Push your boat away from the shore of everyday worries, and row out to the sea of stories. Stories for dreamers, stories to nourish the soul, stories that are a call to action and stories that are threads in our web of humankind.
The theme of the Melbourne Writers Festival in 2011 is ‘Stories Unbound’. The fulsome program features a wide range of local and overseas writers. For example, today I attended a panel session ‘Stories without Borders?’ chaired by Maria Tumarkin. Maria is one of my favorite authors and I only stumbled across her recently, when I read her beautifully written article of the same name in Meanjin. She made an excellent panel chair as she drew forth gems of wisdom from panel members. Shakira Hussein described flying back to Pakistan after 9/11. Arnold Zable relayed his experience of telling a story that a dying woman had bequeathed to him: a survivor of a refugee boat, sunk at sea with the loss of 353 passengers, she desperately needed to share her story, their stories. Abdulrazak Gurnah spoke about how silence can be a way of safeguarding but it can also be poisonous when people choose not to speak but should speak. He also said: “stories [can] become a burden because they have to be kept out of sight and they have to be not told, and then we sense that, especially if it is an intimate situation like a family.”
Toff in Town was the venue for ‘Stories Unbound’ tonight. Note-taking was not permitted as 5 authors shared stories not yet published. But let’s just say that there was lots of deep bellied laughter! Wonderful story-telling!
Melbourne Writers Festival is on until 4 September at various CBD venues. Ticket prices are reasonable and can be purchased on line at the Festival’s website www.mwf.com.au
