Writers in Action Blog 3: Meeting the Authors

As a part of Writers in Action (WiA), we were fortunate enough to be able to have a somewhat private meeting with two authors of the festival. On Friday the 9^th of September we met with two authors featuring quite different texts joined by an underlying theme. Fleur Ferris and Anson Cameron’s latest releases are a fictional novel aimed at young adults and a memoir, respectively. Ferris was to launch her latest novel – ‘Black’ – that evening at the Albury Library-Museum, while Cameron’s memoir – ‘Boyhoodlum’ – had launched prior to the festival. After brainstorming some questions the night before our rather casual ‘group interview’, we settled in to the Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) boardroom. Turning up slightly late left meant I was ripe for the picking, and since I was greeted by name by my classmates, this gave Cameron a name to use in later workshops when things fell quiet: “Josh, you’re never short of a word, what do you have to say?” Be punctual.

Several of the questions asked the authors their thoughts on writer’s festivals, in a hope to gain primary sources for our later research project on “What makes a writer’s festival?” In response to this question we got two different answers, and it became clear that Ferris and Cameron shared different ideals and views of the writer’s festival and its purpose. While Ferris noted that “meeting fascinating others” is a big draw card, Cameron took a more distant view by commenting on the overall atmosphere as one of a rock concert, citing the impassioned crowds and “great flow” to make his point. More clearly demonstrating the difference between the two authors was their response to the question of: “What do you get out of the festival as a goer rather than an author?” While Ferris expressed interest in sharing with/meeting young adults (largely her target demographic) and learning from other authors, Cameron appeared disinterested in using his time in such a way. This did not seem cold, but rather an honest summary of his interests and immediate goals, albeit one revealing a demonstrable difference in the motives of the two authors. With a sort of baseline set in terms of their motivations around and thoughts towards the writer’s festival, we naturally moved on to more general questions about the star of the festival, the writing itself. Questions around craft and the writing process came up, with Cameron likening it to driving at night “It lights up in front of you, but only so far”, his advice being to try and get involved in the story and lose sight of the big picture. Ferris offered a similar modus operandi, to write the story as a series of scenes before linking them up as one, also showing a tendency to write from within the story. Lastly, when asked which authors they would like to be compared to, both Ferris and Cameron showed slight reluctance to being likened to anyone. Despite this, Cameron listed off Twain, Dickens and Austen in an attempt to give some form of answer, while Ferris insisted that it was hard to list influences on her writing as she doesn’t “try and make it something it’s not”. This would go on to be in conflict with a comment at Cameron’s memoir writing workshop the following day. In this session Cameron claimed that you are – voluntarily or involuntarily – an amalgam of the writers you have experienced. This view was almost echoed in a panel discussion between Biff Ward, Ben Law and Helena Pastor in which there was agreement between the three that a great deal of us will subconsciously write the story we’ve always wanted to read.

I would like to thank Anson and Fleur for their time during what was surely a busy period for them, as well as our tutor Sue Gillett for organising this great opportunity.