Author talk: Gregory Day

On Saturday I headed over to Daylesford for their Words in Winter Festival. Each year the public library has a free author talk and this year it was writer, poet and musician Gregory Day. He was very different to the previous years actually because he bought his guitar, sung some songs, poetry etc. He was a bit Pete Murray like really. Anyway, I liked hearing him talk as he is sort of local. His books are based in a South West Coast Victorian town so it felt like I knew where he was talking about. He also read some chapters from his book. Not sure if they are my sort of thing as they deal with the ideas of the natural world, animal love and loss of place (a bit too in depth for me I think). Anyway, he was interesting and I had a lovely afternoon out. I love it that I only had 20 minutes to drive to hear him instead of going all the way to Melbourne.

Alice Pung: Unpolished Gem

On Saturday I popped across to Daylesford (20 minutes) for their Words in Winter festival. The local public library (part of Central Highland Regional Library Corporation) had a guest speaker: Alice Pung. Alice is only 26 and this was her first novel. She did the usual spiel of why she wrote this and drew upon other novels, then gave us a background into her own life. This was followed by a reading and then lots and lots of questions. Boy did she speak well. Even though I haven't read the book it certainly inspired me to read it. (Plus I was really good and resisted buying a copy on the spot!!) I just really enjoy listening to authors talk. I love hearing about how they work, what their inspirations are, how long it took, the research involved, the reception received etc. Writing a novel is one of those things I would love to do, but feel that I never could.

Sometimes I think we are so lucky to have such talent in Australia and to be given the chance to see and hear this talent speak in such local and comfortable surrounds. Unfortunately the Words in Winter folk don't have a website (I have suggested this for next year) but I really recommend going to some of their events. Daylesford is such a lovely place to visit too. If you do go visiting I recommend the extra 3kms drive to Hepburn for a stop at the Chowder House for lunch. Boy can those boys cook!!