Writer’s bright idea for more than a book lovers’ bash

WRITER and political analyst Sisonke Msimang often tells people she was born in exile to a South African freedom fighter and accountant.

As the major influences in Msimang’s life, her father’s desire to make the world a better place and mother’s pragmatism have shaped her thinking, right down to planning the Perth Festival’s Literature & Ideas weekend.

Known as Writers Festival and Writers Week in previous incarnations, there are some aspects of the premier literary event at the University of WA that she knew better than to change while curating her maiden program.

“It operated as a festival within Perth Festival and the wonderful things about that are it’s a self-contained unit, people know exactly where to go and they know how it runs every year, so the accountant in me knew it was important that stayed the same,” the author of Always Another Country and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela said during an address at the Karrakatta Club.

“But we are under pressure to have a wider audience; that is very much a pressure everyone in the arts feels.”

The need to attract a younger generation distracted by digital, as well as new Perth Festival artistic director Iain Grandage’s focus on the topics that make societies tick and encouraging important broader conversations within the city, resulted in the addition of an ideas concept to the book lovers’ bash.

“My stealth mission is to get them to books though because I think books are still really important for how we engage with the world and how we are able to imagine ourselves as far more than what our immediate physical surroundings may allow us to think,” Msimang said.

“Imagination helps build empathy and that allows you to be thoughtful rather than obsessed with the now.

That’s not to say Msimang doesn’t value the festival’s traditional crowd of university-educated women aged around 55 years.

In fact, she couldn’t imagine a better base to build on.

“Those women don’t just buy books, they gift them to their friends, children and grandchildren, and that’s part of the culture we are trying to inculcate,” she said.

“I’m very excited about the audience we already have and inviting a new one.

“That’s where conversations happen – in a wonderful space of meeting one another and sharing in the thing we love or hope to love, which is reading, books and sharing ideas.”

Msimang and her team spent almost a year creating a program of more than 70 free and ticketed sessions featuring about 100 writers, thinkers, journalists and comedians addressing the festival’s bold themes of land, money, power and sex.

The guests are people they would invite to a dinner party for the city if given the chance.

On this occasion, there’s a “brain food” series scheduled at the University Club restaurant, including a breakfast with Peter Holmes a Court about his new memoir Riding with Giants.

It’s also a weekend featuring panels, “slow reads” (authors reading from their own work) and a family day, plus there’s a bigger space for book signings and larger pop-up book shop.

The ultimate aim is to get attendees to talk and laugh; have big conversations in ways that are fun.

This year, the sessions have increased from 45 to 60 minutes and breaks doubled to 30 minutes, allowing deeper discussions as well as more time for reflection.

Literature heavy-hitters include Neil Gaiman, whose works American Gods and Good Omens have been brought to life on the small screen.

Australian authors Charlotte Wood (The Weekend), Melissa Lucashenko (Too Much Lip), Christos Tsiolkas (Damascus) and Heather Rose (Bruny) are also part of the program, along with familiar names from radio and television including Jane Caro (Accidental Feminists) and Matt Okine (“The Other Guy”).

Local writer Craig Silvey (Jasper Jones) and hugely successful crime fiction writers Dervla McTiernan, Sara Foster and David Wish-Wilson are among the line-up, while international guests include Pakistani journalist Sanam Maher (A Woman Like Her: The Short Life of Qandeel Baloch) and Arif Anwar from Canada (The Storm).

Msimang said she was keen to continue curating the annual event as long as she could write while serving in the role.

Her next commitment is a six-week residency in Bellagio, Italy, where she’ll start work on her third book.

The Perth Festival’s Literature & Ideas weekend runs from February 21-23.