Home Truths - A feast of literary inspiration

Presented by Tasmanian Writers' Centre and Ten Days on the Island

Join the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre and Hobart Bookshop for a literary festival weekend! Be inspired and entertained as expert panellists discuss questions of identity, morality, political change and the fine line between fiction and history. Unwind on Saturday night over a glass of wine, readings and music. This is Tasmania's biggest literary festival for some years, and we're excited! We welcome you to challenge some home truths, ask some hard questions and be stimulated by new ideas. 

PRELIMINARY READINGS: To celebrate the Tasmanian Book Prizes and the Home Truths Literary Festival, the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre, Fullers Bookshop and Hobart Bookshop are hosting three nights of readings by the shortlisted authors and publishers for the 2011 Tasmanian Book Prizes. RSVP to rsvp@fullersbookshop.com.au

Wednesday 30th March 6pm, Fullers Bookshop: The University of Tasmania Prize, for the best book by a Tasmanian publisher.
 - Max Angus, Pedder, 2000 inc, 2008.
 - Karen Knight, Postcards from the Asylum, Pardalote Press, 2008.
 - Dan Sprod, Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, Blubber Head Press, 2009.

Thursday 31st March 6pm, Fullers Bookshop: The Margaret Scott Prize, for best book by a Tasmanian writer.
 - Matthew Evans, The Real Food Companion, Murdoch Books, 2010.
 - Robert Dessaix, Arabesques, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008.
 - Kathryn Lomer is nominated for this prize as well as the Tasmanian Book Prize and she will be reading on Friday evening.

Friday 1st April 6pm, Fullers Bookshop: The Tasmania Book Prize, for best book with Tasmanian content in any genre.
 - Peter Timms, In Search of Hobart, New South Books, 2009.
 - Richard Flanagan, Wanting, Random House, 2009.
 - Kathryn Lomer, What Now, Tilda B?, University of Queensland Press, 2010.

Friday 1st April, 5.30pm, Hobart Bookshop: Release of David Owen's latest Pufferfish crime novel, set in Tasmania, How the Dead See.  All welcome.  

HOME TRUTHS WRITERS' WEEKEND PROGRAM: Book sales on site by Hobart Bookshop.

SATURDAY 2 APRIL


10 - 10.50am (Hobart Town Hall): 
HOME TRUTH: WHAT LIES BEHIND A SENSE OF HOME AND IDENTITY?  A panel of distinguished writers discusses the joys and the difficulties of home: belonging, relationships, exile and the nature of place. Featuring Carmel Bird, Cassandra Pybus and Peter Timms. Chair: Katherine Scholes.

11 - 11.50am (Hobart Town Hall): 
IN CONVERSATION
: Robert Dessaix interviews award-winning Melbourne writer Alice Pung about her childhood memoir, her Chinese/Cambodian background and how she positions herself in Australian society. When Alice Pung’s Chinese mother and Cambodian father arrived in Australia as refugees, their eldest daughter began a colourful life as an Australian child of migrants which would culminate in a bestselling memoir. She tells of being bundled into a padded ‘Mao-style’ suit for kindergarten photo day, her arms sticking out like a penguin because of the layers of clothing her Chinese grandmother had placed underneath, to ward off the death by freezing that once befell communist peasants in the Middle Kingdom. When other girls were getting into trendy clothing labels and boys, but her parents would not spend money on fashion, she hand-embroidered the Sportsgirl logo, with all its curves and flourishes, onto dresses she had designed and sewed herself. There are loving, telling portraits of family members forever affected by their refugee experiences: Pung’s grandparents did not trust banks to stay solvent, even in peacetime, so they buried their money in Nescafe jars all over their backyard. And there are chilling glimpses of past tragedies, her father’s family having been wiped out in the killing fields of Cambodia and her grandmother’s small child killed in an accident. Unpolished Gem is Pung’s account of her family’s stories, both in Australia and in their home countries, and of her struggle as a child and teenager to reconcile competing cultural forces.

12 - 12.50pm (Hobart Town Hall)
 TRUTH AND HISTORY: A CHANGING NARRATIVE. 
The landscape I knew was full of a deep and urgent meaning…these hills and plains…these rivers and plants and animals were what I had to work with as a writer, and they themselves contained the hidden depths of a past beyond anything that cites and the British invasion had to offer.” - Judith Wright, Going on Talking.
  How do writers find and define truth in a changing social landscape? The panel will discuss the work of those who dared to follow their consciences, to construct a different history of Australia - a legacy critical to the debate about this country's narrative. Featuring Patsy Cameron, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Rebe Taylor.  

1pm - 1.30pm (Hobart Town Hall): Launch of Artlink magazine special issue. The movement of individuals and cultures across nations is increasingly fluid. What impact do the shifting cultures of Australia have on contemporary visual arts practice? What does it mean when so many creative artists are not sure where to call home any more? Join us for the launch of the national magazine Artlink's special issue, Diaspora. James Newitt, a Tasmanian artist who has recently returned from a research trip to the USA, will speak briefly about working with African refugees in the north of the state a couple of years ago, and his resulting work. Writers in this issue include Cath Kenneally, Lisa Havilah, Joanna Mendelssohn, Aaron Seeto, Flaudette May Datuin, Farid Farid, Brian Fuata, Tania Doropoulos, Romaine Moreton, Kon Gouriotis. 

