There’s something for everyone at the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival
From improving children's literacy to discussing science and women’s voices in literature the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival has something for everyone.
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A star-studded line-up of authors and presenters have flocked to Cairns for this year’s Cairns Tropical Writers Festival including names such as Grace Tame, Lucy Bloom, Jay Laga’aia and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
About 500 schoolchildren have been given free Amazon Alexa devices to help improve literacy skills at the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival on Friday.
Amazon Alexa and the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) launched their joint program Story Sauce now available nationally and accessible via the Alexa app.
Story Sauce aims to use technology to help young, struggling and remote learning students to enhance their literacy capabilities with five Australian stories narrated by Jeremy Donovan and Jay Laga’aia who also performed a live concert for the students.
Advance Cairns CEO Jacinta Reddan who will moderate a conversation with author and Mamma Mia head of content Holly Wainwright, said she was excited about the ideas and conversations the festival would stir up.
“I love the intellectual stimulation that comes from a whole bunch of people sitting together and discussing everything from science to women’s writing, which is what I’m doing with Holly,” Ms Reddan said.
On Saturday, Ms Reddan and Ms Wainwright will discuss contemporary issues facing women today and giving women a voice.
“She (Holly) is an institution herself in terms of her platform Mamma Mia. They’re at the forefront of contemporary issues and giving a voice to what the everyday woman talks about,” Ms Reddan said.
“I was really interested in why certain types of women’s fiction gets dismissed as ‘chick flicks’ when it deals with a lot of issues women face in our everyday lives such as tragedy, heartbreak or domestic violence. Holly’s got an interesting perspective and I’m excited for her to share,” Ms Reddan said.
Offering another perspective into women’s lives is author Lucy Bloom, who will discuss a second coming of age in her debut novel The Manuscript.
The Manuscript follows Edith, an author who decides to write a book about war and men. When men in her personal life treat her badly, she writes them into her story and kills them.
“I wanted to explore the coming of age that most women go through in midlife through a woman writing a novel about the people who treat her badly in life,” Ms Bloom said.
“In the book, it’s Edith can fantasise these things but what she doesn’t realise is that karma is dealing with these guys at the same time,” Ms Bloom said.
The idea was born when Ms Bloom got fired from her dream job and was offered a book deal on the same day.
“The initial kernel came from someone treating me badly but I’m not a violent person and would never hurt anyone physically but it seemed cathartic to fantasise that,” she said.
To hear more about Ms Bloom’s debut novel or catch other notable authors and speakers at the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival get your tickets at: https://ctwf.com.au/buy-tickets/
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Originally published as There’s something for everyone at the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival
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