Our final event this year is organised in association with Maleny's Celebration of Books (see more below).

Our guests, Mark Tredinnick and Cate Kennedy, are the authors of best-selling works of non-fiction, essays, short stories, novels and poetry.

Cate Kennedy is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, which won the People’s Choice Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2010. In October this year she has a new collection of short stories entitled Like a House on Fire (reviewed in last week's Weekend Australian). Her first collection, Dark Roots, which included a story published in the New Yorker, was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award. She is also the author of a travel memoir, Sing, and Don’t Cry, and the poetry collections Joyflight, Signs of Other Fires and the recently published The Taste of River Water, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry in 2011. She lives on a secluded bend of the Broken River in north-east Victoria.

Mark Tredinnick was the winner of last year’s Montreal Poetry Prize, (arguably the world’s most prestigious poetry prize) for the poem Walking Underwater. He is also the author of several acclaimed non-fiction works, including The Blue Plateau, Fire Diary and Australia’s Wild Weather. But just in case you think you have him pigeon-holed, you should also know he’s the author of the extraordinarily successful Little Green and The Little Red Grammar Books. 

The Blue Plateau, which won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for non-fiction, is a history of the Blue Mountains which manages, at the same time, to be a lyrical essay on our relationship to geology, history and landscape; as near to perfect an example of ‘nature writing’ as is possible.

Saturday 27th 

Hinterland Business Centre, 9-1pm

Simon Groth

from if:book Australia,

THE AMPLIFIED AUTHOR 

What does digital publishing mean for writers today? With the advent of new technologies and ideas, there are a host of choices and opportunities for writers looking to connect with readers.
Some of what the workshop on Saturday morning 27th October (9-1pm) will cover:

• Discussion of ebook formats
• Hands on with a selection of e-readers
• How digital media fits within publishing (from traditional to self-publishing)
• Case studies of authors
• Discussion of Pressbooks as a publishing platform
• Tons of web-links to take away

There will also be plenty of time for Q & A to tailor the content to those in the room.
 

Simon Groth is manager of if:book Australia, an ideas lab linked to an international fellowship of organisations that research book futures, including the Institute for the Future of the Book in New York, if:book, London and if:lire, in Paris.

Cost $40 / Some places still available, book now

Friday 26th

9-1pm, Hinterland Business Centre, Coral Street.

Cate Kennedy

THE ELEMENTS OF A GREAT SHORT STORY / Sold Out

Every writer occasionally needs re-inspiration to consider what elements are crucial in a great piece of short fiction, and how to shape their own stories for maximum impact.

This stimulating half-day workshop will focus on identifying and developing potent ideas for good short stories, analysing narrative, dialogue, characterisation and imagery, and discussing how they all come together to make your fiction resonate powerfully with readers. 

Bring paper, a pen and the will to shift some old habits.

Cost $40pp

Bookings: Maleny Bookshop, 5494 3666.