The South Coast Readers & Writers Festival returns to Thirroul over the weekend of 5-6 July with a vibrant lineup of literary talent, from rising stars to international bestsellers. With a program ranging from soul-stirring poetry readings, captivating literary fiction, historical recreation, and young adult adventures to thought-provoking non-fiction, intimate memoirs, gripping biographies, and cutting-edge politics, this year’s South Coast Readers & Writers Festival has something for everyone.
We sat down with one of the festival’s headlining guests, Amy Remeikis – who contributed to What's the Big Idea?: 30 Years of the Australia Institute – to talk all things writing and reading.
What is your latest writing project?
‘The trouble with nice’, which is essentially a book looking at civility politics and how niceness is used as a form of oppression. How many of us have stayed quiet because we were worried about being seen as ‘nice’? That's a learned, conditioned behaviour which only benefits the status quo. What has been so interesting about writing and researching on it, though, is how many people immediately jump to thinking the opposite of being nice is being unkind. It absolutely isn’t – but says a lot about how we think about ‘niceness’.
What are you reading right now?
I have a toddler, so my reading is dominated by Mem Fox’s Green Sheep and where they are hiding. But I am sneaking in Our Exceptional Friend by Emma Shortis in between shaking dinosaurs out of books.
What is the book that made you want to be a writer?
I can’t remember a particular book, but just a love of reading which my oma instilled in me as a child. Books got her through losing her family, country and life as she knew it and I can’t picture her without an open book or newspaper and she passed that magic along to me. I didn’t for a moment ever think my name would be in a book – just that I knew they could change worlds.
What does your writing space look like?
Whatever room I can find, whenever I can find it. I don’'t have any dedicated space in my home, but I do have a mobile writing desk that helps elevate my laptop and some pretty pens and notepads for jotting down ideas at any moment – so it’s unorganised, but somehow it all works.
What is your writing routine?
Panic, think, panic, have a cup of tea, write, write, write, close it and walk away, come back and edit, freak out, shake myself a bit and listen to my editors. Writers can have a habit of thinking every word they write is dripping in gold, but it truly does pay to take the advice of a good editor – they can find the gold and elevate it, while writers can sometimes just be blinded by the shine of their efforts.
Super early bird tickets are on sale now for the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival, at southcoastwriters.org/festival. The full festival program will be announced 5 May.
