“It has saved my soul.” After losing her Melbourne bookshop, Corrie Perkin dreamed up the idea of the Sorrento Writers Festival, which launches Sunday and will take place April 27-30 next year. | jasonfsteger
As Melbourne stumbled into another lengthy lockdown this time last year, Corrie Perkin was forced to make a heartbreaking decision – she wouldin Hawksburn after 12 years. The combination of six lockdowns and fruitless negotiations over a new rental agreement brought the saga to an abrupt end.
The peninsula town has always had a special place in her heart. There’s a photo of her sitting on the front beach clutching a bottle of Tarax soft drink in her two-year-old hands. Her parents had bought land in Sorrento and intended to build, but it had to be sold when her father, Graham Perkin, then editor of“Our family has had this connection for six decades,” she said. “I spent most of my youth at the back beach and as part of the Portsea lifesaving group.
As festival director, Perkin will program more than 30 events involving 45 or more guests. Most will be Australian, but she is hoping a couple of international writers will appear in person, with a couple more joining via Zoom.“We have applied for various funding streams. For us, our natural fit is the Victorian government through Visit Victoria or through Creative Victoria.
The festival has attracted a number of high-profile patrons, including playwright David Williamson, former justice of the High Court Michael Kirby and Julie Kantor, founding director of Annamila First Nations Foundation.