History in literary spotlight

TWO of the sessions at next month’s Coal Creek Literary Festival are a real treat for anyone interested in local history.
At the Courthouse from 11am there will be a talk entitled “The Land of the Lyre Bird: The local background.”
Variously described as “one of the most remarkable compilations of settler records,” and one of the “four primary works” on Gippsland writing, this book is easily the best known books on the settler experience in South Gippsland.
It is an indication of its popularity that it has gone through a number of reprints, as well as a new edition when it was last released in 1998.
Both presenters are highly qualified to speak on the subject, and both are previous winners of the Victorian Community History Awards.
Jillian Durance lives at Bonnie Vale, the Moyarra property where early settlers met 100 years ago this year to record their stories of pioneer life.
She specialises in the period of the Great War and was the overall winner in the Victorian Community History Awards in 2007 for her work, Still Going Strong: The story of the Moyarra Honor Roll.
As Patrick Morgan points out in Foothill Farmers: The Literature of Gippsland, a number of things make The Land of the Lyre Bird distinctive, if not unique.
It was written by the pioneers themselves, and women are included, and as well as this includes examples of poetry of a high standard.
Patrick is the other presenter who will be speaking at the session.
As well as being well known for his pioneering work in writing about Gippsland literature, in 1997 Patrick published the highly acclaimed The Settling of Gippsland. This work was the winner of the inaugural Victorian Community History Award in 1998.
A rare example of a work giving an overview of Gippsland history, as then Cr Peter Western wrote in his introduction to the 1997 edition, this book is “an eminently readable account, starting with the story of the of the original Ganai inhabitants and tracing the tribulations, transgressions, failures and successes of European settlers.”
The organisers of this year’s Coal Creek Literary Festival are proud to announce that Patrick Morgan will be releasing a reprint of The Settlement of Gippsland, from 2.15pm at the Coal Creek Gallery at Korumburra.
Another presenter will be author Robin de Crespigny, a Sydney film-maker, producer, director, writer and a former directing lecturer at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Robin’s work includes the TV drama This Time Next Time (1990), Sanctuary (screenplay by David Williamson), and the script Intersection, which was nominated in the 2007 Inside Film Awards.
In 2008 her short children’s film Wee Dreaming screened nationally as part of Little Big Shots and around the world in other international film festivals.
The People Smuggler is her first book. It has won the 25th Human Rights Award for Literature and the Queensland Literary Award. It was one of three finalists for the Walkley award for non-fiction, and been nominated for the Waverley Library Award.
That book began as a film script about the life of Ali Al Jenabi, an Iraqi refugee who became a people smuggler to get his family to safety.

Expert insight: author Robin de Crespigny will present at the Coal Creek Literary Festival.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Sep 24 2013. Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry