Garth Nix at the Sydney Writer's Festival 2024

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CuriousInsanity
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Garth Nix at the Sydney Writer's Festival 2024

Post by CuriousInsanity »

Hello!

This is a much belated posting, it's been quite a while since the event itself, and I kept meaning to post but, well, obviously I never got around to it.

Anyway, Garth Nix was doing part of a fantasy panel for the Sydney Writers Festival 2024 with two other authors. I no longer live in Sydney so I was unable to go in person, but I was able to watch the livestream at my local library thanks to the Live and Local initiative.

This was a couple of months ago now so unfortunately my memory is rather frayed, but it was an enjoyable panel and was good to hear the three writers talking together and answering the questions from the host. The other two writers were authors I have heard of, at least in terms of their books, though I haven't read them myself (yet!). I think it was Priory of the Orange Tree and She Who Became the Sun. Both of the other authors were younger and cited Garth as an author they enjoyed growing up, which is always cool to see from a generational point of view - last time I saw him at the Writers Festival (in person that time) was with Amie Kaufman on the panel, another aussie author I like, who said she was a huge fan of his (and I later got to see her and one of her co-writers at a book launch with Garth running a Q&A for them!).

One fun fact I learned about Garth Nix himself was that the second novel he tried to get published was a cross between a regency romance and a thriller, and kept getting rejected because publishers only wanted one part and not the other, but he didn't want to split them lol (though eventually he did and the resulting novel was Newt's Emerald, which I haven't read).

So yeah, sorry I don't have a better recap of this, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of watching the livestream in the library. It was after hours (6PM start) and there were a few tables and a nice big screen with good sound quality. There was also a small table with some books for sale - mostly ones by the authors on the panel - run by the local bookstore. In particular it was a lovely old lady who knows me from my frequent visits there and we had a nice chat.

If anyone gets the chance to go to one of these events in the future, whether in person or Live and Local, I highly recommend it. It was $10 for me this year (our local council is struggling lol) but it was worth it for me.

EDIT: Here is the link to the Sydney Writer's Festival's website page on the panel. https://www.swf.org.au/stories/2024/mee ... cal-worlds
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Sirlaughalot
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Re: Garth Nix at the Sydney Writer's Festival 2024

Post by Sirlaughalot »

Thanks for the writeup. I'm pretty far from Sydney and unfortunately was traveling the last time Nix was in my area.

I'll have to give Newt's Emerald a read as I have yet to get to it.
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CuriousInsanity
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Re: Garth Nix at the Sydney Writer's Festival 2024

Post by CuriousInsanity »

No worries - that's unfortunate. I believe he is off to Glasgow Worldcon soon/now, as I saw something mentioned on his Bluesky about it.

I also need to give Newt's Emerald a read, I actually remember borrowing it from the library when I was in high school, but I want in the right mood at the time and didn't end up staying it (I had borrowed several other books at the same time and presumably got hooked on a series from one of those instead).
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