StoryFest Inc in Milton, New South Wales | Literary arts

StoryFest Inc

Locality: Milton, New South Wales

Address: 69 Princes Highway 2538 Milton, NSW, Australia

Website: http://storyfest.org.au

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23.01.2022 Writers & Lovers Lily King, Author Pan Macmillan Review by Michelle Barraclough Writer... I have a new author crush and her name is Lily King. I absolutely adored this novel about a 31-year-old writer named Casey. She is crippled by massive uni debt, working as a waitress, unlucky in love and grieving for her mother who recently died on holiday. She is writing her first novel between waitressing shifts and trying very hard to maintain her creativity and optimism in the face of so many obstacles, including her narcissistic landlord who says to her 'I just find it extraordinary that you think you have something to say.' Ugh, knife to the heart for a writer, or at least a creativity-killer. Two potential blokes come into Casey's life who are also writers. One is older, successful, a father; the other is struggling like Casey. This novel is a heart-warming exploration of how a woman juggles her writing life with relationships, paid work and the daily effort of grieving a much-loved, much-missed parent. I loved the uplifting ending and related to the sections on writing process, refreshingly written from a woman’s point of view. Writers & Lovers was recommended by novelist Ann Patchett and I can certainly see some parallels in their writing styles. Now to get my hands on everything Lily King has ever written! What have you been reading? Find us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and let us know.

21.01.2022 Spring really has sprung here on the NSW south coast with glorious weather! To celebrate we're giving away a fabulous stack novels by 7 of Australia’s best loved authors. Lenny's Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern - Author The Chain by Adrian McKinty... The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey The Lost Jewels by Kirsty Manning - Writer The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester - Author There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett All you have to do to win is sign up to our newsletter and tell us which book you would read first! Click HERE - https://www.storyfest.org.au/competition-big-spring-giveaway

20.01.2022 StoryFest Submission are OPEN. How exciting to see those words in print again! The dates for StoryFest 2021 are Friday June 18 to Sunday June 20. It will include creative workshops, a Family Fun Day, and over thirty events celebrating storytelling in all its form. In addition, the Schools Program runs in the week leading up to the main festival from Tuesday June 15 to Friday June 18. StoryFest welcomes submissions from artist, filmmakers, storytellers, writers, musicians, an...d performers of all kinds. We are also interested in talking to people with proven skills in facilitating events, MC-ing, or similar in the festival environment. So go on, surprise us! Pitch us an event idea, spruik your credentials, open our eyes to the limitless possibilities of storytelling. True stories, made-up ones, perhaps a light shone on little known or seldom explored facts about our world, we welcome all suggestions.

20.01.2022 The Rain Heron Robbie Arnott Text Publishing Review by Jock Serong...Continue reading

19.01.2022 Honeybee Craig Silvey Allen & Unwin Books Review by Meredith Jaffe... Fourteen-year-old Sam Watson is standing on the wrong side of the safety railing on an overpass, contemplating the events that have led him to this point in his short life. He looks up and sees an old man smoking a cigarette and realises he too is standing on the wrong side of the railing. This is the first time Vic saves Sam. A beautiful friendship unfolds on the page between the grieving widower and a young boy who is not sure how to define his identity, except that it brings him confusion and deep shame. Together they navigate the tricky space between life as it has been and life as it may be. Sam’s mother is beautiful and selfish borne from ever-present poverty and fear. The man she chooses to rescue her is only interested in control. He despises Sam in a way that says that who Sam is frightens him. It is Vic who gives Sam what his own family cannot. Vic accepts Sam for who is and this is the first of his gifts. It’s been eleven years between Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones, the coming of age novel that catapulted him to international fame in print, on film and on stage. Honeybee is also about that transition from childhood to adulthood; from being acted upon to assuming agency of one’s own. But Honeybee traverses different terrain. This is a novel that asks the reader to explore the limits of their empathy, to find a way to understand what it truly means to walk in another person’s shoes. In places it is raw and uncomfortable, in others its compassion and courage lifts from the page. Honeybee is a deeply satisfying novel, subtle and strong, and ultimately filled with love.