1.45 - 2.45pm (Hobart Town Hall): 
POLITICS AND POETRY: THE ARTIST AS ACTIVIST
.  Contemporary poetry often responds to compelling issues and current events. A panel of esteemed Australian poets speak and read from their own work and that of others in a heartfelt exploration of poetry’s role and power in the world. Featuring Tim Thorne, Judith Rodriguez and Dr Terry Whitebeach. Chair: Kathryn Lomer.

3 – 4:30 pm (Hobart Town Hall): 
WHAT IS THE GREAT TASMANIAN BOOK?
 How does living in Tasmania influence a writer’s perspective and work? Is there such a thing as the great Tasmanian book and is there a place for Tasmanian stories on the international stage? What do we value in writing and what do we want to read? Join host Fenella Kernebone and the judges: Anna Johnston (Chair), author & Associate Professor of English, University of Tasmania; Irene McGuire, book retailer; Tim Thorne, poet, critic & publisher; as well as the authors and publishers shortlisted for the 2011 Tasmania Book Prizes.

7.30PM: (Republic Bar & Cafe, upstairs): FREE READING: TEN MINUTES ON THE ISLAND.  Our feature reading of the festival.  Relax with a glass of wine and live gypsy jazz, while you enjoy readings from some of Tasmania’s most notable fiction and poetry writers, Greens leader Bob Brown, and interstate stars Judith Rodriguez and Rebe Taylor. Iconic Hobart bookseller Christopher Pearce from Hobart Bookshop will open the reading, and eminent poet Tim Thorne will be MC. The winner of the $5000 Wildcare Nature Writing Prize will be announced, as will the winner of the Writers’ Centre’s most prestigious residency, a three-week exchange to Prince Edward Island, Canada. The readers are: Bob Brown, Katherine Johnson, John Hale, Carolyn Fisher, Ben Walter, Jane Williams, Eliza Hull, Robyn Friend, Philomena van Rijswijk, Anne Kellas, Michael Blake, Sean Monro, Pete Hay, Louise Oxley, Anne Collins, Cameron Hindrum, Lyn Reeves, James Klousia, Esther Ottaway, Judith Rodriguez and Rebe Taylor. Free admission, no booking required.  Doors open 7.10 pm, Upstairs function room. All welcome.  

SUNDAY 3 APRIL


10 - 10.50am (Hobart Town Hall): 
CHARACTERS UNDER FIRE
. Fictional characters are often faced with situations that push them to reflect on their lives and re-define who they are. Eminent fiction writers Robert Dessaix, Rosie Dub and Heather Rose discuss this concept in relation to their own work and that of their favourite fiction writers. Chair: Lucy Frost.  

11 - 11.50am (Hobart Town Hall): 
WRITING SMALL ISLANDS
. Just as nations are imagined communities, islands are imagined spaces of possibility. Tasmanian and Prince Edward Island writers share an interest in the study of small islands and culture around the world. This panel will discuss the cultural identity of small islands and the sanctuary they can provide. Session featuring speakers – Godfrey Baldacchino, Laurie Brinklow, and Pete Hay. Chair: Elaine Stratford. 

12.00 - 12.50pm (Hobart Town Hall) FREE EVENT:  
ISLAND MAG LAUNCH: ISLAND 124 AND ISLET NO 5
.  Through the Tasmanian Writers' Centre's Prince Edward Island residency exchange, a special connection has been made with Canadian island writers. Island magazine and its online journal, Islet, will launch special island-themed issues. Essays, short fiction, poems, conversations and images will explore ideas of 'islandness' from literal, philosophical and metaphorical perspectives. Contributors include Danielle Wood, Pete Hay, Heather Rose, Elaine Stratford, Stewart Williams and Deirdre Kessler. Island will also introduce its new editor, Sarah Kanowski.

1 pm - 1.30pm (Fullers Bookshop, 171 Collins St, Hobart): Launch of Grease and Ochre, by Patsy Cameron.  

1.45-2.45pm (Hobart Town Hall) 
BELIEVING THE UNBELIEVABLE: CREATING THE REAL AND THE FANTASTIC
.  Celebrated writers David Owen, Lian Tanner, and Danielle Wood discuss the skills behind the constructs of the worlds in their novels, from a familiar urban Tasmania through to the mythical and the lands of fantasy. Chair: Robyn Friend.  

3pm – 5 pm (Hobart Town Hall) FREE EVENT:  
2011 Tasmania Book Prizes Announcement
. Arts Tasmania event. Shortlist: 
THE TASMANIA BOOK PRIZE for Best book with Tasmanian content in any genre: $25,000.  
In Search of Hobart by Peter Timms (New South, October 2009)
; Wanting by Richard Flanagan (Random House, 2008)
; What Now, Tilda B by Katherine Lomer (University of Queensland Press, 2010)

THE MARGARET SCOTT PRIZE for Best book by a Tasmanian writer: $5,000
Arabesques by Robert Dessaix (Pan McMillan Australia, 2008); 
Real Food Companion by Matthew Evans (Murdoch Books, 2010); 
What Now Tilda B? by Kathryn Lomer (University of Queensland Press, 2010)

THE UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA PRIZE for Best book by a Tasmanian publisher: $5,000
. Pedder - The stories, The paintings by Max Angus (Pedder 2000 Inc, 2008); 
Postcards from the Asylum by Karen Knight (Pardalote Press, 2008); 
Van Diemen’s Land Revealed, edited by Dan Sprod (Blubber Head Press, 2009)
 

Weekend Tickets cost $85 or $69 with a Centrelink concession card. To reserve tickets, click here, or phone the Writers' Centre on 6224 0029.  

Session Tickets cost $18 or $15 concession. To buy session tickets, click here for the Ten Days site.