On Writing - From Personal Passions and Experiences

Sat 8 Sep 2018

Trent Dalton + A.J. Finn (US)

Cinema B, GoMA

How to Write

317

#Performances

#About the event

Duration: 50 minutes

Two accomplished authors discuss writing based on personal experiences and passions.

A.J. Finn’s debut novel that Stephen King describes as "remarkable" and I call "the best I could do” reflects his personal passions in suspense fiction, from the Sherlock Holmes stories, classic cinema, in particular Hitchcock. His gripping psychological thriller draws on his struggles with agoraphobia and depression.

Journalist and editor, Trent Dalton has written an utterly wonderful novel of love, crime, magic, fate and coming of age, set in Brisbane's violent working class suburban fringe. Trent has spent time immersed in the homeless population of Brisbane researching his previous work. Both books are highly addictive.

Chair: Helene Young

#Artists

Trent Dalton

Trent Dalton is the author of Boy Swallows Universe (HarperCollins, 2018), a critically acclaimed international bestseller and winner of the 2019 Indie Book of the Year Award, the MUD Literary Prize, and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and the People's Choice Award at the 2019 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. At the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards, the book won a record four awards, including the prestigious Book of the Year Award. Boy Swallows Universe has been published across thirty-four English language and translation territories. His second novel, All Our Shimmering Skies (HarperCollins, 2020) has also become a national bestseller.

Since its publication in June 2018, Dalton's critically acclaimed debut Boy Swallows Universe has become one of the most loved Australian novels of all time, breaking Nielsen Bookscan records to become Australia's fastest selling debut novel ever. In 2021, the Queensland Theatre Company stage production of Boy Swallows Universe saw such demand for tickets, the season was extended three times, resulting in a sold-out six-week run at 100% capacity in QPAC's Playhouse, seen by nearly 40,000 people.

Dalton is also a two-time winner of a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism, a four-time winner of a Kennedy Award for Excellence in NSW Journalism and a four-time winner of the national News Awards Features Journalist of the Year.

A.J. Finn (US)

A.J. Finn is the author of the number one New York Times and international bestseller The Woman in the Window, sold in 43 territories worldwide. A film version starring Amy Adams (Arrival, American Hustle) and directed by Joe Wright (Darkest Hour, Atonement) is currently in production in New York City.

Finn researched detective fiction as a PhD student at Oxford. For a decade he was a book editor and publisher in London and New York, where he acquired or published J. K. Rowling, Michael Robotham, Peter Robinson, Tina Fey, and Patricia Cornwell, as well as the Agatha Christie estate.

He lives in New York and is currently at work on his second novel.

#Moderator

Helene Young

After 28 years as an airline captain in Australia, Helene Young has swapped the sky for the sea to go in search of adventure with her husband aboard their sailing catamaran. The rural and remote places she visits, along with the fascinating people she meets, provide boundless inspiration for her novels. Her strong interest in both social justice and the complexity of human nature shapes the themes she explores. Her six novels have won many awards including Romantic Book of the Year in Australia.