Curating Festivals in the time of COVID-19

What books have sustained you this year? Leah Kaminsky comes to Thursday Book ...

Curating Festivals in the time of COVID-19

View this email in your browser

Have you read Leah Kaminsky’s new book The Hollow Bones? [image error] Dear Friends,

For me, uncertainty has been the hallmark of 2020. Uncertainty as to which parts of our lives will continue as usual and which parts will be subject to change; which events will proceed as planned, which will be cancelled and which will be modified.

Dealing with uncertainty can be difficult and in times like these, resilience, flexibility, quick thinking and creativity are called for.

For possessing and making use of all these qualities, I’d like to congratulate the team behind Canberra Writers Festival who successfully negotiated the raft of COVID-19 based challenges thrown at them to curate an exciting and stimulating festival that was one part live and one part online.

My congratulations, also, to Catherine du Peloux Menagé, artistic director of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. I’m a board member of this festival which was to have taken place at the State Library of NSW in early September. When COVID-19 restrictions made this impossible, quick-thinking Catherine came up with a most magnificent solution: instead of one BAD festival, there would be two. BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival LIVE will now be held from 5-8 November, while BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival GOES INTERNATIONAL, an online festival featuring some of the world’s most popular crime writers – Ann Cleeves, Jo Nesbø and Don Winslow amongst them - will be held on 10-13 September.

You can register for BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival GOES INTERNATIONAL here:https://www.badsydney.com/

To go in the draw for a free ticket to one of these fabulous online sessions, simply reply to this email with your crime novel recommendations.

I’d love to see you at Thursday Book Club this week. Zoom in as you can – it doesn’t matter if you’re late or have to leave early. Just join my Zoom conference room between 8pm and 8.30pm on Thursdays by clicking on this link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

If prompted, here are the details to manually enter:

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Password: 886196

What is Thursday Book Club?

Thursday Book Club is a relaxed, friendly book club connecting readers online. Each Thursday we meet on Zoom from 8 - 8.30pm. There are no scheduled books to read: we simply chat about books we like and books we’re reading. Every now and then, I invite a guest writer to join us. On 3 September, we’ll be welcoming Leah Kaminsky (author of The Hollow Bones) to talk about what it’s like to be a writer and a doctor in the midst of the pandemic.

Suzanne’s guest

Leah Kaminsky is a physician and award-winning writer. Her debut novel The Waiting Room won the Voss Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Helen Asher Award.

Leah has come to even greater acclaim with her new book The Hollow Bones which won the 2019 International Book Award in both Literary Fiction & Historical Fiction categories and the 2019 Best Book Award for Literary Fiction.

Join me when I chat to Leah at Thursday Book Club on 3 September

NEWS

Michael Williams, former director of The Wheeler Centre, has been appointed artistic director for the 2021 Sydney Writers’ Festival. Michael brings an enormous expertise to the role and I’ll be excited to see what he has in store for us next year.

The Rose Scott Women Writers’ Festival will be held online on 19 September. You ‘ll find the full program here: http://www.rswwf.com.au/

The shortlist for the NSW Premier’s History Awards was released earlier this month and the winners will be announced on 4 September.

Here’s a selection of the shortlisted titles.

Australian history prize

Bedlam at Botany Bay (James Dunk, NewSouth)British India, White Australia: Overseas Indians, intercolonial relations and the empire (Kama Maclean, NewSouth)The Shelf Life of Zora Cross (Cathy Perkins, Monash University Publishing)

General history prize

Amboina 1623: Fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire (Adam Clulow, Columbia University Press)The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three lives in an age of empire (Kate Fullagar, Yale University Press)Sundowner of the Skies: The story of Oscar Garden, the forgotten aviator (Mary Garden, New Holland)

Young people’s history prize

Pirate Boy of Sydney Town (Jackie French, HarperCollins)The Good Son: A story from the First World War, told in miniature (Pierre-Jacques Ober, Jules Ober & Felicity Coonan, Candlewick Press)Haywire—The Dunera Boys: Australia’s Second World War #2 (Claire Saxby, Scholastic)

You can view the full list of shortlisted works here:
https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/nsw-premiers-history-awards.

Books recommendations

My recommendation

The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre

Your recommendations

Bernadette O – Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

The Nickelboys by Colson Whitehead

A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville

Bruny by Heather Rose

Greg W – The White Girl by Tony Birch

Sofie L – The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Libby G– The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Hope to see you at Thursday Book Club.

Just join my Zoom conference room at 8pm on Thursdays by clicking on this link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

If prompted, here are the details to manually enter:

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Password: 886196

,Take care

PS. Would you like me to drop in to your book club?

If your book club has chosen to read The Deceptions or The Teacher’s Secret, I’d be delighted to attend your meeting by Zoom (whether your group is meeting online or gathering together in person) to answer any of your questions. To schedule a date, please email me here.