ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

The 2020 Scone Literary Festival organiser Janie Jordan has contacted me with information about a forthcoming author event in the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW.

For those who’ve never been to the Hunter Valley, let me tell you that it is a wonderful holiday destination, and combining a literary festival with some wine tourism sounds like a brilliant idea.  We were last in the Hunter in 2010 and you can read about our adventures here.

What follows comes from the press release:

New Event in Scone honours Patrick White: Australia’s only Nobel Laureate for Literature

Award winning Melbourne-based author, Christos Tsiolkas is visiting Scone on November 16 to present the Patrick White Oration, a major new event for the burgeoning Scone Literary Festival, now in its sixth year.

Tsiolkas is the author of six novels including The Slap, which won the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal and the 2009 Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Book Industry Awards for Books of the Year. His other novels include Loaded, which was made into the feature film Head-On, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, and Barracuda, which was made into an ABC TV drama.
The Patrick White Oration, which doubles as the launch of the 2020 Festival Program, draws on Scone’s strong literary past which includes links to Australia’s only Nobel Laureate for Literature, Patrick White of the famed White family from Belltrees in the Upper Hunter Valley. The Nobel Laureate spent a number of years at the historic Belltrees after his schooling in England.

SLF President, Janie Jordan, said that the Festival’s new strategy to boost Scone’s literary heritage would see more focussed events. “We have strong links to not only Patrick White, but Mark Twain, Donald Horne and Judith Wright.”

She said Tsiolkas was an obvious choice for the new event: “Not only is he an acclaimed writer with many awards to his name, he has written about Patrick White.”

“It’s a huge coup for Scone to have an author of Tsiolkas’s calibre and we’re thrilled to have him in conversation with our Patron, Phillip Adams after he delivers the Oration.

Tsiolkas is expected to address contemporary Australian issues in the Oration.

The Oration, which also doubles as the launch for the three-day, March Literary Festival, is being held on November 16 at a cocktail style event with local food, local wines and entertainment at the historic Scone Arts and Crafts Hall from 5.30-8.30pm.

Tickets are on sale now for the Patrick White Oration at TryBooking  and through the SLF’s revamped website –  and in person at Hunt a Book bookshop in Scone.

Seats are limited so literary lovers and anyone wanting to support the growth of this burgeoning local festival are urged to book quickly.

For further information, please contact Janie Jordan.