Festival to showcase a variety of Jewish themes
UK journalist Julian Borger will discuss his father's story of surviving the Holocaust on May 23 which is the focus of his family memoir I Seek A Kind Person.
The Sydney Writers’ Festival returns with fascinating events featuring Jewish authors from May 20 to May 26.
Highlights include “The Untold Story of Maus” at the Sydney Jewish Museum on May 21, in which Professor Mark Spigelman will discuss the true story of how a chance encounter with Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus led him to better understand his own memories as a child survivor of the Holocaust, and reunite with Art Spiegelman who was his long-lost cousin.
UK journalist Julian Borger will discuss his father’s story of surviving the Holocaust on May 23 which is the focus of his family memoir I Seek A Kind Person.
The subject of memoirs is explored in the event “More than Memoir” on May 25, whose panel includes Rachelle Unreich, author of A Brilliant Life which recounts the true story of how her mother survived the Holocaust. Unreich was recently shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards for New Writer of the Year, along with Nadine J. Cohen for her novel Everyone and Everything. Cohen will be speaking at the festival on the topic of “Sad Girl? Bad Girl? Mad Girl?” on May 25.
Other writers featured include bestselling Australian children’s author Morris Gleitzman regarding his new book Tweet; Kerri Sackville, author of The Secret Life of You; as well as Jake Adelstein, whose new book Tokyo Noir is a sequel to Tokyo Vice, now a hit HBO Max series inspired by his experiences as an investigative journalist exposing Tokyo’s criminal underbelly.
Daily Aus co-founders Sam Koslowski and Zara Seidler will also discuss their debut book No Silly Questions on May 26, while Jonathan Seidler will explore rom-coms on May 25 following his new novel All the Beautiful Things You Love. Moreover, Kate Manne, known as a “philosopher of the #MeToo movement”, will discuss “Fighting Fatphobia” on May 26, and she will also deliver the closing address on “The Future of Misogyny”.
Another highlight is sure to be the Sydney Writers’ Festival Great Debate on May 24, on the question “Do we need books?”
Philosopher A.C. Grayling and art historian and content creator Mary McGillivray will debate the topic in a live recording of podcast Principle of Charity, hosted by Emile Sherman and Lloyd Vogelman.
With an interesting and varied program, there is something for everyone at this writers’ festival.
For more information visit swf.org.au