The Mountain Writers Festival will hold its first event – a lunch in Macedon featuring Victorian writers – on Saturday March 26.
This literary feast brings together esteemed writers Tony Birch, Evelyn Araluen, Tom Griffiths and Sophie Cunningham.
“We’re thrilled to finally be able to stage our first event,” said festival director, local author Sonia Orchard.
“It’s been a tough couple of years for everyone in the arts and especially those of us trying to hold events, so it’s fantastic to be able to announce this lunch,” Ms Orchard said.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the timing – Victoria is emerging from the worst of the pandemic, and we know that people just can’t wait to get out and experience great arts events!”
Themed ‘Place, Story, Nature’, the Mountain Writers Festival focuses entirely on writing that explores the relationship between people and the environment. The first full festival is expected to be held in Macedon on the weekend of November 5-6.
Meanwhile, the inaugural event on March 26 will be a two-course lunch at the Macedon Wine Collective.
Part of the Macedon Ranges Autumn Festival, the lunch brings four stellar and engaging writers together to discuss nature, story and place.
MEET THE AUTHORS
Tony Birch is the author of three novels: the bestselling The White Girl; Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award.
Evelyn Araluen is the author of Drop Bear. She is a poet, researcher, and co-editor of Overland literary journal. Her widely published criticism, fiction and poetry have been awarded the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Fellowship, and a Neilma Sydney Literary Fund Travel Grant. Born and raised on Dharug Country, she is a descendant of the Bundjalung Nation.
Tom Griffiths is a historian whose books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics and journalism. His books include Hunters and Collectors, Forests of Ash: An Environmental History, Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica, Living with Fire and The Art of Time Travel: Historians and their Craft. He writes for Inside Story, Griffith Review, Meanjin and Australian Book Review, and is Emeritus Professor of History at the Australian National University. He has lived in the Macedon Ranges since 2018.
Sophie Cunningham is the author of seven books including City of Trees: Essays on Life, Death and the need for a Forest. Sophie is also a teacher, mentor, climate change activist, wildlife advocate and every day she posts an image of a tree on her Instagram @sophtreeofday. Her novel, This Devastating Fever, will be released through Ultimo Press in September 2022 and she has also begun researching a new non-fiction book, The Time Machines: In search of ten of Australia’s oldest and most remote trees.
BOOK AHEAD
Ms Orchard said places at the lunch were expected to fill quickly and encouraged people to book ahead to avoid disappointment.
“With such an amazing line up of top writers, we know this will be a really exciting and stimulating event, and we expect the luncheon to sell out fast,” she said.
Tickets go on sale February 14 at: mountainwritersfestival.com.au
