The program for this year’s Crime & Justice festival at the Abbotsford Convent has just been released.
I’ll be chairing two panels on Sunday 19 July. The first is at 10am in The Community Room under the heading “Location, Location – Anatomy of a Crime Scene”. According to the program blurb, ”A strong sense of place is crucial in good crime fiction. Looking at painting memorable geographic portraits will be Garry Disher, Nick Gadd and Fiona McIntosh with, to chair the session, Angela Savage.”
I like that it says “with, to chair the session” as I figure that gives me license to talk about myself (hah!).
I’m looking forward to this panel. I’ve met Garry over the years through our mutual publisher, Text, and it is always a pleasure to catch up. Fiona and I met on a panel at last year’s Crime & Justice festival and had a lot of fun. And Nick – whom I’m yet to meet and also interviewing later that afternoon – is, like me, winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript.
My second session is at 4pm in The Bishop’s Parlour, when I’ll interview Nick Gadd and Robert Sims as “New Voices.” Again, to quote the official program, “Of late some extremely exciting new voices have joined the world of Australia crime fiction. Nick Gadd and Robert Sims are two such writers. Today they will talk about the journey that brought them to their remarkable literary debuts with Angela Savage.” Last year I participated on the equivalent panel and it was a fantastic session.
In between I’ll be aiming to catch a range of interesting sessions. And I hope to be at the Great Crime-Fighting Debate: Dicks versus Dames at 4pm on the Saturday 18 July to hear Sue Turnbull and Vikki Petraitis for the Sisters in Crime and Robert Gott (whom I bumped into in a dark Brunswick alley just this morning) and Stuart MacBride for the ‘Brothers in Law’ argue over which gender does it best when it comes to detecting, with Lindy Cameron adjudicating. Should be a hoot!
Tags: Fiona McIntosh, Garry Disher, Nick Gadd, Robert Gott, Robert Sims
