2012 writers tent
sponsored by Better read than dead
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11:00am Performance PoetryJoin our local and nationally recognised poets as they bring the tent to life with their high-energy poetry. 11:30am The Short Story AwardsThe Newtown Neighbourhood Centre hosts an annual writing competition entitled, The Inner West: A Taste of Our Community. Here the winners are announced and get to read their stories. 
11:45am Nikki GemmellNikki Gemmell shocked the world in 2003 with her anonymously published novel, The Bride Stripped Bare. Now nearly a decade later, Nikki’s new book, With My Body, is an intensely personal tale of sexual awakening as well as one wife’s story about every woman’s marriage. In conversation with editor Anna Valdinger, Nikki discusses the impact on her life of ”The Bride”, her return to Australia, and why she was tempted to again expose her innermost self in With My Body.
12:30pm Who runs the country -- the government or the markets?Barack Obama couldn't stop Standard and Poor's downgrading America's credit rating and in Europe the Greek government is hostage to debt. In his new book, Looking for the Light on the Hill, former Rudd speechwriter and policy adviser Troy Bramston argues Labor needs to refresh its values, philosophy and purpose for the modern era. Ross Gittins is Economics Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and author of The Happy Economist, a book that argues for a new way of measuring economic success. In this session chair Linda Funnell will explore both authors' new books and ask them to confront the difficult question of whether the economy is driving politics or if politics is driving the economy.
1:30pm Tim FlanneryFormer Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, is one of Australia’s leading writers and thinkers. He is an outspoken commentator on climate change and the environment, and in his new book, Among the Islands, he tells how, twenty-five years ago, a young curator of mammals from the Australian Museum in Sydney set out to research the fauna of the Pacific Islands, and takes us on an enthralling journey through some of the most diverse and spectacular environments on earth.
2:15pm Kate GrenvilleKate Grenville is one of Australia’s most popular writers. Her new book Sarah Thornhill, is the story of the youngest child of the family at the heart of Kate’s 2005 novel The Secret River. Sarah is born in 1816, her father an ex-convict who’s made good in the new colony of Australia. Three hundred acres, a fine stone house, the money rolling in – William Thornhill is a man who’s re-invented himself. As he tells his daughter, he never looks back, and Sarah grows up learning not to ask about the past.
3:00pm Peter Fitzsimons Peter Fitzsimons is the biggest selling Australian non-fiction author of the last ten years with his compelling biographies of Nancy Wake, Kim Beazley and Steve Waugh resonating with the public. His historical writing includes Tobruk, Kokoda, Batavia and his new book Mawson, published to coincide with the 100-year centenary of Mawson’s departure, is packed full of staggering tales of survival and ambition. Join Peter Fitzsimons as he presents us with a meticulously researched, highly moving and very personal account of the harrowing situations faced by Antarctic explorers.
3:45pm Lisa PryorIn A Small Book About Drugs, Lisa Pryor argues that most people who use recreational drugs have not had their lives destroyed and aren’t living on the street, but discussion about drug policy inevitable ends in death, addiction and incarceration. Here, in conversation with Julian Morrow, Pryor offers an intelligent and personal look at the complex issue of recreational drug use and argues that the skewed nature of the debate has worsened, rather than fixed, many of the very real problems drug use can cause.
4:30pm Radical SydneyIn Radical Sydney Terry Irving & Rohan Cahill have written tales of idealism, subversion, insubordination and uprising that tell the story of Sydney’s rich and diverse history.In conversation with Danielle Chiaverini from the Politics Society of Sydney University, they explore the rich characters, street protests and the rollicking past that made Sydney what it is today.
5:15pm Close