Writers Week at the Perth Festival is upon us! The weekend of February 24 and 25 will be packed with lots of great events to hear and see around the UWA campus. Sunday the 25th is an especially big day for Westerly, with two events sponsored by us available.
The first of these is a panel titled Indigenous Speculative Aesthetics, which will be at the University Club amphitheatre at 9:30am on Sunday. This panel will be chaired by Westerly‘s Editor for Indigenous Writing Elfie Shiosaki, in discussion with Claire G. Coleman, Ambelin Kwaymullina, and Paul Collis. Our panel will be asking questions about the growing genre of Indigenous speculative fiction: How can we open up new conversations about nationhood in our postcolonial context? What can we say when we talk about imagined futures and alternative presents, differences in voice and form? Can we change our understanding of what Australia is and how we got here? What sort future might we want to create, and how might we do it? We ask these questions in the spirit of imagination, and we look forward to hearing what our panellists have to say.
Our second sponsored event is the The Westerly Centre Randolph Stow Memorial Lecture, which will take place at 10am in the theatre auditorium. This lecture is a special event, held every two years at the Festival, that celebrates the life and work of Randolph Stow, one of Westerly‘s past editors and one of Western Australia’s most beloved writers. Stow drew on the character of Western Australia in his work—its regional, rural and remote places—to create stunningly lyrical works that thread Gothic and Romantic touches through extraordinary writing of place. Stow’s work speaks to us and our identity as Western Australians as strongly as ever, and we hope that you’ll join Catherine Noske and Donna Mazza as they discuss Stow’s work and its enduring power.
That’s just the start of an action-packed Writers Week: you can find the full programme at the Perth Festival website. While the weekend is full of amazing talks, performances and features, don’t miss the events through the week at fantastic venues like the Centre for Stories, the City of Perth Library, Strange Company, Linton & Kay and Fremantle Arts Centre.