Where do we come from? Where are
we going? Who are we?
Is Tasmanian writing another country?
Faced with the very great difficulty of getting noticed
nationally, Tasmanian writers have begun developing
their own publishing ventures with books and magazines,
creating an audience and nurturing new talent. Tasmania's
leading publishers and magazine editors in conversation.
Until recently Tasmanian novelists seemed as thin
on ground as thylacines. Yet Australia's first novel
was written in Tasmania, and the island has an ongoing--
if broken--tradition of successful international mass-market
writers such as Marie Bjelke Petersen and Roy Bridges.
Since the 1950s it has produced such eminent novelists
as Christopher Koch and Amanda Lohrey. In the last five
years Tasmanian novel writing has taken off across numerous
genres, with several Tasmanian writers being published
nationally and internationally. Some recent Tasmanian
novelists talk about their experiences in writing and
getting published.
From Aboriginal stories and songs to convict tattoos
and ballads to the struggle of Tasmanian writers in
the 1970s and 1980s to establish magazines and publish,
Tasmanian writing has a long, strange and difficult
history.Old lags of the writing world discuss and reminisce
about writing Tasmania.
7.00-8.00pm (Salamanca, pub to be announced)
Readers to be announced.
10.00-11.00am Peacock Theatre
Tasmania has seemed to produce more poets than anywhere
else in Australia from the convict `Frank the Poet'
on. More recently home to such noted poets as Gwen Harwood
and James MacAuley, poetry was until the last decade
its best known writing. Several of Tasmania's leading
poets discuss the Tasmanian tradition of poetry.
11.10-12.10pm Peacock Theatre
In spite of the problems of small audiences and the
difficulties of funding, Tasmanian plays and films do
get written. Tasmanian performance writers talk of their
work, their dilemmas, and their hopes.
2.15-1.00pm Salamanca, at the Barcelona pub
Readers to be announced.
1.00-2.00pm Peacock Theatre
This long neglected yet important area of Tasmanian
writing from Louisa Anne Meredith to Michael Sharland
to Jamie Kirkpatrick has been central to the making
of a Tasmanian identity, and connects powerfully with
the island's unique political traditions.
2.10-3.10pm Peacock Theatre
Some of the most distinctive and influential of Tasmanin
writing has taken the form of historical writing, journalism,
essays and other forms of non-fiction, from the radical
anti-authoritarian journalism of Henry Melville onwards.
3.30pm (Salamanca, pub to be announced)
Readers to be announced.
Sponsor:
Hobart Bookshop |
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