14.01.2022 When we immerse ourselves in a story we become entranced, like a magic spell has been cast and we are transported, right there within the story. Stories and storytelling are powerful beyond compare. What stories are transporting you at the moment? ... Michelle has just finished an incredible new release The Mother Fault by Kate Mildenhall which tells a story of just how far a mother will go to protect her children in a frightening future version of Australia. Look out for her review in the September newsletter where we'll be giving away a copy of The Mother Fault! (sign up here - https://www.storyfest.org.au/newsletter-sign-up)

13.01.2022 Our Shadows Gail Jones Text Publishing Review by Michelle Barraclough Writer... If you like literary historical fiction, Gail Jones' latest novel Our Shadows is a beautifully written example of the genre. We follow three generations of the Hannon/Kelly family, from an unexpected fortune made in Ireland, to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie, to Sydney and the sea to which orphaned sisters Nell and Frances are drawn. The sisters, whose mother died in childbirth, were raised by their grandparents beside the Super Pit, a gold mine in the outback. They are drawn, as adults, to the ocean where their estranged father is purported to be but neither is in a rush to locate him and they live their adult lives without ever quite knowing who they are. When Frances returns to Western Australia, she begins to understand the forces and secrets that shaped them. The sisters' narrative is interwoven with flashbacks to the past, told from the points of view of her grandfather Fred and great-grandfather Paddy. Our Shadows is a close study of women related by blood, men seeking brotherhood in the mines and armies, and the rifts between generations. The narrative is somewhat fragmented in structure which is not to everyone's taste. However the prose is, as you would expect from a Gail Jones novel, lyrical and original. Some of the descriptions are visceral. For example, there are less than two pages devoted to the 19th century Irish Famine, yet the images of ‘a mother with a babe and a boy, their mouths green from the nettles and grass that they’d eaten, fallen together, interlaced, just in the field behind the Abbey’ will stay with me for a long time.

12.01.2022 Love this Pocast tip from @meredithjaffeauthor We share lots of great literary inspiration in our monthly newsletter, whether you love to listen or read! Sign up so you don’t miss out on this month’s news. And of course we give away a fabulous new release novel every month too "A chance comment by an old Uni mate lead me to the most marvellous podcast I have ever had the privilege of listening to (so far!) One of my all-time favourite Australian actors, Sascha Horler, ho...sts the simply wonderful Vodka, Books & Me where she talks to authors about writing, inspiration, and life. Episode 1 kicks off with a fantastic interview with Boy Swallows Universe genius, Trent Dalton. Horler’s astonishingly great readings pepper the chat, really bringing the novel to life. So far there are only 5 episodes but I’m really hoping Horler continues the series post lockdown." See more

09.01.2022 Milton Village is so pretty in the Winter. We've been so impressed by the number of visitors this year. Hope you can all pencil in our 2021 festival dates and come back again next year!

07.01.2022 If I Can't Have You Charlotte Levin Pan Macmillan Australia Review by Meredith Jaffe... Constance Little is a twenty-something single woman working as a medical receptionist in a private practice. It’s not a job she loves but it’s better than pulling beers or waiting tables. Especially after the rather hot new doctor Samuel Stevens joins the practice. It’s not long before the pair are entangled in an affair. Blind to the difference in their social status, Constance readily believes this is love and she has found her forever-after match. When he abruptly ends their relationship, dismissing it as a dalliance, love quickly metamorphosises into something far more dangerous; obsession. Stop yourself from dismissing If I Can’t Have You as yet another bunny-boiling thriller, it’s far warmer and darker than it might first appear. For starters, Constance is hilariously droll, even in regard to her own past traumas. She is shameless in her stalking but also ends up with a lot more than she bargains for. Constance is a wonderfully complex and empathetic character that this reader grew to love, despite her terrible and needy behaviour. As far as thrillers go, If I Can’t Have You is more Eleanor Oliphant than Girl on a Train but sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered. Keep your eyes out for details on how to win a copy of If I Cant Have You!

