The guest writers will give free talks on Saturday and Sunday of

Back to Booktown. 

They will also be available to sign copies of their books.

Writers and Publishers Talks

Marquee on Fraser - Free Event

Saturday Morning
10.00- 11.00	11.00- 12.30
Morning Coffee with the Author Margaret Simons, Chaired by Nigel Krauth sponsored by the Victorian Writers Centre	Writing Fiction: challenges and delights Sonya Hartnett, Stefan Laszczuk, Glenda Guest - chaired by Nigel Krauth

Saturday Afternoon
12.30 - 1.30	1.30 - 2.30	2.30 - 4.00
Books Change Lives Don’t they? Toni Jordan and Arnold Zable Join award-winning authors and members of Melbourne PEN talking about books that have changed their lives Chaired by Anthony Lawrence Sponsored by Melbourne PEN	Meet the Author Sonya Hartnett Chaired by Jane Johnston, Bond University	The La Trobe University Discussion Who Owns the Past? Margaret Simons, Arnold Zable, Nigel Krauth. Chair Rachel Buchanan, Media Studies La Trobe University whose history-memoir, 'The Parihaka Album: lest we forget' was published in 2009

 

Sunday Morning
10.00- 11.00	11.00- 12.30
Beginning a writing career: two perspectives by first novelist of different generations Stefan Laszczuk, Glenda Guest. Chair: Nigel Krauth	Australian book publishing and the formation of a Book Industry Advisory Group: The future and outlook for publishing in Australia. Maree McCaskill, Australian Publisher’s Association; Louise Adler, Publisher Melbourne University Press; Greg Brown, National Sales Manager, McPherson’s Printing Group; Chair of the Commonwealth Book Industry Advisory Group. Chair Andrew Reeves Sponsored by CAL, Copyright Agency Limited

Sunday Afternoon
12.30 - 1.30	1.30 - 2.30	2.30 - 4.00
Mr Malcolm Fraser and his biographer Margaret Simons in conversation. Chaired by Dr Alice Garner. ARC Postdoctoral Fellow. History Program. School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University Sponsored by MUP	Meet the Author Arnold Zable Chaired by Professor Richard Freadman, La Trobe University, English Program. Sponsored by the Victorian Writers’ Centre	Writing Endings: authors read their most famous ending and comment on them. Sonya Hartnett, Stefan Laszczuk, Margaret Simons, Arnold Zable, Glenda Guest. Chaired by Nigel Krauth

The 2010 Guest Writers and Publsihers at Back to Booktown

 

Louise Adler

Louise Adler is the CEO & Publisher of Melbourne University Publishing. She is a member of the Monash University Council, the Board of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and a Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival Council Between 1977 and 1987 she taught English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and the University of Melbourne. In 1988 she became the editor of Australian Book Review. In 1994 she became the Arts & Entertainment Editor for The Age. In 1996 she joined the ABC’s Radio National as the presenter of Arts Today. In 1999 Louise Adler was appointed the inaugural Deputy Director (Academic & Research) at the Victorian College of the Arts.

 

Greg Brown

Greg Brown is the Nationals Sales Manager, McPherson's Printing Group. He has worked in the industry for 27 years all of which at McPherson’s Printing Group. He has held various positions in the business from assisting production, quality control, estimating, customer service and co-ordination, sales and sales management. he worked at the Maryborough manufacturing site for four years, Blackburn manufacturing site (no longer a McPherson’s site) for four years, Sydney sales office for over two years and Mulgrave manufacturing site for sixteen years.. He is a member of McPherson’s Printing Group executive team.

 

Rachel Buchanan

Rachel Buchanan writes history, journalism, short fiction and poetry.

She is the author of a new history-memoir, The Parihaka Album: lest we forget (Huia, 2009) which explores Maori and Pakeha history making about Parihaka, a non-violent Maori settlement that was invaded by the New Zealand Crown in 1881.

