Saturday is an exciting day for us at Wakefield, as it’s the first day of Adelaide Writers’ Week, every local bibliophile’s week of bliss.
It’s even more special because we have two authors in the tents this year, with Mike Ladd kicking off proceedings Saturday morning, and Ken Bolton joining in on the fun on Tuesday. Aside from those on the programs, we also have plenty of authors chairing events: Nicholas Jose, Peter Monteath, Cath Kenneally and Peter Burdon, with Louise Nicholas reading poetry, too. What a good Wakefield crew!
Writers’ Week has been around for a long time, and for many of us it’s hard now to remember our first sessions. From its beginnings as a festival specifically for writers in 1960, it gradually broadened to become a place for readers and writers alike.
A quick poke around the interwebs dredges up a few of the old programs, for anyone feeling nostalgic! —
Clockwise from top left: the programs from this year, 1962, 1996, 1970, 1976, 1980, 2015, 2016 and 2014.
Most of these images come straight from the Adelaide Festival website, but I tracked the 1980 program down on the State Library of SA’s amazing Adelaide Festival Pinterest collection (where would we be without SLSA??), and the 1962 program comes courtesy the Wheeler Centre.
And, look, this is completely off topic, but it feels like a Velvet Underground kind of day, so I’ma share. Maybe there’s a comparison with bibliophiles looking for a hit. Maybe that’s a complete stretch …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugY9CwhfzE
I remember meeting Neal Stephenson after his talk in 2005!!
-In 2005, visiting authors included Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Ruth Rendell and Neal Stephenson.
He signed my copy of Cryptonomicon!! i was last in line. And yes, the fan/comments/adelaidecrowd-so-called-questions were agonising 45 mins cringe worthy facepalmers until they called an end to Q&A and everybody sighed with relief!!!
See you at Writers Week 2017, Hooray!
What an amazing line-up they had in 2005! Queueing to see your favourite author is all part of the Writers’ Week fun – as is enduring awkward audience questions. We’re looking forward to all of it.
You might have mentioned my alphabetical history of WW, published by WAKEFIELD PRESS – yes, you_ WRITERS, READERS AND REBELS – in 2000. Time for an update?
Of course! The ultimate AWW guide. I think we’re well overdue for an update. There’s seventeen years’ worth of gossip to be catching up on.