It’s Sunday morning in Sorrento and I am hastily journalling yesterday’s events before we depart our accommodation for breakfast somewhere. Sorrento Lodge is a strange setup… very modern, very clean, comfy beds, but a-hem very cosy, and minimalist. No hair dryer. No shampoo. (But two TVs. How does that work?) No kettle in the room, or cups for a pre-breakfast cuppa. Kitchen facilities at the end of the corridor are shared and not a pretty sight in the morning. And though they have a curfew of 10pm for the comfort of other guests, it is most certainly not observed or enforced, not even after midnight.
Which is why I was so tired yesterday that I abandoned my third session to come back and sleep the afternoon away.
Update, at home later on Sunday: I looked up reviews of Sorrento Lodge, and discovered that our discomforts, which were admittedly minimal, were entirely our fault. In error, we had booked a place that is meant for employees, i.e. inexpensive, self-catering, bring most of your own gear. It’s for the army of hospo staff who turn up for the holiday season and weekends, and it actually says in its FAQs that it’s not meant for holidaymakers or weekend stays. #meaCulpa…
Edited 29/4/24 to add information about panellists and links to my review of their books.
My first session was terrific. It was called Unpacking Australian Literature, and though it didn’t do that because the moderator’s questions went elsewhere, it was very interesting.
The panel consisted of Tony Birch, Jock Serong and Charlotte Wood, with Sarah L’Estrange as panel chair.
- Tony Birch was the first Dr Bruce McGuiness Indigenous Research Fellowship in 2015, and is the award-winning author of five novels, five short fiction collections and two poetry books. I profiled him in Meet an Aussie Author: Tony Birch way back in 2012, and I’ve read and reviewed Blood (2011), Ghost River (2015), Common People (2017), and (my favourite) The White Girl (2019). (I have Dark as Last Night (2021); Father’s Day (2009) and Women and Children (2023) on the TBR, and I will soon have a copy of his monograph on Kim Scott from Black Inc’s Writers on Writers series).
- Jock Serong is the award-winning author of six novels. He came to world attention with his third novel On the Java Ridge (2017), because it won the (alas, short-lived) Staunch Award for a thriller without violence against women. The second of his Furneaux Islands trilogy won the Historical Novel Prize: Preservation #1 (2018); The Burning Island #2, 2020), and The Settlement #3, 2022), and I have his backlist on the TBR, i.e. The Rules of Backyard Cricket (2017), and Quota (2015).
-
- 2017
-
- 2018
-
- 2020
-
- 2022
- Charlotte Wood is the award winning author of seven novels – Pieces of a Girl (1999, see Kim’s review at Reading Matters), The Submerged Cathedral (2004), The Children (2007), Animal People (2011), The Natural Way of Things (2015); The Weekend (2019) and Stone Yard Devotional (2023). Her list of awards is too long to list here, (see Wikipedia instead) suffice to say that every book she writes is An Event, and she is one of our most thoughtful thinkers whose books interrogate the zeitgeist in sophisticated ways.
Tony Birch talked about his childhood in inner city Melbourne. He told a lovely story about the first time he saw the sea, and it reminded me of the late Peter Cundall of Gardening Australia fame talking about the first time he went into a library, got sent home to wash his hands, and then came back to enter what he thought was heaven. Birch reminded us that inner city housing doesn’t have backyards big enough to play ball games, so the street was where the kids played cricket and footy.
Asked why he was drawn to writing about children in his fiction, Birch said that childhood is formative for everyone and is often related to the places we love, especially in a childhood like his where the kids got away from their parents and were allowed to do their own thing.
Charlotte Wood grew up on the Monaro (and told us how to pronounce it, not like the car). South of Canberra, it’s a bare landscape but she had a childhood full of freedom, roaming around on bikes, free to do whatever she wanted. There were bigger families then, so she always had someone to play with. And children had privacy, and a private world.
Food for thought, eh?
Jock Serong talked about writing. When we read, (in English, that is) he said, we read L to R, up to down. But when writing, it happens in a spiral, bringing parts together and moving them apart. So what is the role of Australian literature in questioning the narratives we tell ourselves?
Birch talked about his recent book which is about Kim Scott, in the Black Inc Writers on Writers series. He talked about challenging existing narratives but in an open and inclusive way. Kim Scott asks us to understand Australian history in a different way, and to open up the discussion. His writing is provocative, but it’s a gentle challenge.
