Sydney Writers' Festival 2022 - Day One

For the first time since 2019, I have attended the Sydney Writers' Festival, attending ten sessions over the three days. It was great to be back, with this my first major event outing since COVID began. 

Here's a run-down of my first day at the Festival - Friday 20 May 2022  

The Theatre of Politics

I was keen to attend this session with Emeritus Professor of Politics, Judith Brett, and journalist Sean Kelly, author of The Game, perhaps the best portrait of a politician I have ever read.  Essayist James Ley led them in a discussion about the performance of politics. 

They spoke about the rise of television and how this has brought about a change in the way politicians and the media behave. As Brett pointed out, before TV there were only grainy photos of politicians, viewed from a distance, and this served a different kind of leader. Now, leaders become characters and play a role. There is a public self and a private self, and a strong sense of performance. Social media has compounded this performance.

This session took place the day before the federal election, so there was the opportunity to compare and contrast Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. 

Kelly spoke about how Morrison is a 'flat character' who portrays himself as a daggy dad who makes a weekly curry and loves the Cronulla Sharks. This manufactured image allows him to play PM - donning high vis and appearing in a succession of political stunts (tossing a ball, washing a woman's hair, welding!). When the real Morrison comes to the surface we see a petulant bully. They discussed how Morrison conceptualised the role of Prime Minister - not as a leader for everyone, but only as a leader for those who voted for him. He turned his back on the arts, the university sector, and others. 

In contrast, Albanese is not an alpha male, he is a different kind of politician. Brett and Kelly spoke about how Albanese was aiming for substance over style, looking for the greater good instead of self-interest. 

This was a really interesting discussion. Unfortunately the speakers were let down by the poor sound quality - crackling mikes, drop outs - that continued throughout the session.

But Not Forgotten 

In this session, Sarah Krasnostein, Jackie Huggins, Melissa Lucashenko and Clem Bastow paid tribute to writers who passed away in the previous year. Each delivered moving tributes which demonstrated the impact the author had on them.

Jackie Huggins spoke about bell hooks, who passed away in December 2021 at age 69. hooks wrote about race, class and gender and was influential in Huggins' life. As a young Aboriginal rights activist, Huggins was inspired by hooks' works Ain't I A Woman? (1981) and Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre (1984). Huggins had the opportunity to meet hooks and interview her, and they formed a lifelong relationship. Huggins claims she would not have been able to write her landmark book Sister Girl (1998) had it not been for hooks. It was wonderful to hear this tribute. bell hooks was instrumental in my life as well, having read her works during my undergraduate women's studies degree. In particular I loved her writings on representation and popular culture like Outlaw Culture (1994) and Reel to Real (1996).

Miles Franklin Award winning author Melissa Lucashenko paid tribute to Keri Hulme who passed away on 27 December 2021. Hulme won the Booker Prize in 1985 for her debut (and only published) novel The Bone People. Lucashenko began by reading from Hulme's poetry collection Strands (1993) and spoke about how Hulme was an unconventional author who didn't fit the mould of a Booker Prize winning author and chose to follow her own path. She recounted a time when she met Hulme at a writer's festival a few weeks after Lucashenko had published her first work. After this session I spoke with Lucashenko while she signed a copy of Too Much Lip (2018) for me. I told her how I read her novel Steam Pigs (1997) when I first came to Australia and how much it meant to me.

Author Sarah Krasnostein spoke about the influence of Joan Didion, who died 23 December 2021 at 87 years of age. Best known for Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1979), Play it as it Lays (1970) and The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), Didion was a keen observer and intellectual. Krasnostein described Didion's ability to express time and place in her writing, and how she captured California and the cultural shifts of the 1960s and 1970s. After the session Krasnostein signed a copy of her book The Believer (2021) for me.

To wrap up this session, Clem Bastow paid tribute to songwriter and lyricist Stephen Sondheim who passed away on 26 November 2021. Sondheim write the lyrics to West Side Story (1957) and is best known for his musicals Company (1970), Follies (1971), Sweeney Todd (1979), Into the Woods (1987) and Assassins (1990). Bastow spoke about how she has autism and she used echolalia to repeat words from Sondheim's songs over and over again. Bastow sang examples from various songs to showcase the wit and complexity of Sondheim's lyrics. She was brilliant, funny and entertaining. I reckon Sondheim would have been chuffed with this tribute. 

