In the First Person: Autobiography, Memoir and the Personal Voice
Biographer Brenda Niall
Photo courtesy Brenda Niall
Author Robert Drewe
Photo courtesy Robert Drewe
When we write about home, work, families and friends, culture and society, what do we reveal about ourselves? Can we ever represent ourselves, and our society, as we really are? Why are Australians so interested in reading about other people’s lives?
These issues will be discussed at a major conference which will be held at the National Library of Australia on Saturday and Sunday, 10 and 11 May 2008.
In the First Person: Autobiography, Memoir and the Personal Voice brings together some of Australia’s finest writers to discuss the joys, pitfalls and challenges of writing about ourselves and contemporary life. Since 2000 the National Library has run a number of significant conferences on a variety of topics, including Australian History, Donald Friend and his Diaries, Biography and Autobiography, and Travellers’ Tales.
One of Australia’s most distinguished biographers, Brenda Niall, will open the two-day conference with the Kenneth Binns Lecture: ‘Telling Our Own Truths’. Her lecture will explore the elusive nature of ‘truth’ in writing. It will prepare conference participants for passionate discussions of topics including how authors turn lives into literature, what writers reveal about themselves in their work (and what they disguise), the role of belonging, place and home in a writers work, and the inspiration that writers draw from travel and ‘other countries’.
‘The ever-increasing interest in memoir and autobiography is the impetus for this major conference,’ said Paul Hetherington, Director of Publications and Events at the National Library.
‘Why are we, as readers, so drawn to "true" stories about other people’s lives? What makes a story true? How do writers of fiction and poetry, and filmmakers too, reveal themselves in their work? How do writers negotiate issues they feel deeply about? This conference will provide an opportunity to explore the current publishing phenomenon that is memoir and autobiography and also open up the creative process to readers.’
The conference brings together some very experienced writers, including Georgia Blain, Robert Drewe and Craig Sherborne, with some relative newcomers. These include Rachel Robertson, joint winner of the 2007 Calibre Prize for an Outstanding Essay, Tara June Winch, a recent winner of the David Unaipon Award for Indigenous Writers, and Alice Pung, winner of the 2007 Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year Award.
Other featured writers include John Hughes, Christopher Kremmer, Morag Fraser, Paul Carter, Tim Bowden, Kate Llewellyn, Margaret Reynolds and Tony Kevin.
The full conference program and booking information is available at www.nla.gov.au/events/firstperson.
Kathryn Favelle
Manager, Publications and Research



