by Wendy Tucker

Is this one of the best Writers Festivals in Australia? I think so. An amazing selection of disparate authors, easy to access venues, not too crowded and a whale frolicking at the lunch hour, stretch-the-legs walk.
The big names are in the bigger hall and these sessions are livestreamed to wider audiences in libraries so bookworms who are further away from Tathra can enjoy some of the festival. I’m not sure who decides which authors go into which venue, but I was more interested in the authors in the small hall, which wasn’t being live streamed.
I went to Siang Lu’s session to hear about his new novel, Ghost cities. The title comes from the new, fully-functioning cites built by the Chinese government to encourage farmers to move into cities. They didn’t move and these are now ghost cities. The novel is essentially about absurdity, now and in the past, as we also have a despotic ancient emperor, showing the madness of total power. Lu was generous and very funny. I bought a copy and can’t wait.
Then off to hear Jessie Tu. I loved her first book, A lonely girl is a dangerous thing, and was longing to read her second one, The honey eater. She was just as I’d imagined, tiny and beautiful, but fierce in her feminist beliefs. The novel is centred on unequal relationships, mother and daughter, mentor and mentee, professor and student, and how these affect women. She cried and we cried, due I think to the smaller and more intimate room. What a privilege! Of course, I bought the book.
I did go to the big draw card, Gina Chick talking about her memoir, we are all stars (lower case is intentional). This session was fully booked, over-subscribed and standing room only. I scored a second-row seat. Chick is well known from her participation in Alone Australia on SBS, which she won. She is an advocate of the re-wilding movement. She is full of joy, charismatic and larger than life, and was enormously generous and open when talking about her life. And what a life, full of heartbreaking tragedy, huge joy and intrepid adventures. I’m not sure if I’m ready for wildness, or if it’s too late for fearless adventures but, as I already live in a beautiful place and am close to nature, maybe I’m halfway there.
I’ll know more when I’ve read her book, which has joined the TBR pile.
And I’ll review all the above in coming months.
I managed four more sessions, missed a couple that I wanted to attend because of scheduling. It’s always the dilemma at festivals, deciding what you want to hear most often means missing others.
My brain is in overload, the book pile has grown, and it was an amazing weekend.
Congratulations to all involved.