Full program announced for 2019 Perth Writers Week

Tuesday, 15 January 2019 Books+Publishing

The full program has been announced for the 2019 Perth Festival Writers Week, which runs from 18-24 February.

International guests attending the festival include Man Booker Prize-winning Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri, Canadian Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Esi Edugyan, Singapore-based novelist Balli Kaur Jaswal, Danish crime fiction writer Mads Peder Nordbo, writer and teacher at New York University Abu Dhabi Deepak Unnikrishnan, Chinese poet Zheng Xiaoqiong, British writers Andrew Miller and Amy Sackville, and US-based cultural critic, DJ and academic madison moore.

They are joined by local authors including Chloe Hooper, Anna Funder, Gail Jones, Trent Dalton, Jane Caro, Peter FitzSimons, Kristina Olsson, Markus Zusak, David Malouf, Fiona Wright, Future D Fidel, Carly Findlay, Sisonke Msimang, Karen Foxlee, Moreno Giovannoni, Benjamin Law, Andrew Hanson, Monica McInerey and Heather Morris. Western Australian writers attending this year’s festival include A J Betts, Amanda Curtin, Pip Drysdale, Steve Hawke and Alice Nelson.

This year’s festival theme is ‘Our imagined selves’. Special events on the program will include ‘The Big Crazy Book Club’ hosted by madison moore, Anna Funder and Benjamin Law, and meal events such as a Gatz-inspired Great Gatsby High Tea with WA historical fiction writer Natasha Lester and Gatz director John Collins.

The program will also feature a special focus on comics and graphic novels, including a retrospective of film adaptations of comic books like Flash Gordon and The Adventures of Tintin. There will be a discussion about the rise of Australian comics with Wolfgang Bylsma, Justin Randall, Campbell Whyte and Sarah Winifred Searle.

Children’s events will include new programs and activities this year, including a ‘Comic Book Heroes Takeover’, zine fair, and several workshops and free sessions with children’s authors and illustrators like Davina Bell, Allison Colpoys, Ian Mutch, Mike Speechley, Kelly Canby, James Foley, Dianne Wolfer, Andrew Hansen, Rachel Bin Salleh and Samantha Fry.

The 2019 program is curated by West Australian literary editor William Yeoman, who was appointed guest curator following the departure of long-time program manager Katherine Dorrington in 2017.

Boffins Bookshop will be the festival’s official bookseller.

To see the program, visit the website.

(Pictured: Esi Edugyan)

Category: Festivals Local news