FESTIVAL – Writers’ Week Full Program Released

798392-bruce-mckinvenAdelaide Writers’ Week 2014 – Full Program and Souvenir Guide Released Today

Australia’s original literary festival

Over 90 international and local writers will participate in the second annual Adelaide Writers’ Week with six days of conversation and debate set to take place in the beautiful Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden.

The souvenir Adelaide Writers’ Week 2014 program is available from today from all good bookshops and participating newsagents across Adelaide for $10 or by contacting Adelaide Festival (full details below).

Among the writers not to be missed are Margaret Drabble (UK), Elizabeth Gilbert (USA), Alexander McCall Smith (UK), Marcus Chown (UK), Margaret MacMillan (CAN) and Diarmaid MacColluch (UK).

The expanded kids program promises two fun-filled days of stories, puppets, paintings and a Nylon Zoo. In the Story Tent kids will have a chance to see Asphyxia, Australia’s leading Deaf circus performer turned puppeteer; Slapstick Theatre’s Punch and Judy and a whole host of storytellers including Mem Fox and Andy Griffiths.

Ticketed sessions this year include discussions on accessing quantum physics with Marcus Chown’s What a Wonderful World, 1914, and A History of Christianity presented by one of the world’s most influential church historians Diarmaid MacCulloch. Plus for the first time, an entire day devoted to the wonderful and weird graphic novelists with Comics Can Do Anything featuring Alison Bechdel (USA), Simon Hanselmann (AUS), Mandy Ord (AUS) and more.

Of the many conversations that will take place in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden from Saturday 1 March to Thursday 6 March, you will hear stories about love, death, marriage, the Great Barrier Reef, both World Wars, clean water, unhappy families, the working class, illegal drugs, swimming pools, NYC in the 70s, colonial Australia, gold mines, God, politics, apps and the environment.

In her third year as Adelaide Writers’ Week Director Laura Kroetsch said: “This year is all about big books and big ideas – be it in fiction, non-fiction or comics. New to the program is a day devoted to comic art and illustration: Comics Can Do Anything brings together artists who explore topics as varied as sexual politics, classic literature, immigration, family relations, and of course creatures. The evening session in Elder Hall feature some of our most acclaimed and often controversial thinkers for robust conversations about contemporary science, war’s legacies, and the power of the Church.  Back in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden audiences will enjoy some of today’s most exciting fiction writers as 2014 is without question one of our strongest line ups of novelists to date.”

Writers discussing their debut novels will include Sydney based Fiona McFarlane, South Australia’s Hannah Kent, and D. W. Wilson (CAN). Those discussing their second novels include Rachel Kushner (USA) and 28-year-old Eleanor Catton (NZ) 2013 Man-Booker winner.

On Saturday, March 1 the Premier of South Australia, the Hon Jay Weatherill will announce the winners of all 2014 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature including Fiction, Children’s Literature, Non-Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, John Bray Poetry and the Premier’s Award.
Event Details:
Adelaide Writers’ Week 2014
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden, King William Road
Saturday 1 March – Thursday 6 March

Kids’ Day, Sunday 3 March 9am – 3pm FREE
Kids’ Day returns bigger and better than ever, with an extended age focus on children from 0-12 years old. The Nylon Zoo returns with a giant frog and Nest Studio will be running two tents.  The first tent will feature stories and painting for children 0-8 years old; the second, for children 8-12 years old, will feature a real letter-press for poster making. The Story Tent will be up and running and again featuring It’s Rhyme Time. There will also be a giant floor games area.

Ticketed Sessions: 
What A Wonderful World: Marcus Chown
Elder Hall, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace
Monday 3 March 6.30pm (60 mins)
Tickets: $20-$25
If you have ever wondered – Why do we breathe? What is money? Does time really exist? Where do mountains come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? – then join bestselling author Marcus Chown in conversation about his new book, What a Wonderful World. As author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and creator of the Solar System app Chown brings us a witty, lucid and highly entertaining look at our everyday world.