06.01.2022 Sorrow and Bliss Meg Mason HarperCollins Books Australia Review by Michelle Barraclough Writer... I’ve been waiting for Sorrow and Bliss since earlier this year when I read and loved Meg Mason’s first novel You Be Mother. Sorrow and Bliss delivered beautifully on its promise with a poignant, funny, sharply observed book about the difficulties of navigating life knowing there’s something a little bit wrong with you. The novel follows the story of Martha, who hides under her desk at the age of seventeen because it seems preferable to ‘the unnatural fact of living.’ She is sad and exhausted and everything hurts and she doesn’t know why. Thus begins her struggle to live with an undiagnosed mental illness in a society that doesn’t understand what a smart, witty, beautiful young woman could possibly have to be sad about. This all sounds rather dark but never fear! The novel is populated with a cast of characters who are either delightful and delightfully awful. Martha herself, with her witty observations and devastating humour, is captivating, although at times she can be pretty awful herself in her attempts to push away the people who love her. These people include Patrick, the love of her life who she’s known since they were children and who would do anything for her, Fergus her gentle, patient father, and her hilarious sister Ingrid who is gifted in the sending of appropriately inappropriate emojis. Eventually, however, everyone’s patience wears thin and Martha realizes it’s up to her to solve the problem of what is wrong with her so she can move forward with her life. Above all, this is a love story between a woman and the people who love her, despite her occasional attempts to prove herself unlovable. There’s something so compelling about Meg Mason’s writing. Her ability to paint a picture of her characters using sparsely drawn, clever vignettes is masterful. This perceptive, compassionate, funny novel is one of my favourites of the year.

06.01.2022 Spring has arrived on the South Coast, and the weather couldn't be more beautiful. We are picturing long lazy beach days ahead for the summer we never had in 2019! Will we see you down here this summer?

05.01.2022 4 days to go..... Submissions for StoryFest 2021 are closing soon. We'd love to hear your ideas! The festival will run from Friday June 18 to Sunday June 20 and will include creative workshops, a Family Fun Day, and over thirty events celebrating storytelling in all its form. In addition, the Schools Program runs in the week leading up to the main festival from Tuesday June 15 to Friday June 18.... StoryFest welcomes submissions from artists, filmmakers, storytellers, writers, musicians, and performers of all kinds. We are also interested in talking to people with proven skills in facilitating events, MC-ing, or similar in the festival environment. So go on, surprise us! Pitch us an event idea, spruik your credentials, open our eyes to the limitless possibilities of storytelling. True stories, made-up ones, perhaps a light shone on little known or seldom explored facts about our world, we welcome all suggestions. https://www.storyfest.org.au/submissions-open

05.01.2022 The Bluffs Kyle Perry Author Penguin Books Australia Review by Michelle Barraclough... A treacherous mountain range. Four missing teenage girls. A haunting historical mystery. A small town hiding some awful secrets behind closed doors. These are the captivating ingredients in Kyle Perry's debut novel The Bluffs. Throw in some interesting locals and cops with intriguing pasts and you have a story that will have you turning the pages fast in order to find out what happens. Kyle Perry has swerved away from the benign and bucolic Tasmania we know from other narratives. His Tassie wilderness is mysterious, menacing and unpredictable; I shivered every time his characters entered the forest, such was the power of his descriptions. He's also provided us with an intriguing cast of characters with the sort of complexity that makes them believable. The reserved lead detective travels with three suitcases for puzzling reasons. His quirky Kiwi offsider is fascinated by the more preternatural aspects of the case which may or may not be useful. The father of one of the missing girls was a rageful, emotional wreck who just might have a heart of gold. Kyle Perry does a terrific job peeling away the layers from each mystery. This is a really assured debut; I look forward to reading Perry's future novels. If you loved Jane Harper's Force of Nature or Chris Hammer's Silver, you'll love this.

04.01.2022 A Room Made of Leaves Kate Grenville Text Publishing Review by Meredith Jaffe ... Anything new from Kate Grenville is a reading gift. Her incredible prowess as a writer inspires awe and wonder at the turn of every page. Her new novel, A Room Made of Leaves, will not disappoint. It is the reimagining of the life of Elizabeth Macarthur, wife of John Macarthur; remembered as either the man who helped shape Australia’s future prosperity or a crooked and ambitious opportunist who used the penal colony of NSW to make a personal fortune. The premise of the novel turns on a simple concept. What if Elizabeth Macarthur’s secret memoir was discovered hidden in tin box wedged under a beam in the roof cavity of Elizabeth Farm. What if it revealed a different truth to the one publicly recorded in her letters and her published history of the Macarthur’s time in Australia? As Grenville herself warns, ‘do not believe too quickly!’ but it is an enticing idea and one Grenville clearly enjoys playing with. The elasticity of this novel allows Grenville to wonder whether women are consigned to dull dimensions in the pages of history, not only there because history is typically a male account but perhaps also because they occasionally choose to hide behind the ‘insipid fiction’ of their letters. A Room Made of Leaves talks to many things. About a time and place but also about how women navigate the world in such different ways to men. In Grenville’s hands, Elizabeth is a pragmatic and astute woman who wastes little time dwelling on her poor marriage to the mercurial John Macarthur and focuses her energies on turning circumstances to her advantage. As she often reminds the reader and herself, Elizabeth learns to play the long game.

