SWF launches podcast series to give 2020 program ‘a new story’

The Sydney Writers’ Festival (SWF) will present more than 50 ‘re-imagined sessions’ from its 2020 program as a series of podcasts, after the festival was forced to cancel due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘In the weeks since we had to cancel the 2020 Festival, we’ve been working hard to ensure that this year’s program has a new story,’ said SWF artistic director Michaela McGuire.

‘We’ve already recorded a first release of six conversations that were scheduled to take place on our festival stages, and over the coming months we’ll be publishing a couple of new podcasts each week, bringing the writing, ideas and debates from the 2020 program to audiences around Australia and the world.’

The first six podcast episodes—available for download from 1 May—include poet and legal scholar Alison Whittaker delivering her opening address; a conversation between authors Ann Patchett and Kevin Wilson; Rebecca Giggs discussing her book Fathoms: The world in the whale (Scribe), in conversation with Angus Dalton; the Western Sydney Literacy Movement presenting the second volume of its anthology Sweatshop Women; Miranda Tapsell on her memoir Top End Girl (Hachette), in conversation with Daniel Browning; and Stella Prize winner Jess Hill in conversation with Georgie Dent.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, SWF was among the first recipients of the Copyright Agency’s Covid-19 emergency funding. The funding will go towards paying Australian authors who are programmed in the podcast series.

The podcast will be available on all major podcast platforms and on the SWF website.

Image of Miranda Tapsell by Johnny Nicolaidis

Category: Local news