Interview, judging an award and upcoming reading

For a change I'm actually posting ahead of an event. I'll be reading this (Easter) Sunday April 24th at the April Pilot, Matrix magazine's monthly reading series, alongside an amazing line-up of writers who may or may not be wearing Easter Bonnets.

I'm also going to be the Fiction judge for this year's Litpop Awards which is co-sponsored by Pop Montreal and Matrix and is currently accepting entries - please see submission guidelines.

Finally, here is a link to a recent interview I did with Angela Hibbs who's the current writer-in-residence at Open Book: Toronto.

Sydney Writers' Festival

The program for the 2011 Sydney Writers' Festival is now out. It's a really big, week-long festival and there are some big name authors participating, which is exciting.

I'm scheduled to take part in four different events, two panel discussions with the other Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional winners in the First Book category: New Voices From Across The Globe and The First Time and two "special" events featuring readings by the CWP finalists in both the First Book and Best Book categories: Eyes On The Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Presentation. There will apparently also be some "outreach" activities organized by the Commonwealth Foundation including visiting schools etc. which should be interesting.

So I think it'll be a full and busy week but I'm hoping to have time to attend some of the other cool-sounding events at the festival, and also to explore Sydney a little. People keep telling me what a fabulous city it is. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the 20-hour plane flight. Oh, and the jetlag, though my Australian friend Mira has assured me it's far worse on the return journey...