's extraordinary life-story. Lee shares with audiences a portrait of a startlingly modern woman and the public and private conflicts that lie at the heart of Wharton’s magnificent and subtle books.

Author: Hermione Lee                  
Introduction: Gil Appleton
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $40 ($35 concession)
 

3:00–4:00pm

A Fraction of the Whole: Steve Toltz in Conversation

A Fraction of the Whole, described by publisher Ben Ball as the “book you could spend 30 years looking for”, is an epic debut and an uproarious indictment of the modern world and its mores. Steve Toltz discusses his dark, blisteringly funny and original new novel with journalist and fellow writer, Malcolm Knox.

Author: Steve Toltz                      
Chair: Malcom Knox
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $40 ($35 concession)
 

4:30–5:15pm

Poetry Outloud *

International poets Forrest Gander and John Burnside are joined by Australian poets Deb Westbury, Mark O’Flynn and Craig Billingham to read from new works in a celebration of poetry and the spoken word.

Poets:Gander, Burnside, Westbury, O’Flynn, Billingham                        
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $40 ($35 concession).
* This session includes a complimentary glass of wine for all ticket holders.
 

10:00-11:00am

A Lie About My Father:
John Burnside in Conversation

Scottish poet and novelist John Burnside is celebrated as a writer of equal parts fierceness and delicacy. Burnside’s fiction often explores working class histories and the tender terrain of masculinity. In conversation with Edmund Campion he discusses his memoir, A Lie About My Father, and new novel, The Devil’s Footprints, two dark narratives told with poignancy and poetic grace.

Authors: John Burnside                 
Chair: Edmund Campion
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $25 ($20 concession)
 

11:30-12:30pm

Family Fictions and Family Truths
Charlotte Wood in conversation

Charlotte Wood’s third novel, The Children, explores the tenacious hold of childhood on our adult selves. In conversation with fellow writer and friend, Tegan Bennett Daylight, they discuss the nature of intimate writing.

Author: Charlotte Wood
Chair: Tegan Bennett Daylight
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $25 ($20 concession)
 

LUNCH

12:30 – 1:30pm

1:30-2:30pm

An Exacting Heart: The Hephzibah Menuhin Story
Jacqueline Kent in conversation

What makes a person turn their back on a brilliant artistic career? In her new book, leading biographer Jacqueline Kent reveals the complex and contradictory nature of Hephzibah Menuhin, sister of virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin. In conversation with Edmund Campion, they explore the consequences of possessing great talent, and the costs and rewards of gambling for high emotional stakes.

Author: Jacqueline Kent
Chair: Edmund Campion
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $25 ($20 concession)
 

Writing Obsessions: New Australian Fiction

Vicki Hastrich (The Great Arch), Toni Jordan (Addition) and Camilla Noli (Still Waters) talk to Varuna’s Creative Director Peter Bishop about writing on obsession and the dangers, difficulties and illuminations of inhabiting such worlds.

Authors: Vicki Hastrich, Toni Jordan, Camilla Noli
Chair: Peter Bishop
Cost: All day pass (entry to all sessions): $25 ($20 concession)
 

           Call Me Mum: Film Showing and Talk

Considered to be one of the most affecting and resonant recent Australian films, Call Me Mum explores the human cost of black/white race relations in Australia. It is a story of a white Australian foster mother who journeys with her 18 year-old Torres Strait Islander foster son, taken as a toddler by white authorities, to meet his birth mother, now gravely ill. After the screening, Kathleen Mary Fallon (on whose book and experiences the film is based), and Margot Nash the film’s director, will discuss the story’s movement from play to screen with Felicity Collins, co-author of Australian Cinema After Mabo.

Authors: Kathleen Mary Fallon; Margot Nash      
Chair: Dr Felicity Collins
Cost: Film showing and talk at The Edge Cinema: all tickets $5.50
 

Craig Billingham

Craig Billingham’s poetry has been published in Blue Dog, Space: New Writing, and Meanjin. Craig’s first collection of poems, Storytelling, was one of the highly praised final collection of Five Islands Press New Poets series, published in 2007.  
 

John Burnide was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. He is a former Writer in Residence at Dundee University and now teaches at the University of St Andrews.
His first collection of poetry, The Hoop, was published in 1988. Other poetry collections include Common Knowledge, Feast Days and The Asylum Dance, winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award. The Light Trap was also short listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
His poetry collection, The Good Neighbour, was short listed for the 2005 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection).
Burnside is also the author of a collection of short stories, Burning Elvis, and several novels, including The Dumb House, The Mercy Boys and The Locust Room.
His latest works include a collection of poetry, Gift Songs, his acclaimed memoir, A Lie About My Father and a novel, The Devil's Footprints.
 

Forrest Gander is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Eye Against Eye, Torn Awake, and Science & Steepleflower. Gander also writes novels, essays and translates. Gander's poems appear in many literary magazines in the USA and abroad, and have been translated into half a dozen languages. His collection of essays, A Faithful Existence, was published in 2005. His latest work is a novel, As A Friend, which will be published later this year.
He has received two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative North American Poetry, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and awards from The Fund for Poetry, The Howard Foundation, and The Whiting Foundation.  Gander is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Brown University.
 

