Richard Flanagan and Black & Blue at the Varuna Sydney Writers’ Festival

Richard Flanagan and Black & Blue at the Varuna Sydney Writers’ Festival

More from guest blogger Kirsten Krauth on the Varuna branch of the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Richard Flanagan packs a room and Black & Blue bring illustrators and poets together in an exhibition that explores dark stories from the Blue Mountains ….

More from the Wild Colonial Girl

More from the Wild Colonial Girl

More great blogging from The Wild Colonial Girl, Kirsten Krauth who was guest blogger at the Varuna-Sydney Writers’ Festival …

*Emma Donoghue spoke about cross-dressing, frog-dancing and breast-feeding (and I had a room with a view at Varuna)

*Irina Dunn spoke to Felicity Castagna and me about stalking teenagers, boys who don’t speak but do listen; whether we wear pants of not (I mean, are pantsers)

*Annah Faulkner and Sally Piper advised to not drive and write (bloody idiot!), to not listen to your mother if she says you’re bad at art, and that the way families share food defines them

*Richard Flanagan’s profundity and the Black and Blue exhibition of Blue Mountains’ stories to come…

Varuna with Sydney Writers’ festival Kirsten Krauth blogs

Varuna with Sydney Writers’ festival Kirsten Krauth blogs

We’re just landing from five days of Writer Festival fun. It’s been exceptional. Congratulations to all of the writers, illustrators and convenors who enthralled, amused and engaged with us with their conversations and thanks to the readers in the audience for enjoying their work, buying their books and providing the essential spark you get at a great live event.

Kirsten Krauth blogs about Emma Donoghue talking with Kate Fagan at the Varuna with Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Writer-a-Day: Stephen Measday reading from “Send Simon Savage”

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

 Hello, I’m Stephen Measday and I’m reading from my novel Send Simon Savage.

Writer-a-Day: Kathryn Millard reading from “The Talkies”

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

Hi, this is Kathryn Millard and I’m reading from “The Talkies”.

Writer-a-Day: Brenda Saunders reading “The Art of Travel” and “Distance”

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

Hello, my name’s Brenda Saunders and I’m going to read two poems “The Art of Travel” and “Distance”. They’re from my recent collection.

Writer-a-Day: Jenni Mitchell reading “Aurora 1”

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

Hello, my name is Jenni Mitchell and I’m reading a poem I wrote while working as an artist in residence on board the Hurtigruten coastal steamer in Norway.

Writer-a-Day: Carmel Bird reading from “Raf the Dog – a Tale of Mystery, Money and the Supernatural”

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

“Hello, I’m Carmel Bird and this is a true story about my dog. It’s a tale of mystery, money and the supernatural.

Writer-a-Day: Adrian Robinson reading “Fat”, “Foetal” and “Nullabor”

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

Hello, my name’s Adrian Robinson and I’m going to read three poems today. Two of them come from my book which was published by Five Islands Press in 2007. That book was called The Slow Country. The first poem is called “Fat”.

Writer-a-Day: Clare Strahan reading from a work in progress

Click on the arrow above to listen  (In emails: click on the title above)

Hello, my name is Clare Strahan and I’m working on a historical fiction here at Varuna, and this is a piece from the prologue which I’m not sure will even make it into the final draft, but here we go: