Wandering into events at the Perth Writers Festival

 A quickie, so I hope you will forgive any faux pas. I knew I'd have to pace myself on Friday, so I missed the 9.30 sessions and arrived around 10am to the pleasant, shady gardens of the University of Western Australia, where the Perth Writers Festival is held each year around this time.The weather was cooler today after quite a heat wave, so was perfect for wandering into some of the tents, rather than sticking to the air-conditioned buildings of the Octagon and Dolphin Theatres. Besides, I needed to check out the feel of the Juliet Tent (and yes, there is a Romeo Tent) as I have my interview in there this afternoon. Fortunately love was in the air, and I started the day with a love story - three in fact - featuring authors Mardi McConnochie, Susan Johnson and Jacinta Halloran. This session was followed up by some Critical Thinking featuring John Freeman, James Bradley, and Geordie Williamson in conversation with Stephen Romei - and yes the gender bias was noted by all panelists - the unspoken and probably unintentional message that love is the province of women and critical thinking the province of men. In fact there were two men in the tent who put up their hands to say that they wrote love stories, and one who elaborated to say that his were romantic rather than erotic. He said he suspected that many of the stories written for the popular romantic publishers were by men with female pseudonyms. In the Critical Thinking panel Geordie Williamson mentioned that they had noticed the all male makeup of the panel, but putting this aside, the discussion was lively and engaging. Maybe next year they can have an all male love story panel and an all female critical thinking panel.  Both were great regardless, and I came away from the second session with the feeling that the more experienced the critic, the more balanced (and probably kinder) their assessment of the book they might be reading. I had a long lunch with friends and finished my easy day with the Poets vs Novelists Debate, in which it seemed to me that they only proved what great poets novelists can be, and what great storytellers poets can be. Funny and fantastic. The evening was spent with the Raah Project in the Chevron Gardens - Wow! That covers it. A fusion of jazz, rap, twentieth century classical experimentation and a lead singer that in odd moments reminded me of Frank Sinatra. Now back to the festival - Day 3.