Festivals, Photographs and Non Fiction [17.07.2009]

• Next weekend from Thursday 23rd July to Sunday 26th July i'll be performing nightly with singer/songwriter Paul Kelly in Christchurch, New Zealand for his A to Z concerts during the Christchurch Festival. I'm looking forward to catching some other events in the Festival and will report back on my return.

• From Friday August 7th to Sunday August 9th I'll be appearing at the Byron Bay Writer's Festival,l 'In Conversation' with Sophie Cunningham, editor of Meanjin, about my essay on shyness in the June edition of that journal. I'll also be hosting a range of forums with guests including songwriters Don Walker, Brian Cadd and James Griffin, and authors Tom Keneally and Bob Ellis. I'll also be running some writing workshops in Byron Bay later in the year, via the Northern Rivers Writers Centre.

• On Saturday August 30th I'm hosting the launch screening of the new Australian feature film 'Balibo' at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, and interviewing writer/director Robert Conolly (The Bank, Romulus My Father) and several cast members. The event is part of the Travelling Melbourne International Film Festival. The film will have an Australian cinema release some time soon after that, and i highly recommend it as a gripping and intensely moving cinematic experience. Keep an eye out also for my essay about the Balibo Five (the five television newsmen murdered in East Timor in 1975) in the September edition of the Meanjin journal.

• My next Victorian Writers Centre workshop on Writing Non Fiction will be held on August 13th, followed by one a month until the end of the year. Contact the VWC for more information.

• Anyone interested in applying for the excellent RMIT Professional Writing and Editing course (in which i teach journalism and non-fiction) would be well-advised to do so as soon as possible, before TAFE fees rise hugely (starting in 2010) for students who already have a degree or diploma - from approximately $800 a year to $8000!

• If you have a chance, take a look at the new interactive exhibition of photographs by Stuart Spence at the Mars Gallery (418 Bay Port Melbourne). The images are exquisitely beautiful and infinitely sad. Several talented Australian songwriters have composed songs to go with the images, which you can listen to through headphones as you wander round the gallery space.