The Words in Winter Festival returns to Daylesford this August, where a mix of LGBTIQA+, First Nations, local and visiting writers will explore the theme ‘connection of the heart’.

With over 30 events featuring poetry readings, children’s events, workshops, and author’s talks, the festival promises something for people of all tastes and appetites for interaction.

Set to run from Augst 23-25, Words in Winter is a literary and arts festival held in August in the Hepburn Shire and surrounding districts.

It’s a celebration of words, stories and ideas in all their forms shared by locals and visiting presenters through readings, poetry, theatre, music, talks, workshops, author talks, and exhibitions.

Among programmed events, “Clean Pages, Filthy Ink” is a spoken word poetry reading that delves into the intricate themes of cultural identity and political uprisings.

Through powerful verses and vivid imagery, Antonio Montaine explores the complexities of navigating cultural heritage in a world marred by social and political turbulence.

This performance promises to provoke thought, stir emotions, and ignite conversations about the intersections of personal identity and collective struggle.

WORDS in Winter is coming up soon – end of August – so I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and my own love of words.
I learnt to read and write when I was pretty young. Not my doing as much as my parents. As a little kid, Dad used to read to me before I went to sleep but he generally fell asleep before he got more than about a page done, and I realised if I ever wanted to get to the end of the book, I had to learn to read myself. So I did.
Mum had been a teacher after leaving school and, while she had to give up work once she married, taught me how to write, and even how to write my name in cursive. I tried doing that at school in prep but was told that would have to wait another couple of years. Mum was ahead of her/my time.
At primary school I had some great teachers but the librarian was the best. She encouraged me to read so many books and to write to the authors. I got quite a few letters back which was really encouraging to a young girl.
In high school I joined the editorial team of the annual school magazine, subbing work sent in by other students. I continued writing to authors, snail mail, and getting return correspondence. I also took on work experience at the then Frankston Standard when I was in form 3 (year 9 now) and realised I wanted to be a journalist. I tried to get into RMIT’s journalism course but failed, instead heading to Monash Uni for a Bachelor of Arts. Actually, it was the Chisholm Institute of Technology with campuses at Frankston and Caulfield. I had not done either maths or a language in my final year of secondary schooling so could not gain entry into a “real” university.
I was pretty happy when Monash took over the institute many years later and I could claim my new degree status. Other students who went to the “real” Monash were not so pleased. But I digress.
After uni I went for cadetships at the Herald Sun and The Age. Not a chance. Both their written tests asked which relative you had working at the paper. Nepotism at its finest. Part of the journalism world.
But never fear. The work experience, which I had continued ad hoc, was going to pay off with a cadetship coming up at the Frankston Standard. Hmmm. Nope. The daughter of a woman working there got the position. But I did find myself at the Southern Peninsula Gazette. Finally.
The rest is history. Gigs at papers including The Cairns Post, The News in Karratha, The Centralian Advocate in Alice Springs, The Courier Mail in Brisbane, Quest Newspapers in Logan, and even TNT magazine in London, before moving to Glenlyon. Then it was The Advertiser in Bendigo, The Courier in Ballarat, The Advocate in Daylesford and finally, The Local.
And I still love words. Hearing them from people I am interviewing, crafting them into a story, dreaming up a headline or an intro, seeing them printed on the page. It’s a lot of fun and also a privilege – sharing lives and stories and events. Sometimes helping people. Sometimes just knowing it’s a great read.
Hopefully you can get along to an event at Words in Winter. Like-minded people sharing words with each other and their audiences. I know there is a trend to use acronyms and abbreviations, short texts to communicate with friends, but there is nothing like hitting the last full stop on a really great story. Or even an average column. Just sayin’…

Words: Narelle Groenhout

Teenagers who are part of theatre company Inside Out Dance Theatre in Daylesford, will take to the stage showcasing their passion and acting talents in a special production for Words in Winter.
The Day the School Went Under was written by director Jen Bray with the help of the students after improvising scenarios.
Two of the members, Dru and Jaime, have been attending classes for more than a decade. They will join fellow cast members Dante, Wren, Arlo, Alexander and Billy when they present their comedy play described as The Breakfast Club meets The Poseidon Adventure.
Two performances will be held on Saturday, August 26, at the Daylesford Town Hall. Book at Trybooking.com/CJYUG

In the 1990s, Em Ireland ran open mic events, combining poetry and music. Now, as director of the Words in Winter event, Em has loved calling in poets and friends “from back in the day” to be a part of the community festival, held on August 25, 26 and 27.
“Words in Winter is all about our community and its poets and authors, and people from further away, coming in to show how writing and poetry can be exciting.”
Em said she had worked on growing the festival and a gala launch would be held on the Saturday night with media legends Jon Faine and Marieke Hardy, at the Palais- Hepburn.
“I really do hope everyone comes to honour Jon Faine on Saturday, I am sure all of us would have had a chat to him on his radio show about bushfires or potholes over the past decade or so.
“It will be a gorgeous event and I really like the idea of the community coming together for these festivals. They can be honouring our potato farmers, our goats, our Swiss Italian heritage…our community is just so supportive.
“And it is really important that we get out from behind books, into a room and talking about them.”
Em said the festival started on Friday, August 25, the same day as Wear Purple Day, and that had been incorporated with author Erin Riley coming from Sydney to talk about gender diversity.
On the Saturday, there were many events from Women to the Front brunching, to workshops and poetry readings at venues including Paradise Books, Daylesford Hotel, Radius Art Gallery and Cliffy’s.
There are also events at Creswick, Trentham and Maryborough with free readings in the shire’s libraries and shadow puppetry performances.
Words in Winter was started by David Hall and his late wife Lorelle in 2001. Link: www.wordsinwinter.com

It may be brrrisk out but in The Palais, Hepburn things will likely be pretty cosy as the venue hosts this month’s Words in Winter Gala with special guest Jon Faine.

Organisers say it’s a top opportunity to sit back, be entertained and support the community event that gets started from 6pm on Saturday, August 26.

The warming winter special event will feature Marieke Hardy in conversation with Jon Faine, and music by Jarrah Olive, The Bedridden – David M Lewis, Alex Miller & Emma Rassmusen: the world’s only muppet punk trio, plus Poet Sean M Whelan.

Doors: 6pm

7pm – 7.20pm: Jarrah Olive (solo acoustic)

7.30pm – 8.20pm: In Conversation with Jon Faine hosted by Marieke Hardy

8.30pm – 8.40pm: Performance Poet – Sean M Whelan

8.40pm – 9.30pm: The Bedridden (three piece) feat. Dave M Lewis, Emma Razz & Alex Miller

Words: Donna Kelly

Jon Faine left the ABC after 20 years as morning radio host in September 2019 – just a few months before Covid hit.

Used to a busy life, he had plenty lined up. First there were publishers knocking at the door looking for a memoir – to which he said no.

“I told them I was not going to leave a job I loved and immediately start reliving it, I wanted to look forward through the windscreen, not into the rearview mirror.”

A few gave up but eventually Jon agreed to write a “thinly disguised memoir” about a disputed deceased estate – with materials he had been collecting for four decades.

The book, Apollo & Thelma, A True Tall Tale, published last year, is the story of the Mighty Apollo, a strongman and circus performer and his sister, Thelma, the publican at Top Springs in the NT for more than 20, who died in 1981.

To tell their story, Jon says, he must tell some of his. But back to Covid.

“I had been collecting materials for this story for 40 years and whenever I found stuff that was relevant I put it in this box and tucked it away for later. Or I might meet someone I thought could add to it and would put in a cassette in those days. I had a lot of oral history. And it was one of those backburner things I could do when I retired.