Birch’s prize winning book The White Girl is about the Stolen Generations made accessible to readers who are inevitably going to be mostly white. The White Girl is a love story and it’s about the universal love within families. (See my review).
The book, he said, has had a good after life, it’s taught at Year 11 to engage young people. Birch says he doesn’t want to write alienating stories, and he wants to write about Aboriginal women who have agency. There is domestic violence but it’s off stage, and the reader sees an act of love instead: Ruby washing her auntie’s wounds after an assault.
I caught a glimpse of Jock Serong’s latest book but it’s not in the shops yet so he talked about his trilogy. (See my reviews of the Furneaux Islands trilogy). He recapped the activities of George Augustus Robinson, and says that fiction can pay respect to indigenous people when history (i.e. Robinson’s diary) doesn’t. And fiction has staying power. We know what we know of the Elizabethan era from Shakespeare not from history books!
The topic moved on to ‘writing from a sense of rage’ which brought up Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things, but though she said rage was a fuel for the book, she didn’t want to stay there. It was quite interesting the way that the moderator Sarah L’Estrange wanted to explore rage (by which I think she meant women’s rage) and the writers didn’t. Birch, who by any estimation had a rough childhood, said he wasn’t traumatised by it, and though he doesn’t want his grandchildren to witness what he did, his demeanour — and his books that I’ve read — are testament to that. He wants to write about men who are ok.
This was a most enjoyable session, but there were questions I wanted these writers to explore. Why do Australian authors write so much about old wars, crime and selective bits of history? Why don’t they write about class, for example?
My next session was Gail Jones in conversation with Fiona Gruber. Jones is an academic and the author of ten novels. I regret that I did not get on with her earlier works, but I kept on buying her books one after the other because I knew I would want to read them one day. I began with Our Shadows (2020); then I read and loved the award-winning Salonika Burning (2022), then The Death of Noah Glass (2018), and now her most recent novel One Another (2024). Others waiting patiently on the TBR are A Guide to Berlin (2015), Combined Reviews and Five Bells (2011).
Fiona was brilliant at asking an open-ended question and just letting Gail talk. She talked about the circuitous way that One Another (see my review) was sparked by seeing the wreck of Joseph Conrad’s boat, the invasion of Ukraine and her memories of feeling dissonance when in the UK where everyone was obsessed with Princess Di and Thatcher but in Australia there was Mabo which was momentous.
*chuckle* And she wanted her story to have characters who didn’t have Google and mobile phones!
There was an interesting diversion into talking about literary criticism. I was so interested, I took only scrappy notes, but the gist of it was, that criticism now focusses on identity and emoting and placing the self into the text.
#NoteToSelf: Don’t do it!!
The conversation moved on to journeys, and the characters in One Another floundering and feeling out of place. Joseph Conrad’s life was endlessly journeying, from his childhood through to his voyages, so it was a life where he was always ‘out of place’ even when he finally settled in the UK because his thick accent placed him always as an outsider.
Jones’ novel is structured in these waves of events, it’s not chronological because she wanted to write about why we become so interested in the people whose books we read. She picks up on moments of intensification, and symbolic moments. So no, she’s not a planner. She has an image, and a sort of concept, and she writes intuitively.
She’s interested in words — what they can and can’t do, and images likewise — what they can and can’t do.
There was an audible intake of breath when she told us how quickly she writes her books, but that writing comes after a very long time of thinking and composing mentally.
Oh, and just at the end, she said a very interesting thing: she thinks that though we talk about postmodernism, most of us are modernists. We believe in deep time, and in symbols, and we read to complicate ourselves.
I wanted to know more about that, but it was time to move on.
My next session was The Life and Legacy of Miles Franklin, featuring Kgshak Akec, Amy Brown, Monique di Mattina, Clare Wright and Fiona Sweet. It was lovely to hear Kgshak Akec in the flesh, and she had a brief moment to talk about how being nominated for the MF for her 2022 debut novel Hopeless Kingdom (see my review) had changed her life, but the chair was head honcho of the Stella Prize and it was more of a Stella Prize love-in than I was interested in. I was so very, very tired that I shot through and spent the afternoon asleep in bed. Sorrento Lodge is quiet as the grave in mid-afternoon. It’s only at night that you can’t get any sleep…
So that’s it, for the 2024 Sorrento Writers Festival. Congratulations to everyone involved, especially the volunteers without whom it would not happen. The hospo folks were marvellous too, they were run off their feet with the festival coinciding with a long weekend, but the service was always friendly and professional and if things went awry they were quick to apologise.
