The Sydney Writers’ Festival is the biggest literary event in Australia. This literary event has been held annually since 1997 and it attracts an interesting mix of authors, poets, biographers, editors, publishers and book lovers from Australia and the rest of the world. More than 65,000 people attend this week long festival which is held at various venues like Pier 4/5 and the Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay and the City Recital Hall, Sydney Opera House and The Mint. The 2008 festival extended the scope of the Sydney Writers’ Festival to several locales in suburban Sydney like Parramatta, Ashfield, Blacktown etc. This year this expertly curated festival will be held from Monday the 18th of May to Sunday the 24th of May and will feature a whole host of events like workshops, talks, discussions and book fairs.
The Sydney Writers’ Festival 2009 assumes even more importance in a world where the written word is being constantly challenged by the digital age. Where newspapers are being forced to shut down every day due to loss in ad revenue and circulation and ‘old fashioned’ books are being replaced by digital readers like the Kindle which are equipped to read thousands of e-books. This year the writer’s festival will feature programs that have been inspired by current political and social events like the election of the first African-American President of the USA.
Invitation only event
The Sydney Writers Festival will feature the participation of more than three hundred Australian and international writers, poets, historians and philosophers. The festival is a curated event that operates on an invitation-only basis. Past festivals have featured famous writers like the British writer and television producer Alain de Botton and American author and feminist, Naomi Wolf who is known for her ground breaking book – The Beauty Myth.
Tickets
The Sydney Writers’ Festival has a program that features both ticketed and free events. The program of the festival is available in public libraries and bookstores and on the official website of the festival. Tickets can be booked online, on the phone and in person at the booking office of the Sydney Theater. Do visit the official website of the Sydney Writers Festival for the complete list of ticketed and non ticketed events at 2009 Sydney Writers’ Festival. Some of the most popular and sold out ticketed events of this year’s festival are the events called ‘Primary School Days’ which are described as a ‘celebration of books and writing for young adults and children’. This is no doubt an encouraging sign for it indicates books are going to be around for a long time to come no matter all the doomsday predictions of their imminent demise .
Highlights of the 2009 Sydney Writers’ Festival
Opening Address by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- Monday 20th May at Sydney Theatre
The task of opening this year’s Sydney Writers’ festival has been entrusted to one of the best new voices on the literary scene, the Nigerian authoress and 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie who draws inspiration for her work from her homeland is best known for her award-winning tome on the Biafran war called Half of a Yellow Sun which won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction.
An Evening with Germaine Greer - 21st May at the City Recital Hall
This Australian born writer, academic, journalist and feminist is best known for her controversial international best seller, The Female Eunuch which stirred a hornets’ nest when it was first published in 1970. Since then she has written several other books including Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility (1984); The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause (1991) and Shakespeare’s Wife (2007).
The theme of her address at this year’s festival will however center on politics not sexuality as she is to present a piece titled The Australian Way: The Influence of Australia and Australians on British Politics and Politicians’ wherein she will examine the influence of Australian political systems and strategy on the current British political scene. Given that Australia and Britain share a unique relationship,this event promises to be one of the most popular events of this year’s festival.
An Evening with Wendy Hammer – Friday 22nd May at the Paddington Town Hall
This event will feature Australia’s best known comedienne who has written a number of books and who will be discussing her latest oeuvre ‘Roadside Sisters’ at this event.
Nocturnes : Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation via video link- May 22nd at the Sydney Theatre
This event will use video conferencing facilities to bring renowned author and Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro to the Sydney Writers’ festival. The acclaimed author will speak from his base in London to Sydney Writers’ Festival chair Sandra Yates about his new work which is titled Nocturnes.
The Author’s Right to Speak Saturday- 23rd May at Sydney Theatre
On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the fatwa issued against Indian author, Salman Rushdie for his work titled Satanic Verses by the Ayatollah Khomeini, prominent authors like Monica Ali, Richard Flanagan and David Williamson will discuss and debate the issue of freedom of expression. This event will be moderated by Neil James.
International Voices -23rd May at Sydney Theatre
This event will feature readings by some of the best and brightest new voices on the current literary scene like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Monica Ali, Tash Aw, Mohammed Hanif ,Cees Nooteboom and Philipp Meyer. The event will also include the presentation of The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist awards for 2009.
So if you love books and want to acquaint yourself with some of the brightest stars of the literary world, you may want to take advantage of the current airfare deals to wing your way to Sydney for this year’s festival and if you need accommodation for your trip you may want to check out the attractive rates being offered by various Sydney city center hotels for the festival like the avant garde Blue Hotel or the peaceful Aspire Hotel which is located on a quite side street adjacent to Darling Harbor.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Australia & NZ, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Seems like a great event for any budding author to attend, not to mention a number of book worms.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:43 am
The Opera House is already worth the visit and the festival is even more of an incentive. Unfortunately, I missed the event. Maybe next time.
May 8th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Hi i always wanted to attend event.but i missed.Thank U.
May 21st, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Can we have the attendance stats in terms of top authors. I would like to know that whether local authors or the international ones had the most attendance.
May 21st, 2009 at 8:46 pm
As the festival is currently taking place, you could perhaps track attendance numbers through its official website.(http://www.swf.org.au/)
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