Greek Australian writers will talk Greece and writing when they take to the stage of this year’s annual Bendigo Writers Festival, from 8 to 10 August.
This year’s annual three day festival for readers and writers is set to light up Bendigo’s View Street with a packed program, celebrating the brilliant careers of some of the most admired and controversial writers in Australia.
On opening night, Blanche d’Alpuget, novelist and biographer of Bob Hawke, will talk about the influence of power.
On Saturday evening, the festival will showcase the unique voice of Australia’s unofficial poet laureate, Les Murray, whose vision of Australia has travelled to all corners of the world.
The festival will also include a Greek writers session (Saturday, 9 August, 12.30 pm) talking about ‘The Idea of Greece’. John Charalambous, Helen Nickas and Victoria Kyriakopoulos will talk subjects from Greece as a destination, to how Greek Australian writers meld their cultures, to the anxiety of the ‘phoney’ Greeks.
A Greek theme session will link the audience to ‘The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece’, the exhibition from the British Museum currently on display at the Bendigo Art Gallery.
Romance author Jess Anastasi will host editorial coordinator Alaina Gougoulis, editor Lyn White, critic James Ley and publicist Alan Davidson in an interactive session about what makes a book publishable.
The festival will also be about living well, with the important and delectable ideas of diet researcher Catherine Itsiopoulos on the menu, discussed in the talk ‘The Good Oil’ about why eating Greek is best both for health and taste (Sunday 10 August, 1.00 pm).
The Bendigo Writers Festival takes place in the heart of Bendigo’s View Street arts precinct, at the venues The Capital, the Old Fire Station, Dudley House and La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre (VAC).
For more information and tickets, visit bendigowritersfestival.com.au or contact The Capital box office 5434 6100.