“Eventually when I did leave the ABC I had a number of things lined and then because ofr Covid they all collapsed. There was one time when I had absolutely nothing in my diary except a dentist’s appointment. That was it for the rest of my life and for someone who has been really busy that is actually quite confronting. I don’t mind telling you I got a bit miserable and felt sorry for myself and retreated into my shed where I started pulling things apart – I play with cars.

“But after a week or two I gave myself a kick up the arse, told myself to get a grip and to find things to replace the ones that had vanished. So I climbed up a ladder, pulled out the box and started going through it. I thought if I am ever going to do it, now is the perfect time, and if not now, when. So I got myself an office at the Abbotsford Convent and put in a second standup desk and acomputer and I used to lock myself in the room. The offices there are the old nun’s bedrooms and the walls are about a million metres thick and they are absolutely silent. Just read things, whole lots of books and interviewed people over the phone to fill in the gaps and it was very therapeutic. It was the opposite of what I used to do and for someone whose entire working life had been talking to people all week it was pretty different and probably good for me in hindsight.”

Jon said he delivered his first draft to his publisher who read it and said the first third was fine but then it fell apart. That was when Jon’s father died. The second draft was returned with the comment that the first two thirds were good but then…and that was when Jon’s mother died. Both were in their 90s “and it was horrible but it’s what happened”.

Jon was also told to give more of himself in the book which he found difficult as a private person and very much in charge during his radio work of how much he shared of his personal life. But he says publishers exist to save authors from themselves and editors “to tell you are not as good as you think you are”. “Once a book is printed it can’t be fine tuned – fresh eyes are vital.”

Jon said he was happy with the finished book but Apollo’s sons and Thelma’s nephews are not despite being interviewed on the record. Apollo, says Jon from his many interviews and personal knowledge was extremely vain, and Thelma, who he never met, was widely known in the 50s, 60s and 70s as a racist redneck.

“The sons are not happy with the final product. They view their father and aunt differently to everybody else. I describe their father in very complimentary terms but also as vain and they are furious that I have sullied his memory, yet he was the vainest person I have ever met. Families are complicated but I am really sad about that. I asked the oldest son if he would launch the book and he said no, he couldn’t do it.”

Jon, who also wrote a travel book about journeys with his son back in 2012, From Here To There, said he had no plans for another book but “you never say never”.

Currently he is working half-time at the University of Melbourne and “pretty much working harder than I have ever been”.

At 67 he says he is too busy and young to retire and it’s also not a good idea to go from “100 miles at hour to zero – a lot of people who retire are miserable”.

He left the ABC, a lifestyle, because he was tired of waking up at 4.15am and also wanted to choose his own time of stepping away. “Some people never recover from that shock when they get tapped on the shoulder. I never wanted to be one of those and I am quite saddened by what is happening at the ABC now but that is someone else’s problem.”

Jon is the guest speaker at Words in Winter and will be in conversation with Marieke Hardy at The Palais-Hepburn on Saturday, August 26.

He first met Marieke at her grandfather Frank Hardy’s funeral, just one of the many stories in his book, but said he had talked many times since. As to their August conversation, Jon said he had no wish to try and decide where Marieke would take that – “it could be as unstructured as my mind or as creative as hers”.

“Marieke is going to interrogate me and anyone who has been on the other side of a conversation with Marieke would be very brave to predict where it might go and I am not that brave. I have know her a very long time, she was just a teenager at the funeral, but then to reconnect in her glittered, celebrated media life and to host her in the ABC studio many, many times over the years is nothing short of a delight. When they said would you come and speak at our festival and we will ask Marieke as well, I just thought how wonderful that would be. I am really looking forward to me.”

Jon said he was also a regular visitor to “your delightful neck of the words as long as I can remember” and Hepburn was a go-to destination for holidays.

“So also to be invited to come and speak in a community that has been so consistently a place we have visited is just lovely and it doesn’t get much better.”

“These regional festivals are a really important part of the cultural life of a town or regional or state and they happen all over the place. They are a wonderful celebration of your community and what it has to offer and it is great to be asked to be invited to me a small part of it.” Link: www.wordsinwinter.com