Perth Festival 2023 Literature & Ideas program announced

Perth Festival has announced the full line-up for its 2023 Literature & Ideas program, comprising A Day of Ideas on Saturday, 18 February and the Writers Weekend, to be held at Fremantle Arts Centre on February 25–26.

The theme for this year’s Writers Weekend is ‘Steadfast as the Stars’, which pays homage to the 2023 Perth Festival theme of Djinda (stars) and takes its cue from John Keats’s most famous poem, ‘Bright Star’. ‘At a time when everything is changing and nothing feels certain, we explore the timelessness and consistency of the night sky,’ says the festival of this year’s theme.

On Friday evening, opening night party All the Stars features Brooke Blurton, Sarah Malik, Winnie Dunn, Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, Vuma Phiri, Holden Sheppard and Madison Godfrey.

Local Writers Weekend guests include Jane Harper, Jennifer Down, Jess Ho, Don Watson, Amy Remeikis, Chloe Hooper, Alice Pung, Holden Sheppard and Larissa Behrendt. Joining the festival via Zoom, international guests include South African Booker Prize-winner Damon Galgut and American writers Amy Bloom and Sequoia Nagamatsu.

Literature & Ideas curator Sisonke Msimang is joined by two guest curators for this year’s festival: First Nations poet and author of Homecoming (Magabala) Elfie Shiosaki, and children’s author and illustrator James Foley, programmer of Family Day in Freo on the Sunday. This year’s family day program features authors and illustrators including Craig Silvey, Jared Thomas, Sarah-Winifred Searle and Cristy Burne.

For more information about the Perth Festival Literature & Ideas program, see the Perth Festival website.

Pictured: Sisonke Msimang.

Category: Local news