PS The Spouse went to lots of interesting NF sessions and I will try to pick his brains on the journey home so that I can add in some of his thoughts too.
Time to pack up now, will chat in comments when I get home!
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
Sounds like some wonderful sessions Lisa.. with too much for me to comment on.
I had no idea Charlotte Wood grew up on the Monaro (and I had no idea people didn’t know how to pronounce it. It preceded the car, after all!!)
I like Tony Birch’s approach to telling serious stories with warmth. Not that I mind grim or bleak stories but I think there’s room for both. I agree with you that class, inequality, could be explored more – I am, probably like you, a bit of a social realist at heart! – but the things currently being explored are also important. Writers can only write what they feel strongly about. These days class is a more complicated concept, I think.
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 28, 2024
at 9:21 am
There should be a birthplace plaque for Charlotte Wood!
BTW, you know the mouse plague in Stone Yard Devotional? She actually went and stayed with a friend when there was the mouse plague, (on the strict condition that there were none in the bedroom) and so that part of the book is about an authentic as you can get.
I think you are right that authors write about what they feel strongly about, and I think it’s a bit of an indictment that they don’t feel strongly about poverty and disadvantage in Australia. Paddy O’Reilly does, she is one of my literary heroes.
I had a chat with Tony Birch after his session, and no, I couldn’t wangle a scoop about his next book, but I got a little hint and we were in furious agreement that class is a big issue. I told him about the poverty in the outer suburbs where I worked and we bonded over our concern that nobody talks about it.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 12:47 pm
I haven’t read it yet Lisa! My reading group is doing it in May or June. I’ve forgotten which one!
I look forward to seeing what Birch’s next book is about.
Interestingly class is an aspect Karen Viggers covers in Sidelines. It’s not her main theme but it’s something she wanted people to see. I only briefly mentioned it in my review but it was there. Class does come up in many novels I’ve read but it’s not often THE issue bring explored, is it. However, I wouldn’t say it was an indictment that writers don’t address it any more, really, than I’d criticise writers of other times for not addressing racism or sexism?
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 28, 2024
at 6:41 pm
TBH Sue, I think we have a lot of middle class writers, reflective of the population as a whole, who have very little awareness of class.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 9:22 pm
Or, they don’t feel comfortable about writing about it, particularly in these “own story” times.
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 28, 2024
at 9:31 pm
Well, yes, if they live in the inner city with their PhDs in creative writing, and have never set foot in the outer suburban wastelands or those desperately poor dying rural towns where there’s no decent coffee.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 9:36 pm
Actually, I shouldn’t be so harsh. I have almost finished reading Carole Lefevre’s new novel Temperance, and she has portrayed the long hard grind of single motherhood brilliantly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 9:38 pm
She’s a lovely writer. I’m glad her next book is good.
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 28, 2024
at 10:24 pm
So how do you pronounce Monaro? I honestly thought it was the same as the car. I heard Charlotte Wood speak about the book when it was launched in February last year but I can’t remember how she pronounced it.
LikeLike
By: kimbofo on April 28, 2024
at 10:11 am
Fremantle, not February. Damn autocorrect!
LikeLike
By: kimbofo on April 28, 2024
at 10:12 am
It’s pronounced “mon-air’-ro”.
But (don’t tell Charlotte) that does sound odd, doesn’t it?!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 12:39 pm
LOL! As a Snowy Monaro ratepayer, ‘mon-air-ro’ sounds right. ;-)
LikeLike
By: Jennifer on April 28, 2024
at 2:40 pm
*chuckle*
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 4:25 pm
Nope… Sounds just right to me! Haha!
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 28, 2024
at 6:42 pm
These sessions sound so interesting. Laughed at the hotel mistake. We all do it at times. I attended Gail Jones launch here a couple weeks ago. The same comment was made about no mobile phones. Glad you had a good time.
LikeLike
By: TravellinPenguin on April 28, 2024
at 12:29 pm
You know, I never cease to be amazed at how you are right there in a literary hub and you get to hear so many great authors!
