The South Coast Readers & Writers Festival returns to Thirroul over the weekend of 5–6 July with a vibrant lineup of literary talent. The full festival program is now LIVE featuring local voices, return guests, and internationally bestselling authors.
Join us at the festival for gripping and challenging conversations, tales ancient and new, poetry readings, current affairs, and insights into the business of publishing. Discover new authors and find your next favourite read.
We sat down with one of the festival’s local, award-winning authors Camille Booker (The Woman in the Waves) to talk all things writing and reading.
What is your latest writing project?
I’m currently pursuing my PhD in creative writing at the University of Wollongong. My thesis aims to explore how contemporary novels are embracing the figure of the witch to reveal female empowerment and refusal, while the creative component is a novel of historical fiction. The Butter Witches is set in Bulli, a coal mining town on the south coast of New South Wales. In 1887 a mine explosion killed all the men and boys of the town, so the novel is a gothic, ‘coming of power’ story, with elements of magical realism and folk horror. It’s Hannah Kent’s Devotion meets The Craft (1996) with a Robert Eggers’s The Witch (2015) vibe.
What are you reading right now?
A wonderful historical fiction debut called By Her Hand by Marion Taffe.
What is the book that made you want to be a writer?
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons.
What does your writing space look like?
To be honest, I don’t really have a dedicated writing space. I usually carry my laptop around the house and write in different locations – the couch, the coffee table, in bed, at the kitchen bench. If the words aren’t flowing, I love to sit in a café to write.
What is your writing routine?
Again, I don’t have a strict writing routine, and I mostly attempt to write in thirty-minute bursts of free time, juggling life and responsibilities. My kids are still quite young, so all my writing happens around them, and I value every minute of sleep, so I rarely wake up early to write. But, on the days when my littlest is at preschool, and once lunches and schoolbags are packed and they are dropped off, I usually ignore all the chores, drink a big coffee and make the most of the quiet time to get some words down. For me, it’s a slow process!
The full festival program for the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival is now live, at southcoastwriters.org/festival. Early bird tickets are on sale until 9 June.
