Love and Friendship
Sally Piper + Bridie Jabour + Helen Jukes (UK)
Festival Hub, Maiwar Green
Relationships / Romance
305
#Performances
#About the event
Duration: 60 minutes
Bridie Jabour: The Way Things Should Be
Claudia is getting married in a week. Well, she’s 85% sure she is getting married in a week. Maybe 75%… First, she must return home to spend the week with her siblings Zoe, Phinn and Poppy who, despite their best intentions, are quick to return to long-established battle lines.
The arrival of her best friend Nora, desperately trying to keep her own demons quiet, does nothing to soothe the possessive sisters. Meanwhile, their parents George and Rachel, long estranged from each other, are struggling with how different their children turned out to what they’d imagined. Taller, maybe?
The Way Things Should Be is a warm, funny and genuine novel about the conflicting joys and disappointments of millennials. It explores the complex relationships between parents and adult children, what we expect and what actually receive, and the complicated terrain that is the relationships with our siblings, best friends, and ourselves.
Sally Piper: Geography of Friendship
When three young women set off on a hike through the wilderness they are anticipating the adventure of a lifetime. Over the next five days, as they face up to the challenging terrain, it soon becomes clear they are not alone and the freedom they feel quickly turns to fear. Only when it is too late for them to turn back do they fully appreciate the danger they are in. As their friendship is tested, each girl makes an irrevocable choice; the legacy of which haunts them for years to come.
Now in their forties, Samantha, Lisa and Nicole are estranged, but decide to revisit their original hike in an attempt to salvage what they lost. As geography and history collide, they are forced to come to terms with the differences that have grown between them and the true value of friendship.
Helen Jukes: The Honeybee Heart has Five Openings
A fascinating, insightful and inspiring account of a novice beekeeper's year of keeping honeybees.
Chair: Alex Adsett
#Artists
Sally Piper
Sally Piper is the author of three novels. Her most recent Bone Memories was a finalist in the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for a Work of State Significance, the Courier Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award and was longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award and a Davitt Award. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in various publications to include Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian.
Bridie Jabour
Bridie Jabour is assistant news editor at the Guardian where she has written commentary on social affairs, feminism and pop culture. She has reported on federal and state politics and appears regularly on ABC's The Drum, Triple J's Hack, ABC Weekend Breakfast and Sky News.
She has a Walkley in her house but it does not have her name on it.
Her debut novel is The Way Things Should Be.
Helen Jukes (UK)
Helen Jukes is a writer, beekeeper, and writing tutor. Her writing has appeared in Caught by the River, BBC Wildlife, Resurgence, Backroad Journal, The Junket, and LITRO. She tutors on the creative writing programme at Oxford University, and also with the Bee Friendly Trust, a London-based charity founded by beekeeper Luke Dixon to promote our understanding of honeybees and help nurture sustainable habitats.
She lives in the Welsh Marches, UK.
#Moderator
Alex Adsett
Alex Adsett is a literary agent and publishing consultant with more than 25 years’ experience working in the publishing and bookselling industry. She has managed Alex Adsett Literary since 2008, and has helped thousands of authors review and negotiate their publishing deals. As an agent she represents more than 50 authors of all ages and genres, including Melissa Lucashenko, Dinuka McKenzie, Jodi McAlister, Christine Jackman, and many more. She regularly speaks on copyright and contracts around Australia, and is an alumni of the Australia Council Arts Leaders Program 2019.