Liao Yiwu is a dissident Chinese poet, novelist, and screenwriter who miraculously escaped from China to Berlin in July of this year. His epic poem, Massacre was published in 1989. Condemning the killings in Tiananmen Square, it landed him in prison for four years. His latest book, The Corpse Walker is a collection of [...]
Two lawyers and an ex-copper — the crime novels of three women writers Nicole Watson (The Boundary), PM Newton (The Old School) and Shamini Flint (Detective Singh Investigates series) feature unconventional detectives and a different approach to writing crime. The authors discussed the ways in which they came to the genre, the perseverance required for [...]
Fiction in History In this session about historical fiction and telling the stories of those who may have been forgotten, Carol Major spoke with poet/novelist Judy Johnson (The Secret Fate of Mary Watson) and Jesse Blackadder (The Raven’s Heart). All three writers are Varuna alumni. Judy Johnson’s novel is set in far-north Queensland and is [...]
New Voices From Across the Globe David Brooks — author, poet, short story writer, essayist and co-editor of Southerly hosted this event in which three contenders for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize , read from and spoke about their works. It turned into a celebration of the short story form which is appropriate as this year [...]
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Varuna, the Writers’ House — Australia’s only national, residential writers’ centre. Varuna holds an important place in Australia’s literary and political heritage. The ‘Grand Old Lady of the Mountains’, The Carrington hotel in Katoomba is the home of the increasingly popular Varuna program of Sydney Writers’ Festival. Built [...]
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