A new Perth literary festival was announced on Saturday morning, to be headlined by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York – global humanitarian, film producer, and New York Times-bestselling author of more than 50 books.
Her Perth-based publisher is promoting her new picture book with copies on sale at the festival ahead of the Christmastime release.
Thriller writer Dervla McTiernan; the Duchess of York; and historical fiction author Natasha Lester.
The festival, to be held in the northern suburb of Joondalup on October 19, was the result of a simple conversation: a City of Joondalup events staffer asking commercially successful Perth author Tess Woods one evening whether she had any ideas for cultural events.
Woods, whose fourth contemporary fiction novel is releasing this September with Penguin, proposed a festival with one key difference from the usual Australian literary festival – it would focus on commercial genre fiction instead of the literary fiction usually preferred for such gatherings.
Woods suddenly found herself the director of an event organisations were falling over themselves to support, with not only the City sponsorship but the local Peter Cowan Writers Centre offering to host and the northern Edith Cowan University campus providing a 350-seat auditorium.
Dymocks Joondalup and Dymocks Australia have each separately committed funding, and major publishers stumped up to fly their authors over.
This has resulted in a lineup including not only the Duchess but globally bestselling Perth-based writers Dervla McTiernan (thrillers) and Natasha Lester (historical), Looking for Alibrandi author Melina Marchetta, acclaimed novelist Tony Birch, homegrown sci-fi and thriller writers Sara Foster, Holly Wainwright, Michael Trant and Donna Mazza, children’s authors Kylie Howarth and James Foley and more, in back-to-back genre-based panels.
“Popular fiction gives us a chance to escape from the stress of the everyday. When we read romance, crime, fantasy, thrillers – any kind of genre fiction really – we lose ourselves in a story,” Woods said.
“It brings balance to busy lives and takes our minds off our day-to-day problems. Getting invested in a character-rich, fast-paced story can help with loneliness and boredom. Reading fiction is a balm for the soul.”