Vicki Hastrich lives in Sydney. The Great Arch, her second novel, will be published by Allen & Unwin in May. Vicki has had a long association with Varuna, having received a fellowship and a mentorship for her first novel, Swimming with the Jellyfish, and an Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship in 2005, to work on The Great Arch.
 

Toni Jordan was born in Brisbane and graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science. Following an early mid-life crisis, Toni left her job and enrolled in RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing course with the idea of starting her own writing business. She needed one more subject, so she picked Novel—and in 2006 won a Varuna Awards master class to develop her debut novel, Addition. Toni lives in Melbourne where she works as a freelance copywriter. Addition was published by Text in February 2008 and has been sold into 10 countries worldwide.
 

Jacqueline Kent is the author of two general social histories and six books of fiction for young adults. Her biography A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life won the 2002 National Biography Award and the Nita B. Kibble Award.
Her latest book, An Exacting Heart, is the extraordinary story of Hephzibah Menuhin's story, sister of virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
 

Hermione Lee is the Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature and Fellow of New College, Oxford. She is one of Britain's leading biographers and is well known as a critic, broadcaster and reviewer.
Her latest biography of Edith Wharton was published to critical acclaim in 2007. Her previous books include her celebrated biography of Virginia Woolf, a collection of essays on life-writing, Body Parts, and studies of Elizabeth Bowen, Willa Cather and Philip Roth. In 2006 she was Chair of the judges for the Man-Booker Prize.
She is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Literature, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded a CBE in 2003 for services to literature.
 

Camilla Noli attended Varuna for a manuscript development residency and in 2004 was the recipient of a HarperCollins Varuna Award for Manuscript Development. Noli’s first novel, Still Waters, was published in April 2008 by Hachette. Her second novel is due for release in 2009. She lives on the Central Coast.
 

Mark O'Flynn has had eight plays professionally produced with such companies as Q Theatre Co, La Mama, MRPG, The Mill Theatre Co and Riverina Theatre Co. His play Paterson's Curse was published by Currency Press in 1988. He has also published a novel, Grass Dogs, which was one of the short listed manuscripts in the Harper Collins Varuna Awards program. He has also published two collections of poetry, reviews and short stories. His new collection of poetry, published by Interactive Press, was published at the end of 2007. Mark was awarded a residency at Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland by the Australia Council in 2007 to work on a new novel.
 

Trevor Shearston was born in 1946 and after graduating from the University of Sydney went to Papua New Guinea for the first time in 1968. In two stints he was there for seven years, working as a teacher and wandering. He has been back eight times since supposedly 'going finish' in 1976. Since 1979, when the story collection Something in the Blood appeared, he has published a further six novels, five of them set in Papua New Guinea, the latest being Dead Birds (2007).  For the last thirteen years he has lived in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.
 

Steve Toltz was born in Sydney and has worked as a cameraman, security guard, private investigator, English teacher, and screenwriter. A Fraction of the Whole is his first novel.
 

Deb Westbury has been a familiar and respected voice in Australian poetry since her work was first published in 1975. Her poetry has since been widely anthologised, including the Oxford Anthology of Women's Verse. Since her first collection of poetry, Mouth to Mouth, was published in 1990, she has written Our Houses are Full of Smoke (1994), Surface Tension (1998) and Flying Blind (2002). Her latest work, New and Selected Poems will be published in 2008.
 

Charlotte Wood’s third novel, The Children, was released last year. The Australian described her as a captivating, questing writer and Australian Book Review called the novel a graceful and empathetic portrayal of one family seeking to understand itself. Wood’s previous novels are The Submerged Cathedral and Pieces of a Girl. She has spent a lot of time at Varuna, the Writers’ House and lives in Sydney’s inner west.
 

Tegan Bennett Daylight was born in Sydney. She is the author of several books for teenagers and children, and the novels Bombora (1996), What Falls Away (2001) and Safety (2006).
 

Edmund Campion

Edmund Campion is a Catholic priest, writer, editor, literary judge and academic. A former chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, he has been judge of most of the major Australian literary awards. His books include Rockchoppers (1982), A Place in the City (1994) and Lines of My Life (2003).
 

Sean Dorney is the Pacific Correspondent for Australia Network. One of the ABC's most experienced and respected correspondents, he is an acknowledged authority on Papua New Guinea and is the author of two books on PNG affairs. Sean lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for almost 20 years. Sean’s first book, Papua New Guinea - People, Politics and History Since 1975 was published in 1990. His book on the Sandline crisis - The Sandline Affair - was published in 1998. In 2000 Sean completed a two-part television documentary marking the 25th anniversary of PNG independence and spanning his own quarter of a century involvement with the country. Sean won the Walkley Award for Radio News Reporting for his coverage of the tsunami that struck PNG in July 1998.
 

Malcolm Knox is an award-winning novelist, journalist and non-fiction writer. He is the author of the novels, A Private Man and Summerland, and the non-fiction works Secrets of the Jury Room and 1788 Words or Less: A Short History of Australia. His latest book is Jamaica.