February 11th, 2025Booked: from Garner to Georgiadis at Clunes Booktown
Helen Garner, Costa Georgiadis, Clare Wright, Nicole Chvastek and Heather Ewart are just a few of the thought-provoking special guests set to feature in discussions at next month’s Clunes Booktown Festival.
Acclaimed Aussie writer Helen Garner will discuss her latest book, The Season, in which she follows her grandson’s under-16 footy team.
In typical Garner style, this book explores many themes – ageing, family, masculinity, and the epic theatre of Australian football. Her sharp observations will be drawn out, in conversation, by author and critic, Sean O’Beirne.
In panel discussion, author Kate Grenville (Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place), author Jane Harrison (The Visitors), and historians Clare Wright (Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions) and Amanda Laugesen (Australia in 100 Words) will explore the reality behind Australia’s colonial myths in an enlightening session with Kingston’s own Professor Barry Golding.
In another session three experts in the environmental field – Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis, Milkwood’s Kirsten Bradley, and permaculture co-founder David Holmgren – will discuss the challenges of our rapidly changing climate and how we can adapt, not only our gardens but also various aspects of our lifestyles, in an increasingly uncertain world.
Television presenter Heather Ewart is set to spill the beans on her travels around Australia while hosting ABC TV’s Back Roads and writing her new book, The Great Aussie Road Trip, in conversation with travel writer Tim Richards.
Heather promises to reveal some of her favourite hidden gems, essential preparations, and personal tips for getting the most out of journeying around Australia.
That’s just a snapshot of what’s on the festival program taking place over March 22-23, with organisers of the big bibliophiles’ bash aiming to attract diverse audiences and highlighting genre spanning soft crime to one of the latest big book trends – ‘romantasy’.
While the genre that meshes fantasy and romance is not totally new, online audiences in particular have been identified as driving its current popularity, Clunes Booktown program manager Angela Crocombe says.
Accordingly, organisers of this year’s festival have included a romantic panel in the lineup to highlight Aussie ‘romantasy’ writers.
Authors Alexandra Almond (Thoroughly Disenchanted), Keshe Chow (The Girl with No Reflection), and Lili Wilkinson (Unhallowed Halls) will discuss the genre with agent Alex Adsett.
Along with author talks, panel discussions, and workshops, more than 120 book stalls will offer up tens of thousands of new, second hand, and collectible books.
The jam-packed weekend will also feature an Historical Walking Tour of Clunes, a Poetry Slam, an immersive Kids Village, and the return of Clunes’ legendary Hay Bale Maze.
And film buffs will be in for a treat too, with a screening of the dystopian classic Mad Max in Clunes’ historic central garage, now known as The Tin Shed, where part of the film was actually shot.
Ticket sales have opened with more details on the festival website.
Words: Eve Lamb. Image: Supplied