Friends, Romans, Countrymen: Great Oratory and Speechifying

My final session for the day was on oratory and the importance of great speeches. Laura Tingle was unable to emcee this session as she was busy with the next day's election, so ABC's Sarah Kanowski took on this role. 

The three speakers - Richard Fidler, Sisonke Msimang and Clare Wright - were asked to present a speech that resonated with them. Professor Clare Wright was first up, and she donned an apron featuring the words to Julia Gilliard's misogyny speech which became known as the 'apron of truth' and was worn by each speaker as they delivered their speech. 

Professor Wright delivered a speech by Vida Goldstein in 1903. She was the first woman to stand for Parliament. The speech she delivered had a lot to say about political parties (Goldstein was an independent) and about women's suffrage.  Wright explained how this speech was not written, but she had transcribed it from media reports at the time. There were some uncomfortable parts of this speech, particularly in relation to race, but as Wright explained people we admire not be wholly admirable when viewed with a contemporary lens. It was a timely speech, delivered the night before independent Zoe Daniel won the seat of Goldstein, named after Vida, who was never elected despite multiple attempts but paved the way for generations of women. 

Richard Fidler has a keen interest in the history of the Czech Republic and has recently published The Golden Maze, a biography of Prague. He delivered a speech originally given by Vaclav Havel, President of Czechoslovakia on New Year's Day 1990 just after he was elected. Havel was a playwright who became the first democratically elected President after the fall of communism. In this speech he spoke frankly about the dark days that preceded his election and the realities that the country is facing. Havel told his people that they cannot blame the past regime for all their woes as they were complicit in allowing that regime to continue. There were eerie parallels with a speech that could be given today, and we did not then know that 24 hours after Fidler shared this speech we would have our own regime change in Australia.  The full text of the speech is available online.

The final speech chosen by Sisonke Msimang was Sojourner Truth's 1851 address 'Ain't I a Woman?' delivered to the Women's Rights Convention. Truth was born into slavery and she eventually escaped to freedom where she became an abolitionist and human rights activist. When the women's suffrage movement was gaining momentum in America, Truth's speech was a reminder to white women that they cannot win their rights by oppressing black women. Msimang delivered this speech in a moving and empowering way. Again, this speech had contemporary resonance as women are still fighting for equal pay, status and we have such a long way to go in addressing racial inequality.

Thoughts on Day One

It was great to be back at the Sydney Writers Festival for the first time since 2019. The COVID-safe protocols allowed me to feel relatively safe attending such an event - although admittedly I avoided attending anything at Town Hall as I am not ready for that big a venue yet. I attended solo today, but my festival friend is joining me on Saturday and Sunday.

The set up at Carriageworks has improved so much since the first SWF was held there years ago, when there were acoustic issues and so many events were held at the nearby Seymour Centre. While I still miss having the festival at Walsh Bay, it was nice to have the improved Carriageworks venue. The centralised book signings, food trucks and Glebebooks shop were great.

It was a cold and wet day in Sydney. On my way in to Carriageworks for the festival, despite an umbrella and raincoat, there was no way to keep dry. But fortunately, I had put all my books inside a wet bag so they survived the weather. 

Books in my collection signed by authors today:

• Sean Kelly - The Game
• Sarah Krasnostein - The Believer
• Melissa Lucashenko - Too Much Lip
• Chloe Hooper - Bedtime Stories

Unfortunately I missed Evelyn Araluen, but I am sure I will see her at a future event.

Read more about my time at the Sydney Writers' Festival here:

• Day 1 - Includes Sean Kelly, Judith Brett, Jackie Huggins, Melissa Lucashenko, Sarah Krasnostein, Richard Fidler, Sisonke Msimang and Clare Wright
• Day 2 - Includes Barrie Cassidy, Jennifer Down, Hannah Kent, Garry Disher, Damon Galgut and Larissa Behrendt
• Day 3 - Includes Chris Masters, Kate McClymont, Nakkiah Lui, Marica Langton, Jane Caro and David Marr