Within a trance (Day Three - July 18, 2015)

Tom Keneally, Sharon Olds, Alexis Wright, Peter Goldsworthy, Eileen Chong, Anthony Lawrence, Tracy Farr, Barry Hill and Judith Beveridge – by some monumental alignment of the stars, we had the great fortune to hear from all of these writers on Saturday the 18^th, in a string of consecutive sessions at La Trobe University’s Mildura Campus in the Brian Grogan Lecture Theatre. In a way, the close proximity of the events made for a more intensive experience listening to the writers, and in a way, this was better and probably the point of arranging it thus. It was a procedure that both demanded and secured our acute attention, and rewarded us with an abundance of brilliantly-delivered wordsmithery in return.

It’s hard to know where to begin in describing the day, so I’ll start with what I found to be the most poignant aspect. To hear an excerpt of The Swan Book along with the backstory of how the novel came about – to paraphrase, it was conceived when Alexis Wright was attempting to focus on something other than John Howard whilst he was in power – spoken aloud in the author’s voice, sung new life into a story that already had so much to offer the reader. Fiction and poetry readings were also performed by Tom Keneally, Sharon Olds, Eileen Chong and Peter Goldsworthy, similarly produced a thrilling and fascinating transformation of the original text.

Anthony Lawrence, Tracy Farr and Peter Goldsworthy provided greater perspective on their respective writing processes and the spheres of language within which they work. I was, for the first time, acquainted with Barry Hill, whose anecdotes about travel, his views on war, Gandhi and Tagore both thrilled and stunned.

Witnessing the inaugural Indigenous Student Writing Awards, sponsored by PEN Melbourne and presented by Alexis Wright, was a particularly moving moment and made one think, as Sharon Olds would later enunciate it with such astuteness, “Imagine if we could keep on going with this kindness to one another”.

In terms of the Festival, it was probably my favourite of the four days. I drove home feeling thoroughly stimulated, as though I had been placed within a trance, and yet sensing with perfect clarity.