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The Sydney Writers' Festival is delighted to announce the appointment of Jemma Birrell
as Artistic Director.
After working in Australian publishing, Jemma Birrell moved to
Paris to join Shakespeare
and Company, one of the world's most famous bookshops. As the
store's first Events Director, she developed a world-renowned literary
program, presenting today's leading authors, thinkers and musicians. She was
Co-director of three editions of FestivalandCo, Shakespeare and Company’s
biennial literary festival, set in a park across from Notre Dame. The
festival attracted participants such as Alain de Botton, Will Self, Martin
Amis, Beth Orton, Jeanette Winterson and Charlotte Rampling.
Jemma is
delighted to be returning to her native Australia as Artistic Director of
Sydney Writers’ Festival. A full media release is available here.
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Q and A With Jemma Birrell
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The best thing about working at
Shakespeare and Company was... Meeting an
incredible selection of wild, wonderful and inspiring people from all
around the world. Shakespeare and Company is a literary community and
everyone comes by when they’re in Paris—one day it might be a young
‘tumbleweed’ (writer-in-residence) looking to sleep amongst the books,
the next it will be a writer whose work I’ve always admired. Then there
are the actors in disguise, and even Woody Allen! Also, working closely
and having lots of laughs with the owner of the bookshop, Sylvia
Whitman—a good friend and like family after our years of working
together.
The author event I was most moved by
is... Listening in awe
to the stories of the eloquent French resistance fighter Stéphane Hessel,
who is close to one hundred years old and knew Picasso, Breton, Duchamp
and Sylvia Beach, the publisher of Ulysses.
In perfect English, he quoted a Shakespeare sonnet at the end of his
talk—‘No longer mourn for me when I am dead’—dedicating it to his wife
who was sitting by his side. His call to arms about the necessity of
speaking out and taking a political stand was so inspiring, and he is one
of the most moving men I have ever had the honour to hear.
I recently read and loved...
Jennifer Egan’s brilliant Black Box recently
tweeted and printed in The
New Yorker (lithe, pared down writing), Chris Adrian’s
magical novel The
Great Night and Ben Lerner's Leaving the Atocha Station.
I'm currently reading...
There’s a pile—the brillant collection of essays The Memory Chalet
by Tony Judt, Etgar Keret’s Suddenly
a Knock at the Door, Junot Diaz's This is How You Lose Her, Zadie Smith’s
stunning NW and Ian
Jack's old edition of Granta on France.
The thing I am most looking forward
to when I start at SWF is...
Thinking about all of the possibilities, and how to
present literature and ideas in an interesting way. Researching all of
the exciting new books, finding and tempting an array of brilliant and
fascinating writers and thinkers from Australia and around the world.
Coming back to my hometown!
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