By Kerrie Le Lievre, EdSA events coordinator
Adelaide Writers Week, the annual week-long festival of literature held in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens as part of the Adelaide Festival, is a March institution, and so is the EdSA Writers Week breakfast. On Saturday 4 March, new and familiar faces gathered at Lounders Historic Boatshed Café on the sunny banks of Karrawirra Parri/the River Torrens for good food and conversation before heading across the road to the opening day of Writers Week (and the book tent).
The broad-ranging topics (and not-so-occasional controversies) up for discussion at Adelaide Writers Week are always a highlight of the event, but this year there was a track of particular interest to editors: “My editor and me or should that be me and my editor?” Despite the grammatical focus of the title, these three sessions, held in the smaller North Tent on Wednesday 8 March, focused on the relationships between authors, editors and books. By this point in the week the weather had turned, so an unexpected feature of the morning was both audiences and presenters huddling under umbrellas to talk about books!
In the first session, author Holly Ringland (The seven skins of Esther Wildman) and Catherine Milne of HarperCollins Australia discussed the beginning of their professional relationship via a manuscript auction and its development over time, two novels and one (forthcoming) non-fiction book.
In the second session, author Catherine Therese spoke for the first time about her new novel Things she would have said herself, and the differences between writing and editing memoir and fiction, with Vanessa Radridge of Hachette Australia. Finally, author Sally Hepworth (The soulmate) and her editor Alex Lloyd of Pan Macmillan explored how authors and editors work together to generate and refine ideas, problem-solve and develop a project throughout the writing and publishing process, and how the resulting book is packaged for publication.
Adelaide Writers Week’s sessions were recorded and are available as free podcasts, including this track and yes, you will hear the rain from time to time!
Photo caption: Our South Australia branch of IPEd enjoying a breakfast at the Adelaide Writers Week in March 2023.