04.01.2022 StoryFest 2021 will be held from 18 - 20 June in the Milton - Mollymook - Ulladulla region. Our storytelling festival highlights local and national artists and promotes storytellers in all forms fiction, non-fiction, poetry, film-making, songwriting and more. It will include creative workshops, a Family Fun Day, and over thirty events celebrating storytelling in all its form. In addition, the Schools Program runs in the week leading up to the main festival from Tuesday June... 15 to Friday June 18. StoryFest welcomes submissions from artists, filmmakers, storytellers, writers, musicians, and performers of all kinds. We are also interested in talking to people with proven skills in facilitating events, MC-ing, or similar in the festival environment. So go on, surprise us! Pitch us an event idea, spruik your credentials, open our eyes to the limitless possibilities of storytelling. True stories, made-up ones, perhaps a light shone on little known or seldom explored facts about our world, we welcome all suggestions. StoryFest will accept submissions for the 2021 program from 23 July until midnight 23 October 2020. Take the time to read through the 2019 Program. Make sure your idea hasn’t already featured and note the type of sessions in the program. Keep your proposal succinct and please include details about your location and that of other featured writers (if there are any.) To submit proposals for workshops, seminars, author sessions and events for StoryFest 2021, please fill in the form below. The deadline is final. Only those whose submissions are accepted will be contacted. If you do not receive confirmation by 31 January 2021, your submission was not successful. Given we are a small team, it is not possible to provide feedback regarding unsuccessful submissions. Thank you for your understanding.

04.01.2022 Song of the Crocodile Nardi Simpson Author Hachette Australia Books Review by Meredith Jaffe... When you drive into Darnmoor, the sign welcomes you with its cruelly ironic ‘Darnmoor, the Gateway to Happiness.’ This is an anywhere town founded by white settlers moulding the country into their vision of a pioneering farming community at a time when Australia still sang homage to the Queen as our national anthem and adopted constrained ideas of what it meant to be superior and successful. The Billymil family live outside of town, past the tip, at the Campground. This is a place cobbled together by the discarded pieces dumped by the white part of town and repurposed into homes by the indigenous community. But here is where the heart of Darnmoor beats most truly. Through the eyes and lives of Margaret, Ceilie, and Mili, the reader sees how the decades change everything but also change nothing. Injustices, crimes, and prejudice rub up against resilience, compassion, and love. Song of the Crocodile is the debut novel by black&write! Writing Fellowship winner and Yuwaalaraay woman, Nardi Simpson. Simpson is also one half of the folk duo Stiff Gins, known for their amazing harmonies and wicked sense of humour. And this musical heritage is evident in every word of Simpson’s writing, which features haunting and lyrical descriptions of this land and its people. Simpson is simultaneously tender and brutal with her characters delivering a breathtaking novel that manages to be heartwrenching, magical, and tinged with hope.

03.01.2022 BIG SPRING BOOK GIVEAWAY We're giving away a fabulous stack of novels by 7 of Australia’s best-loved authors. Lenny's Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern - Author... The Chain by Adrian McKinty The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey The Lost Jewels by Kirsty Manning - Writer The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester - Author There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett All you have to do to win is sign up to our newsletter and tell us which book you would read first! ENTER HERE - https://www.storyfest.org.au/competition-big-spring-giveaway

03.01.2022 Many congratulations to StoryFest favourite and alumni Michael Robotham, who has won the 2020 UK Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Gold Dagger for Good Girl Bad Girl (Hachette Australia Books) Good Girl Bad Girl was one of six titles shortlisted for this year’s Gold Dagger, which is presented for ‘the best crime novel of the year’. Robotham, who also won in 2015 for Life or Death, is one of only a few writers, and the only Australian, to have won the award twice. In response t...o his win, Robotham said: ‘What thrills me the most is that since 2007 Australians have won [the Gold Dagger] four times. It reflects how far Australian crime writing has come.’ CWA judges said of Good Girl Bad Girl: ‘Robotham is an absolute master of the impactful opening and draws you effortlessly in before seamlessly ratcheting up the tension and jeopardy.’