Tag: Sydney Writers Festival

Sydney Writers’ Festival 2009 Bestsellers and wrap-up

According to festival bookseller Gleebooks, the top 10 bestselling books at the festival were:

1. The Brain That Changes Itself – Norman Doidge
2. A Case of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif
3. The Thing Around Your Neck – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
5. Between the Monster and the Saint: Reflections on the Human Condition – Richard Holloway
6. The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 20th Century – George Friedman
7. The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
8. Stuff White People Like – Christian Lander
9. Warchild – Emmanuel Jal
10. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher – Kate Summerscale

Richard Flanagan – 2009 Sydney Writers’ Festival Closing Address

Chimanda Ngozi Adichie opened the 2009 SWF by urging us to foster, wherever possible, a multiplicity of stories and a voices to guard against the silencing effects of poverty and political domination. As SWF Chair, Sandra Yates, observed, Richard Flanagan’s closing speech was the perfect compliment to Adichie’s caution against the ‘single story’.

Where Adichie spoke broadly about the cultural and political importance of a diverse and representative library of international voices, Flanagan asserted the vital role Australian literature has played in forging our own cultural identity and voice. But, at precisely the time when Australia is one of the most productive and exciting centres of publishing in the world, we risk dismantling the very platform that allowed our writers and publishers to finally escape the colonial shadow of Britain and stand alone on the international stage.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the ‘Single Story’ – SWF Opening Address

The Sydney Writer’s Festival was officially launched last night by Nigerian star-on-the-rise, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie burst onto the international literary scene with her first novel Purple Hibiscus before winning the Orange Prize for her second book, Half of a Yellow Sun. Her latest work, That Thing Around Your Neck, is a collection of short… Read More ›