Luminous. That’s the word being used to describe author Kathryn Heyman’s new novel, Circle of Wonders. When I ask her about why this might be, she replies, “It describes well the quality I was after. And I think it’s such a beautiful word and such a particular word that speaks to wonder; it speaks to a sort of delight.” She describes the book as a luminous little gift she wanted to give to the reader. “Like when you’re a child or you have children and it’s nighttime and you’ve got this night-light that is cozy and lovely.”
This luminous quality that emanates from her book is something she will try to pass on to participants in her workshop, “Harnessing Wonder,” on 11 October at the State Library as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival Homegrown program.
For Heyman, “The act of writing is an act of attention and, at its best, it’s an enactment of wonder.” She has been a mentor to many writers over the decades and believes that the writer’s task is to pay attention – a posture that draws them towards wonder and illuminates their writing. “That is what writing does for the world. It says to the reader, look at that, just look and pay attention. Wonder is about curiosity. And so, for the writer, that deep curiosity and the willingness to pay careful and close attention are crucial. I’m also in the territory of awe here.”
Despite rumours that reading is in decline, there is evidence of a “renaissance” in the desire to write and read. Sydney Writers’ Festival events are increasingly popular and often sold out, as are other writing workshops, writers’ studios and book clubs on offer from various publishers, literary magazines and organisations. I ask Heyman about this renaissance. She believes that these creative activities remind us that we are human in a society that is bewildered by the rise of AI, anxious about environmental decline and deeply concerned about the state of our world.
“It’s one of our most foundational human desires, to make a mark. Making stories, recording stories, that are fundamentally telling the human story,” she says.
The Festival is also running diverse panels, talks and interviews with a variety of Australian authors and writers, which are free and open to the public. Communications expert Ed Coper will be in conversation with presenter Craig Reucassel about his latest book Angertainment: How social media outrage ruined everything. Lebanese-Australian writer and journalist Antoun Issa, author of Rebirth, and Sri Lankan-Australian playwright and storyteller S. Shakthidharan, who wrote Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, will be in conversation. They will talk about the challenges and joys of writing about family, immigration, history and cultural heritage in a session titled Write about Ourselves.
You can find out more about the Sydney Writers’ Festival’s offerings here: www.swf.org.au/program.