1914: Paul Ham, Mrgaret MacMillan, Sean McMeekin
Tuesday 4 March 6.30pm (75 mins)
Tickets: $20-$25
The First World War is one of the most documented, commemorated and debated events of modern history. This session brings together three eminent historians, all of whom have written masterful accounts of the beginnings of the war. Paul Ham is the author of 1914: The Year the World Ended; Margaret MacMillan is the author of The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914; and Sean McMeekin author of July 1914: Countdown to War.

A History of Christianity: Diarmaid MacCulloch
Elder Hall, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace
Wedensday 5 March 6.30pm (60 mins)
Tickets: $20 – $25
In 1987 Diarmaid MacCulloch was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England, but declined ordination to the priesthood because of the church’s attitude to his homosexuality. MacCulloch is one of the world’s most influential church historians and the author of many prize winning books including A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years and most recently Silence: A Christian History. Join this controversial thinker in conversation.

Comics Can Do Anything: Mandy Ord, Simon Hanselmann & Pat Grant, Nicki Greenberg, Tim Molloy & Sutu, Alison Bechdel
Banquet Room, Adelaide Festival Centre
Sunday 2 March
Tickets: $15 per session
Sometimes called the invisible art, comics and graphic novels are among the most inventive of all contemporary art practice. Funny, poignant, political and always intelligent, comic art is older than you may think and far more popular. No longer an underground activity, comics are increasingly in the mainstream. Join us for a day of sensitive creatures including a smoking owl, digital monsters, The Great Gatsby and a young girl coming of age.

Adelaide Writers’ Week Program Guide:
If you wish to order your own copy contact Adelaide festival on (08) 8216 4444 or send your name and address with credit card details (including CCV) or a cheque (made payable to Adelaide Festival Corporation) to: PO Box 8221 Station Arcade, Adelaide SA 5000.

Box Office: adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246

Full list of Writers:

International Writers:
Rabih Alameddine (LEB)
Bernardo Atxaga/Jose Irazu Garmendia (SPA)
Alison Bechdel  (USA)
Jenny Bornholdt (NZ)
Eleanor Catton (NZ)
Jung Chang (CHI/UK)
Marcus Chown (UK)
Louise Doughty (UK)
Margaret Drabble (UK)
Helen Dunmore (UK)
Rayya Elias (SYR/USA)
Zoe Ferraris (USA)
Elizabeth Gilbert (USA)
Lloyd Jones (NZ)
Elizabeth Knox (NZ)
Rachel Kushner (USA)
Alexander McCall Smith (UK)
Sean McMeekin (USA)
Diarmaid MacCulloch (UK)
Margaret Macmillan (CAN)
Greg O’Brien (NZ)
Jordi Punti (SPA)
Jaspreet Singh (CAN)
Francis Spufford (UK)
Jeet Thayil (IND)
Adriaan van Dis (NED)
David Vann (USA)
David Waltner-Toews (CAN)
John Waters (USA)
D W Wilson (CAN)
Yang Lian (CHI)

Australian Writers:
Robert Adamson
Asphyxia
Joelie Atkinson
Lenny Bartulin
Tony Birch
Stuart Campbell
Fiona Capp
Gabrielle Carey
Steven Carroll
Phil Cummings
Stephen Daisley
David Day
Michelle de Kretser
Amy Espeseth
Anna Fienberg
Richard Flanagan
Mem Fox
Kimberley Freeman
Kim Gamble
Katrina Germein
Anna Goldsworthy
Pat Grant
Nicki Greenberg
Andy Griffiths
Paul Ham
Simon Hanselmann
Kristyn Harman
Ken Harper – Slapstick Theatre
Kathryn Heyman
Patrick Holland
Lisa Jacobson
Catherine Jinks
Philip Jones
Tom Keneally
Hannah Kent
Iain McCalman
Roger McDonald
Fiona McFarlane
David Malouf
Jennifer Mills
Tim Molloy
Frank Moorhouse
Philip Nitschke
Louis Nowra
Mandy Ord
Geoff Page
Boori Monty Pryor
Henry Reynolds
Kate Richards
Mandy Sayer
Cory Taylor
Mark Tredinnick
Christos Tsiolkas
Chris Womersley
Alexis Wright
Clare Wright

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