Monday 4 June, 2007

Sydney Writer's Festival

In Sydney Writer's Festival news it seems the festival was a sucess, despite various tensions. ' . . . missing from the festival was Australian novelist Kate Grenville, who pulled out 10 days ago for family reasons, which she told The Australian had nothing to do with her objection to the wording of printed program notes describing a festival session, Making a Fiction of History.

According to the program, Grenville had "upset historians" by suggesting her award-winning novel The Secret River "was a new form of history writing".

"I have never said I wrote history or anything remotely like that. I know the difference between fiction and history. I am inspired by history; I don't claim to be putting flesh on the bones of history," she said yesterday.'

I have no idea if that is actually why Grenville pulled out, but I do understand her frustration with festival program notes which often set authors up in ways that make it hard for them to feel comfortable about speaking publicly.