Literary La Trobe

Readers love Helen Garner's three volumes of diaries, the apparent ease with which this brilliant writer skewers those who, barely disguised, are part of her life history. For Shannon Burns, writing a memoir about a difficult and chaotic childhood was an act of recovering flashes of memory: to go back is both necessary and dangerous. They talk to Sophie Cunningham about whether writing is an act of forgiveness and, if so, for whom? Recorded on 7th May, 2023.

One of the four pillars of the Albanese Government’s national cultural policy is ‘First Nations First’. What does this mean for Australian writing and its influence on other cultural practices? This panel discusses how to put first nations at the heart of Australian culture. Michael Donovan (Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), La Trobe University) Claire G Coleman (writer, poet, author of Terra Nullius) Jilda Andrews (Research Fellow, Australian National University) Chair: Neane Carter (solicitor and Aboriginal advocate) Recorded on 5th May, 2023.

In a year when Revive: National Cultural Policy is inviting us all to lift our game, it’s a brilliant opportunity to celebrate a decade of Stella: how it started, how it’s developed, and the future for Stella. Clare Wright (2014 Stella Prize Winner) Catherine Andrews (Stella Ambassador) Sarah Holland-Batt (2023 Stella Prize winner) Chair: Kirstin Ferguson Recorded on 7th May, 2023.

Is this the story Don Watson was always meant to write? It begins 50 years ago, at the fledgling La Trobe University where young people were fired up with passionate intensity and protesting the Vietnam War. It tracks the return from Vietnam of a man who would discover, in the isolation of Arnhem Land, how old and new, colonised and coloniser, rigid and adaptable could meet. Don Watson (author, 'The Passion of Private White') Chair: Professor Clare Wright (La Trobe University) Recorded on 6th May, 2023.

I’m not a journalist, I’m a poet.” Says the narrator of Cristos Tsiolkas’ novel ‘seven and a half’. Following on from the complex challenge of Damascus, which followed on from Barracuda and Merciless Gods, and the rip-roaring success of The Slap, novel number eight is the author’s ode to beauty. What is it that links all Tsiolkas’ books? Is this one his most personal, his most audacious, the one that’s impossible to pin down? Cristos Tsiolkas discusses beauty, writing, and the surprise of a new book. Chair: Bec Kavanagh (La Trobe University) Recorded on 6th May, 2023.

Is the moral outrage of an individual enough? What makes groups or institutions work? What can threaten their efficacy, and how do they help us care without despair? This panel features three writers whose work has shown the positive power of a well led, well organised, determined group. Paul Cleary (Investigative journalist) Simon Holmes a Court (Philanthropist) Richard Denniss (Economist, Australian Institute) Chair: Associate Professor Liz Conner (History, La Trobe University) Recorded on 5th May, 2023.

How have the past six decades of feminist activism shaped Australian politics? Who are the rebels, ratbags and renegades behind the revolution? What was it about the 1970s that made so-called women’s issues election issues? Why did it take another forty years from Gough Whitlam’s It’s Time speech for Julia Gillard’s Misogyny Speech to land with such paradigm-shifting force? The panel reflect on how the personal became political, and what happens when politics becomes personal. Michelle Arrow, (Professor of History, Macquarie University) Meredith Burgmann (Former President of the New South Wales Legislative Council) Michelle Ryan (Global Institute of Women’s Leadership) Chair: Frank Bongiorno (Professor of History, Australian National University) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 6th May, 2023

In which we pay our respects to literary elders very much present. A chance to recollect, rehash, rebel, reprove and reflect with Barry Jones and Thomas Kenneally, hosted by Clare Wright. Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 7th May, 2023

What is the role of documentary film-making in the process of truth-telling? Do we trust what we read in books more than what we see on our screens? How can script writers, producers and directors contribute to the conversations that we need to have - and need to have now. Indeed, do such screen practitioners determine the course of public debate though the very power of their medium? A star-studded panel discusses these hot-button issues. Tosca Looby (See What You Made Me Do, Strong Female Lead) Sally Aitken (The Pool) Phil Craig (former Commissioning Editor, ABC; Discovery Channel) Chair: Alex West (Head of Documentaries, Screen Australia) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 6th May, 2023

The success of the ‘Teal Independents’ was the breakthrough story of the 2022 Federal Election. How does a political aspirant decide to run as an independent? Is political independence a paradoxically collectivist ideal? What have Independents historically achieved, and will they change the face of Australia’s parliamentary democracy forever? Two former federal Independent MP’s, and unexpected ally and an unlikely contender discuss the ins, outs and also-rans of non-party politics. Cathy McGowan (Cathy Goes to Canberra, Monash Uni Press) Phil Cleary (Cleary Independent, A&U) Simon Holmes a Court (The Big Teal, Hardie Grant) Chair: Andrea Carson (Associate Professor of Politics, La Trobe University) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 6th May, 2023

