THIS weekend marks the third annual Mount Beauty Writers Festival, with the town ready to host eight authors from around the country to speak about scribbling, chat about current concerns and level up their literature.
The event was first founded in 2022 by local AM radio host and columnist, Fay Mason.
In January, the festival won Alpine Shire's Australia Day award for ‘Best Event’, which Ms Mason describes as ‘a real coup’.
“Mount Beauty is known for its outdoor events like ‘The Hoppet’ and ‘The Conquest-a-thon’ et cetera, so it was time for some cultural activity,” she said.
“It’s a lot of hard work, but the end result is always very satisfying.
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“The authors love Mount Beauty’s intimate atmosphere and we do spoil them; so much so they recommend it to other authors.
“Years ago, I retired from my work as a general manager of a cosmetics company that imported fragrances from Europe and moved to Mt Beauty in 2016.
“During the last eight years, to keep myself busy, I started presenting on Alpine FM and writing for North East Media.
“On air, I host two programs, one of which is a book review program and as a result I received many books to review from publishers and publicists.
“One suggested: ‘Why don’t you think about doing a writers festival?’
“I had started a scholarship for the school kids in the area, raising funds to further their ambitions in music.
“We had so much fun doing this and as a result we raised over $14,000, but went into a hiatus with Covid.
“I plan to get back to it later, but in the meantime, I moved my thoughts and energy to the writers festival.”
Ms Mason pulled together a strong committee, including: Kitty Vigo, who has a PHD in Literature Studies; Rollo Kiek a former lecturer in Dramatic Studies at Adelaide University; Henry Ziemnicki, ‘treasurer extraordinaire’; Michael Ahearn, the Alpine FM station manager; Scott Sloane, owner of the Bright Bookshop; and Stephanie Bellman, lawyer and proprietor of Mountain Monk Brewery.
“Last year we hosted Costa, the famous ABC television gardener, and celebrity chef Christine Mansfield,” Ms Mason said.
“Artist, Ross Watson and many other fabulous authors including Chris Hammer, international best-selling crime writer were also at the event.
“I had the pleasure recently of interviewing author Evie Wyld, winner of the Stella and Miles Franklin awards on her latest book ‘The Echoes’.
“Evie lives in London, but we may get her next year because she visits Australia annually.”
The line-up this year includes two non-fiction writers to speak on very topical subjects: Professor Ian Lowe on the nuclear industry with his book ‘The Long Half-life’ and Satyajit Das with ‘Wild Quests’ on eco-tourism and an emphasis on global warming and animal extinction.
Suspense will be well and truly covered with Sulari Gentill’s ‘The Mystery Writer’, Lee Christine’s ‘Glenrock’, and Fiona Lowe’s ‘The Accident’.
Naomi Christine and Jade Miles will provide a new take on lifestyle and delicious, homemade recipes to inspire this year’s attendees with their works ‘Tasteful’ and ‘Futuresteading’, respectively.
To round out this year’s program and for a good old-fashioned Aussie laugh, Liz Foster will be discussing her latest novel ‘The Good Woman’s Guide to Making Better Choices’.
“Through the course of hosting these past writers festivals, we feel we have ‘discovered’ a couple of new authors,” Ms Mason said.
“One of whom is Ashleigh Kalagian-Blunt...her book ‘Dark Mode’ was virtually launched here and it became a huge best seller.
“Ashleigh will be coming back next year with her new book ‘Cold Truth’, to be released in February, as will Diana Reid with her fabulous book ‘Love and Virtue’.
“I was festival director for the first two years, then handed over the role to Mandy Van Gastel, who does all the images for the printed material and the website.
“She is an extremely talented young woman, but Mandy will be stepping down next year because she has a new job.”
The Mount Beauty Writers Festival will be held at Mountain Monk Brewers, 1 Lakeside Avenue in Mount Beauty, this Saturday, October 12 and run from 9am to 6pm.
For more information and to purchase your tickets, visit: https://www.mountbeautywritersfestival.com/