In 2009 she wrote poems and prose for The Anatomy Lesson, Geoffrey Ricardo's limited edition Artist Book. Rachel was on staff at The Age between 1993 and 2002 and still writes for the paper. She teaches journalism at La Trobe.

 

Malcolm Fraser

The Political Memoirs by Malcolm Fraser and Margaret Simons

‘The great task of statesmanship is to apply past lessons to new situations, to draw correct analogies to understand and act upon present forces, to recognise the need for change.’ Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser is one of the most interesting and possibly most misunderstood of Australia’s Prime Ministers. In this part memoir and part authorised biography, Fraser at the age of 79 years talks about his time in public life.

From the Vietnam War to the Dismissal and his years as Prime Minister, through to his concern in recent times for breaches in the Rule of Law and harsh treatment of refugees, Fraser emerges as an enduring liberal, constantly reinterpreting core values to meet the needs of changing times.

Written in collaboration with journalist Margaret Simons, Malcolm Fraser’s political memoirs trace the story of a shy boy who was raised to be seen and not heard, yet grew to become one of the most persistent, insistent and controversial political voices of our times.

The book offers insight into Malcolm Fraser’s substantial achievements. He was the first Australian politician to describe Australia’s future as multicultural, and his federal government was the first to pass Aboriginal Land Rights and Freedom of Information legislation, also establishing the Human Rights Commission.

After his parliamentary career, Fraser continued to be an important player in public life, playing a key role in persuading the USA Congress to impose sanctions on South Africa as part of the battle against apartheid. He was also the founding Chairman of CARE Australia, one of our largest aid agencies.

 

Richard Freadman

 Richard Freadman is Professor of Engliahs at La Trobe University. His publications include Threads of Life: Autobiography and the will (University of Chicago Press, 2001) and Shadow of Doubt: My Father and Myself (Melbourne: Bystander, 2003)

 

 

Alice Garner

Alice Garner is an ARC postdoctoral research fellow in History at La Trobe University. She has published two books, one in French history (A Shifting Shore, Cornell University Press), the other a memoir of her student years (The Student Chronicles, MUP). She is also known as an actor and musician, and cofounded advocacy group Actors for Refugees.

 

Glenda Guest

 Glenda Guest’s novel Siddon Rock won the 2010 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, for Best First Book and is long listed for the Miles Franklin Prize.  Siddon Rock was published in February 2009 by Random House to excellent critical acclaim, and uses the literary mode of magic realism to examine what goes on under the skin of an isolated country town mid-last century. Other published work includes short stories and poetry. Glenda was the literary editor and sub-editor of artLook, Canberra’s arts monthly, and wrote literature and theatre reviews for several arts magazines. She completed a PhD in creative writing in 2005, and teaches at Macquarie University.

 Glenda grew up in the wheatbelt of Western Australia, and has lived in many places in Australia. She now lives in the Blue Mountains , where she is writing her next book.

 

Sonya Hartnett

Sonya Hartnett is the internationally acclaimed author of several novels, including Thursday's Child, winner of the 2002 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, and Forest, winner of the 2002 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Older Readers. In 2003, her adult novel, Of a Boy, won The Age Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award.

In 2000 and again in 2003, Sonya Hartnett has been named one of The Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelists of the Year. Her work has been published internationally with editions available in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway and Denmark.

In 2004, The Silver Donkey was published to great critical acclaim. It has won the 2005 Brisbane Courier Mail award for young readers and was CBC Book of the Year (Young readers) in 2005.

Surrender was published in 2005. It was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Award and the Aurealis Award - Fantasy Division in 2005.

In 2008 Sonya was the recipient of The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The prize is awarded to authors, illustrators, narrators and/or promoters of reading whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid Lindgren.  It is the first time this award has gone to an Australian.

 

Jane Johnston

Jane Johnston is Associate Professor of Communications and Media at Bond University on the Gold Coast. She has written and co-edited several professional reference and university text books which have been widely adopted in Australia, the Pacific and Asia, including Public Relations: Theory and Practice (2009 - in its third edition). 

