Medius.

Day 3. In the thick of things.

Day three began for me with an early morning walk around the town of Mildura. Being born originally in the mountains of Gippsland and then moving to the hills of Kew, I have never experienced a Victorian town that is so flat. I guess this comes from being so near to the desert and the centre of Australia. In my early morning brain fog, I just assumed that I had become much fitter over the last few days and that was why I was able to walk so briskly. In retrospect, this probably was not the case. 

In what was becoming our morning ritual, Lewis and I jumped in the car and picked up Emel and Vince on our way to the first session for the day. We arrived at the Art Vault with our notepads ready to be filled with notes for the day. The first speaker was Tracy Farr, another writer I had yet to read but was interested to learn more about. Tracy had recently written her first novel The Life and loves of Lena Gaunt and was living in New Zealand. As we sat down in the large open gallery I saw some familiar faces from the previous night. Sharon Olds was sitting in the back row, hair in pig tails and sporting some sort of camouflage hunting hat. The woman next to her was knitting a pair of gloves and many of the women had blankets on their knees. It was quite cold in the room and we sat as close to the heater as possible. As Tracy was introduced and the discussion began, we learned that she had previously worked in science, something that I found to be quite common with writers (Peter Goldsworthy and John Keats to name a few). She spoke about the idea of home and finding your own place in the world. Her novel was about a woman who played a theramin, a strange instrument that normally is only found in horror movies. Tracy talked at length about the publishing world, her own writing process and the life of an up and coming author. 

After Tracy, Sharon Olds and Peter Goldsworthy were introduced to the stage. I was right in the thick of Goldsworthys Three Dog Night at this point and was eager to hear more from the author. Right from the beginning, these two authors put on an entertaining show of humour, innuendo and passion for writing. It was an enthralling hour and the audience found themselves in stitches for the most part. 

Later in the day we went to the Mildura Brewery and saw Alexis Wright talk about her writing and her passion for the environment. She spoke eloquently about her own writing and what inspires her, and also touched on the importances of caring for the land that we live on and having respect for the original owners. It was a very touching session and really gave the audience a good insight into the passion that writers have.