I should move to Hobart…
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 12:48 pm
Now that is a good idea. I need another friend close by. Haha
LikeLike
By: TravellinPenguin on April 28, 2024
at 3:40 pm
Ah well, there’s only a strait between us, and I am plotting a trip to Tassie before too much longer.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 3:42 pm
Do ket me know when you come here. It was fun meeting Sue when she came down here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: TravellinPenguin on April 28, 2024
at 3:43 pm
Oh, I will. I recently met up with Jennifer (from Tasmanian Bibliophile) and it was so nice, now every time I read her blog I feel a sense of friendship as well as interest in what she’s writing about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 4:03 pm
Great round up Lisa, the hotel mix-up made me chuckle too – we’ve all done something like that at one time or another!
Loved Gail’s comment about “we read to complicate ourselves.” Would have loved to hear a deeper dive into that idea.
LikeLike
By: This Reading Life on April 28, 2024
at 6:12 pm
I could have listened to her talk for hours…
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 28, 2024
at 8:48 pm
I’ve just seen all the new comments about the hotel mix-up and couldn’t understand how I’d missed something like that – and then saw it was an update later! How funny… By then we can’t laugh too much because you can’t live as long as we have and not have made accommodation mistakes of one sort or another!
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 28, 2024
at 10:22 pm
Actually it was one of our better mistakes, because it was walking distance of the venues.
Except for the ones far afield. They had a shuttle bus but we did them by car. I heard Gail Jones at the Portsea Surf Life Saving Club (which I hadn’t been to since our days with the Ocean Grove Surf Life Saving Club when The Offspring was a Nipper), and The Spouse went to the Sorrento Sailing Club for one session and the Golf Club for another.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 29, 2024
at 7:21 am
I have a couple of Charlotte Woods here–which ones do you prefer? (bummer about the lodge)
LikeLike
By: Guy Savage on April 29, 2024
at 1:29 am
And of course the one Lisa doesn’t like, as I recollect, The Natural Way of Things which I’ve been thinking about a bit lately. It has a weirdness about it but is a strong story about patriarchy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: whisperinggums on April 29, 2024
at 8:19 am
It was very interesting to see that though Charlotte acknowledged that TNWoT was ‘fuelled by rage’ at that moment in time, she almost brushed off the question about rage and the others didn’t engage except indirectly. Although there’s a lot of shouting about it, I don’t think there’s any consensus that women’s rage (so-called) is helpful, productive or even widely shared, and (it seems to me) that if Stone Yard Devotional is any guide, Charlotte is deeply reflective about forms of activism and what they actually achieve.
I would always hesitate to recommend TNWoT because I’ve read all her books and it’s not representative of Charlotte Wood’s writing style and her sophisticated interest in character.
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 29, 2024
at 9:06 am
Yes, I understand what you are saying, but it is also interesting because it is different – more dystopian. More interesting for me than The weekend, much as I enjoyed that book.
As for rage, it’s rarely productive on its own, unless it is well channelled into something productive!
LikeLike
By: whisperinggums on April 29, 2024
at 9:51 am
Mm, maybe, but the point is, that if TNWoT were the first book by Wood that somebody reads, whether they like it or not, it’s no guide to the rest of her oeuvre.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 29, 2024
at 10:03 am
Augh, hard question!
The ones I’ve reviewed are here: https://anzlitlovers.com/category/writers-editors-aust-nz-in-capitals/wood-charlotte/
At the moment I like Stone Yard Devotional best because I’ve just read it, but if I had to choose which ones to re-read, I’d go with The Children and Animal People because they’re such wise explorations of character. If you’d like a novel about older women (without *chuckle* miserable marriages!) The Weekend is good too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 29, 2024
at 7:26 am
So is Monaro pronounced Mo-naro?!
LikeLike
By: Kate W on April 29, 2024
at 1:10 pm
Mon-air-oh!
LikeLike
By: Lisa Hill on April 29, 2024
at 4:37 pm
Sounds like it was a terrific festival (jealous). Unfortunate about the mix up with the accommodation though.
LikeLike
By: Theresa Smith Writes on April 29, 2024
at 1:16 pm
It was terrific, I wish I could have cloned myself and gone to more events. That IMO is the mark of a good festival.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Lisa Hill on April 29, 2024
at 4:38 pm
Absolutely!
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Theresa Smith Writes on April 29, 2024
at 5:11 pm