She has been following the success of Clunes Booktown since its inception and is thrilled to finally make it along for the 2010 event.

 

Nigel Krauth

Nigel Krauth is a multi-award winning novelist. He has won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award and the NSW Sate Literary Award for Fiction (The Christina Stead Prize) and was shortlisted the Age Book of the Year Award. His books include Matilda, My Darling (co-winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award), The Bathing-Machine Called the Twentieth Century, JF Was Here (winner of the New South Wales State Literary Award), and Freedom Highway. He is a regular reviewer for the Australian literary pages, runs the Griffith University creative writing course, co-edits the international jounral TEXT and has been a member of the judging panels of many of Australia's top literary awards.

 

Stefan Laszczuk

Stefan Laszczuk's latest novel I Dream of Magda won the 2007 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and was praised by The Age as 'astonishingly humorous and assured'.

His first novel, The Goddamn Bus of Happiness, was the winner of the South Australia Festival of Literature Award for an unpublished manuscript and was published by Wakefield Press in 2004 .

His collection of short stories The New Cage won the S.A Writers' Centre Short Story Award in 2002. He has also had his work published in various anthologies. He completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide in 2009 and is currently working on another novel and co-writing a play.

 

Anthony Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence has published fifteen books of poetry and a novel, and has won major literary awards including the Judith Wright Calanthe Award (Queensland Premier s Poetry Prize), the Kenneth Slessor Prize (NSW Premier s Literary Awards), the Harri Jones Memorial Award, the Gwen Harwood Memorial Prize, the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, the Newcastle Poetry Prize and the Claudio Alcorso Award. His most recent book of poems is Bark (UQP 2008). A book-length poem, The Welfare of My Enemy is forthcoming. He lives in Newcastle.

 

Maree McCaskill

Maree McCaskill has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Publishers Association (APA) since 2006. The APA is the peak industry body for Australian book, journal and electronic publishers.

 

 

 

 

Margaret Simons

Margaret Simons is an award-winning freelance journalist and the author of seven books and numerous essays and articles. She is also a part-time lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology.

Her most recent work includes The Content Makers - Understanding the Future of the Australian Media (2007), and Faith, Money and Power - What the Religious Revival Means for Politics (2007).

Simons has been a finalist in the 2007 Walkley Awards for her essay Buried in the Labyrinth, published by Griffith Review. Her other works include the prize-winning examination of the Hindmarsh Island bridge affair, The Meeting of the Waters, (2003). She also wrote Latham's World, an investigation into the then Leader of the Opposition, Mark Latham, published in the lead up to the 2004 federal election.

Simons is presently working with former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser on his memoirs, to be published by University of Melbourne Press in 2009.

Margaret Simons website

 

Arnold Zable

Arnold Zable is an award winning writer, storyteller, educator, and human rights advocate. His books include Jewels and Ashes, (1991) which won five Australian literary awards, and depicts his journey to Poland to trace his ancestry. Zable’s best selling novel, Café Scheherazade, (2001) depicts the lives of former refugees who now meet in a coffee shop in a seaside suburb in Melbourne. The Fig Tree, (2002) is a book of true stories set in Greece, Eastern Europe, inner Melbourne and outback Australia. The Fig Tree CD, a musical companion to the book, won the National Folk Recording award in 2004. His latest novel Sea of Many Returns, (2008) is a profound meditation on displacement and exile — a story that affirms the enduring resonance of the Odyssey for voyagers of all times.

Zable is the author of numerous feature articles, columns, short stories, reviews and essays. His work regularly appears in The Age and a range of journals. Zable speaks and writes with passion about memory and history, displacement and community. He has conducted numerous writing workshops and has been a visiting lecturer in creative writing at Deakin, Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, La Trobe and Victoria universities.

Arnold Zable's website

 

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