The launch of the Canberra Writers Festival program for 2020 attracts outrage from across the Australian writing community for what some are calling a lack of diversity.
The launch of the Canberra Writers Festival program for 2020 has garnered outrage from across the Australian writing community for what some are calling a lack of diversity.It has been criticised for failing to be representative of Canberra's diverse writing community
Last year, the headline act was Barnaby Joyce; this year, it is Christopher Pyne, following the release of his autobiography., the ACT Writers Centre said it had drawn attention to a lack of diverse representation in the festival's program over the years. The ACT Writers Centre said Australia was "one of the most diverse countries in the world" and "writers festivals — indeed the writing infrastructure as a whole — must recognise, reflect and support that diversity".Writers express frustration with festival line-up
Other events will feature former foreign minister Julie Bishop, Jean Kittson, Bridie Jabour and Chris Ryan — for the final event Girls Night In — as well as philosopher Alain de Botton and this year's Stella Prize winner Jess Hill for her work Look What You Made Me Do. "I think it comes from this unfortunate reinforcement of a view of Canberra as the home of national politics and not having a thriving culture of its own that exists outside that," she said.In the wake of the festival's program launch, a number of writers took to social media to express their frustration with its line-up.
Inn response to the ACT Writers Centre, festival organisers said they had decided to make the most of the coronavirus restrictions by holding live-streamed interviews with prominent authors, such as Gloria Steinem. "Part of the Canberra Writers Festival's charter is to attract visitors to Canberra in the heart of winter and to celebrate the uniqueness of Canberra as the centre of Australian government, politics and national power," they said.
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