Melbourne Writers' Festival Reports #1

The Melbourne Writers' Festival has been running for three days now and the blog reports are coming in thick and fast.  Much more so than last year I think.

Lisa Hill, of the "ANZ LitLovers LitBlog" started her festival on Saturday wandering along to see the Andrea Goldsmith interview, and then Kate Grenville and Ann Michaels.  Lisa also rounds out her reports by commenting on the venue and giving details of what she bought at the book stalls.  This is an engaging technique which gets the reader involved in Lisa's day - even down to the rissotto at Young and Jackson's. 

Lisa backed up on Sunday with a full non-fiction day: Margaret Simons and Jeff Sparrow on the media, Les Carlyon and Antony Beevor on history as narrative, and then Biography and Autobiography, which seems to have had a rather male-dominated panel.

"Speakeasy", the Australian Writers' Marketplace blog, went along to hear Penguin publisher Robert Sessions speak for an hour, and wished it had been two.

Stephanie Campisi  found herself feeling like a dullard for asking "an extremely circumspect (although not intentionally) question" to China Mieville, who responded politely.  Stephanie saw him again at the post-session signing and seemed to straighten it out.

Kelly Gardiner asks the right questions - why do they let people ask long, boring questions in author sessions?

Angela Meyer has been, seemingly, running flat-out since the first party, the Grenville and Michaels session, Mieville and Lanagan, and the Sparrow and Simons session.  Don't worry that you're getting multiple viewpoints on the same festival sessions.  That's part of the fun and interest.  Everyone looks at things slightly differently.

Jo Case from Readings attended the Ian Buruma alternate keynote address and came away with "the impression that he's one of the most sensible speakers I've heard in a long while."  Buruma's speech was featured on this morning's ABC radio "Book Show".

And, of course, we can't go past the reports by Estelle and Frenchelbow on the Melbourne Writers' Festival weblog.

I know it's hard, but do try to keep up.