Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Saturday 06 May
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
This event is now fully booked. Festival passes to Clunes Booktown (excluding this event) are available at the festival website.
‘A word after a word after a word is power,’ wrote the feminist author Margaret Atwood.
What is the power of putting a woman front and centre in a story? And is it still a subversive act? In this broad discussion at Clunes Booktown Festival we’ll hear from women who write about women: Hannah Kent (Burial Rites), Clementine Ford (Fight Like a Girl), Melissa Keil (The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl) and Jane Harrison (Becoming Kirrali Lewis).
With experience writing across a range of forms and genres – from opinion columns to fantasy YA novels to feminist manifesto to historical fiction – these writers will discuss their priorities, predicaments and even anxieties when placing women at the centre of their narratives. What are the unique responsibilities of describing female experiences?
In conversation with Gemma Rayner.
Presented in partnership with Clunes Booktown Festival.
Featuring
Hannah Kent
Hannah Kent's debut novel, Burial Rites (2013), was translated into over thirty languages and won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, and the Victorian Premier's People's Choice Award. It was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Stella Prize, the Guardian First Book Award, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Good People, was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Award for Historical Fiction, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year. Hannah's latest novel, Devotion, was published in 2021, and her original feature film, Run Rabbit Run, directed by Daina Reid and starring Sarah Snook, is currently in production with Carver Films.
View ProfileClementine Ford
Clementine Ford is a Melbourne-based writer, speaker and feminist thinker. She is a columnist for Fairfax’s Daily Life and is a regular contributor to the Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Through her twice-weekly columns for Daily Life, Clementine explores issues of gender inequality and pop culture. Fight Like a Girl is her first book.
Her ability to use humour and distilled fury to lay bare ongoing issues affecting women has earned her a huge and loyal readership. Clementine’s work has radically challenged the issues of men’s violence against women, rape culture and gender warfare in Australia, while her comedic take on casual sexism and entertainment has earned her a reputation as an accomplished satirist.
Melissa Keil
Melissa Keil is a writer and children's book editor. She is the author of three YA novels: Life in Outer Space, The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl and The Secret Science of Magic. Her short story, Sundays, is featured in Begin, End, Begin, the #LoveOzYA anthology. She is also the author of the Barkly Mansion junior fiction series with illustrator Adele K. Thomas. Melissa's books have been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Prime Ministers Literary Award, The CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers) award, and have been translated into many languages around the world.
View ProfileGemma Rayner
Gemma Rayner is Series Producer at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.
For five years she has worked across a range of programming initiatives, from regular event and podcast series to Town Hall debates, comedy, children's and cabaret specials, and festivals and regional touring.
Gemma holds a BA from Melbourne University, spent a decade in publishing – predominantly with Text, one of Melbourne’s vibrant independent publishing houses – and was co-founder and artistic director of the Woodend Children's Festival 2013/2014. An experienced producer, editor and project manager, she is a current Peer Assessor for the Australia Council for the Arts (2017–2020).
Jane Harrison
Jane Harrison is descended from the Muruwari people and is an award-winning playwright, author and festival director. Her first play, Stolen, was performed across Australia and internationally for seven years, and ...