Just Been To…The Melbourne Writers Festival!

 Many years ago, I used to attend the Melbourne Writers Festival every year. Those were the days when SF and fantasy were regular events, along with crime fiction and children’s book panels. I bought about ten tickets at a time, because they were cheaper and I got the chance to try writers and themes I hadn’t experienced before. After some years, speculative fiction was not a regular thing, very few panels were on crime fiction and children’s fiction was limited to school groups.

So, I looked every year, just in case. Once in a while, there was a panel about crime fiction. I even got to hear Sophie Hannah for free. I wasn’t complaining. She is the daughter of a children’s writer I like, and was writing a Hercule Poirot novel with the approval of the Christie estate. She has written more since then. Another year we had Kim Stanley Robinson, who had been at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, so I suppose they figured they might as well invite him to the festival. But mostly, there wasn’t anything I wanted to see.

Still, I get their emails in hopes that there will be something I do want to see, and this year, finally, there was. I went along to the Capitol Theatre first, to hear a panel on mythical retellings. There were three writers who had written fiction on the theme of Greek mythology. They were Yann Martel(Son Of Nobody), Nikita Gill(Hekate: The Witch) and Zoe Terakes(Eros). I ended up buying all of them in ebook; my shelves are overflowing and it has been a long time since I bothered with autographs. After my second session, with R.F. Kuang, I was very glad I’m not into autographs; the queue went down the street! 

I’ve started reading Son Of Nobody, which is about a man in Oxford on a scholarship who discovers an epic poem nobody knows about. He has things in common with the main character of the poem, who isn’t a king or famous warrior, just an ordinary person. Yann was inspired by Thersites in the Iliad, though I have to say, as someone who has read Iliad, you aren’t supposed to sympathise with Thersites. 

Hekate is about the goddess, written sympathetically. She was the goddess of witchcraft and in this book she is shown learning from mortals and doing things like leading spirits to enjoy the feasts set out for them on the special night. Looking forward to reading that.

Finally, there was Zoe Terakes, whose book Eros is made up of short stories based on stories from the myths, interpreted by Zoe in … well, erotic ways, including what happens when you make love with the sun(Icarus) and the story of Hermaphroditus. Zoe was the only Aussie on the panel. 

The Capitol was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife and today I just learned that he also designed Klaatu’s spaceship in The Day The Earth Stood Still.

I had a quick meal and went on to the Atheneum, around the corner, where I heard Rebecca Kuang talk about her writing in general and her most recent book, Katabasis, published last year. It was only A$9.99 in ebook, so I thought what the heck and bought it. The audiobook was cheaper, but it would take  up more space on my iPad and I would fall asleep trying to listen to it. I prefer audiobooks I have already read. It’s one of those popular dark academia-themed books, with her characters visiting hell.

So, this was my first Melbourne Writers Festival in years! Only two panels, but two more than last year. 

Fingers crossed there will be more next year!