We've arrived! Huzzah!
Hundreds of excited little readers descended on the State Library Of Queensland by the busload today for Word Play, marking the official start of the 2016 Brisbane Writers Festival!
Picture book author and illustrator Katherine Battersby took her audience flapping and squawking on adventures real and imagined. Bec Sparrow and Meg Rosoff dispensed some life lessons to teens about resilience and fitting in, while Ted Prior and Christopher Currie revealed the secrets to their writing success.
Troy Cassar-Daley is currently fireside in SLQ's Talking Circle sharing tunes and stories from his memoir, Things I Carry Around. Tune in on social media to enjoy some digital ditties from the country star.
Each evening, we'll regale you with highlights from the day past and reveal a hit-list of events that still have capacity for your to sneak into! You can book online, by phone, or in person at the peachy Festival box office during festival hours.
Here is today’s Daily Dozen, a round-up of events that we think you’ll love and that, amazingly, still have tickets available! You're welcome. Get booking, team.
1. Is there anyone cooler than Yassmin Abdel-Magied? Founder and President of Youth Without Borders, FIFO mechanical engineer on rigs, motorsport maniac, writer, reader, blogger... she's done it all. Bring the small people in your life along to have their young minds blown about stereotypes and identity. You can see Yassmin at Word Play tomorrow and as part of the Online Literature Festival on Friday, getting fired up during the Great Debate on Saturday or talking sport and asking Do You See What I See on Sunday
2. In case you've missed a chance to see Alexei Sayle's in conversation Thatcher Stole My Trousers, we have good news! He has now joined The Great Debate line up and going head to head with Dave O'Neil to see who can make the most politically incorrect jokes. An annual Festival favourite!
3. Digital storytelling guru Kate Pullinger will be pulling apart that ever-complicated relationship between audience and artist when exploring The Rules of Engagement on Saturday afternoon.
4. Marie Munkara will be on hand to share her journey of personal reflection in her beautiful memoir Of Ashes and Rivers that Run to the Sea.
5. Head to the end of the world with Midge Raymond, as she talks about her new debut novel set among glacial mountains, cleaving icebergs and the frigid waters of Antarctica in My Last Continent.
6. For those looking for a way in to the a difficult conversation, join Steven Amsterdam, Leah Kaminsky and Andrew McMillen for three very different perspectives on the inevitable in INSPIRE: Death.
7. The future is almost within reach, but will the world be better or worse in fifty years? Any Merrifield, Ashley Hay and Brendan Gleeson will be Imagining the Future on Sunday morning.
8. This year you can catch a number of events that will be AUSLAN interpreted. A mix of free and ticketed events are on offer, including sessions with Lionel Shriver, Graeme Innes and Kate Forsyth.
9. What's in your apocalypse survival kit? Get some tips from the experts at Love YA! so you're prepared.
10. When Luke Williams starting investigating the underworld associated with the drug ice, he could never have imagined becoming a statistic. Hear him share his harrowing path to recovery and view on the epidemic from the inside and out during his In Conversation and when he joins Elspeth Muir to talk Recovery and Reconnection.
11. In a Festival first for 2016, music and fiction blend together in a special presentation by some of Brisbane’s most talented performers during Twilight in the Red Box.
12. A passion for reading, writing and thinking ican be addictive - why not learn from the best in a Masterclass with Damon Young. (Psst! One of our Philosophers-in-Residence, Professor Fred is going too. He'll be the one in the cape.)
Don't forget about BWF in the ’Burbs program, where you can meet out Festival authors at a Brisbane City Council library near you.
Grab some last minute tickets and join our community of readers!