Remember the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High? Well books for young adult readers went and grew up. While first love is still a YA staple, mental health, consent, substance abuse, gender and sexual identity and the climate emergency are all topics with which 12-17 year olds — and the authors who write for them — now grapple in fierce, funny and frank ways. Here to discuss why today’s YA has more in common with Sally Rooney than Judy Blume are three super popular authors. Biffy James, Completely Normal (and other Lies) (Hardie Grant) Briar Rolfe, Get Your Story Straight (Hachette) Alice Boyle, Dancing Barefoot (Text) Chair: Bec Kavanagh (Writer) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 7th May, 2023

It’s a full metal jungle out there. Still. Military action has continued to define the 21st century in a way that survivors of and peacemakers after the Great Wars could never have imagined. Discussing past and present states of armed conflict, human rights, international diplomacy and hopes for resolution are specialists in Asian, Indo-Pacific and European theatres of war. Elaine Pearson (Chasing Rights and Wrongs, Simon and Schuster) Phil Craig (Finest Hour, Simon and Schuster) Dr Federica Caso (International Relations, La Trobe University) Chair: Associate Professor Bec Strating (Director, La Trobe Asia) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 7th May, 2023

Memoir has become one of the most popular genres of the literary marketplace, competing with Biography and Autobiography as forms of life writing. Why is memoir so powerful? Why does it appear to speak to the present moment in ways that other categories of non-fiction don’t? How much of a life do you need to have lived to write a memoir? What are the ethics of writing about your own life (and the lives of your family, friends and lovers) without the accountability of footnotes? Here to discuss the politics and popularity of memoir are three recent practitioners of the artform. Catherine Deveny (True North, Black Inc) Shannon Burns (Childhood, Text) Akuch Anyieth (Unknown, Text), Chair: Dr Yves Rees, (History, La Trobe University) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 6th May, 2023

The perennially popular account of David and Goliath is understood as a tale of courage, faith and overcoming seemingly impossible odds. What does a contemporary writer do when faced with a story of biblical proportions? Three of today’s most insightful thinkers bear witness to an epic struggle between adversaries with wildly disparate power and resources. Antony Loewenstein (The Palestine Laboratory, Scribe) Paul Cleary (Title Fight, Black Inc.) Joelle Gergis (Humanity’s Moment, Black Inc.) Chair: Associate Professor Liz Conor (History, La Trobe University) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 6th May, 2023

What is the role of fiction in the process of truth-telling? Do stories of past injustices and atrocities have the power to heal present and future generations? Who has licence to give voice to a nation’s colonial past? Three award-winning novelists discuss the redemptive power of fiction writing. Jock Serong (The Settlement, Text) Claire G. Coleman (Enclave, Hachette) Paul Daley (Jesustown, A&U) Chair: Dr Kelly Gardiner (English and Creative Arts, La Trobe University) Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 5th May, 2023.

To lean in or to lean out? That is the question many women are asking themselves in ‘post’-Covid times of exhaustion, overload and burnout. Does leadership require pushing through the inferno or stepping back from the brink? What does solidarity look like in the Zoom Age? Are solutions to the problems of persistent gender inequality structural or psychological, individual or industrial? And why are we still talking about this stuff??? An executive coach, a journalist and a unionist discuss the state of feminist affairs. Celeste Liddle, Mothers and Others (Pan MacMillan) TBC Kirstin Ferguson, Head and Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership (Penguin 2023) Kristine Ziwica, Leaning Out (Hardie Grant) Chair: Richard Denniss, Executive Director, Australian Institute Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 7th May, 2023.

Is the Australian justice system broken? Was it ever sound when it comes to the discipline and punishment of First Nations’ people? What can history and lived experience tell us about the relationship between law, politics, colonialism and social control? And can legislation itself be the instrument of reconciliation? An historian, a criminal defence lawyer, a First Nations’ elder and a legal scholar discuss the institutions and applications of ‘justice’. Aunty Kella Robinson, Wemba Wemba elder and cultural adviser to the Victorian Koori Court Kate Auty, former magistrate and vice chancellor’s fellow at the University of Melbourne Russell Marks, criminal defence lawyer and author of Black Lives, White Law: Locked Up and Locked Out in Australia Megan Davis, First Nations legal scholar and co-author of the Uluru Statement from the Heart Neane Carter (host), solicitor at Terri Janke and Company Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 6th May, 2023.

I have a dream. Dream large. Blue sky dreaming. A dream come true. You may say I’m a dreamer. We ask four extraordinary thinkers to dream on. Professor Megan Davis – constitutional lawyer, co-chair of the national campaign to recognise the Voice to Parliament, author of Everything You Need to Know About the Uluru Statement. Professor Frank Bongiorno – whose new political history of Australia, Dreamers and Schemers, is about to be released by La Trobe Uni Press, an imprint of Black Inc. Akuch Anyieth - Sudanese refugee, author of the memoir Unknown, award-winning domestic violence campaigner. Dr Joelle Gergis - ANU climate scientist and author of the new book Humanity’s Moment. With a special live performance by actor, Kate Atkinson, reading from the work of award-winning author and La Trobe graduate, Cate Kennedy. Recorded at the Bendigo Writers Festival on 5th May, 2023.