Place is important to award-winning author Rhett Davis.
Born at St John of God (then Holy Cross) Hospital in Geelong, he has lived elsewhere around Australia and the world but continues to find himself returning to Wadawurrung Country time after time.
Author of numerous short stories, Mr Davis released his first full-length novel, ‘Hovering’, last year, a genre-defying work exploring concepts of leaving and staying, identity and the uncertainty of the current era set in Fraser, a fictional Australian city very similar to Geelong.
Thus, it’s no surprise the panel Mr Davis will host at Geelong Regional Libraries’ Local Word Writers Festival this month, titled Living Place, Writing Place, centres around discussions of Geelong and Wadawurrung Country more broadly.
The panel features Miles Franklin Award shortlisted authors Kgshak Akec, and Dorothy Johnston and Gunditjmara actor, writer and theatre-maker Tom Molyneux, who will seek to explore how their stories have been shaped by the area they are set in.
“It’ll be really interesting; every person on the panel has got quite a different experience with Geelong, and they’re also quite different as writers and creative people,” Mr Davis said.
“Tom’s a playwright and theatre person as well as being a First Nations person; Kgshak… is writing in a really open way about being forced to flee really horrible situations and then ending up here, of all places.
“And that’s very different to someone like Dorothy, who’s been here for a long time and written a lot about the history of the place, the European history in particular.
“We’re all very different writers with different experiences, but there’s this commonality; we’re all here. So how we talk about that and engage with the place we find ourselves in is going to be really interesting.”
The festival, held on Friday, August 25 and Saturday, August 26 at Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and other libraries across the Geelong region, will feature 14 different workshops, presentations, panels and special events.
Visit grlc.vic.gov.au/localword for more information and ticketing.
