Sydney Writers’ Festival: Literary Legends — Clift, Hazzard, Harrower
Explore the literary histories of Charmian Clift, Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower.
Following her biography The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift, Nadia Wheatley contributed the afterword to The End of the Morning, Clift’s final manuscript, which was recently published more than 50 years after her death. Literary scholar Brigitta Olubas (Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life) joined forces with journalist Susan Wyndham to edit Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters, which reveals the deep and vexed friendship between two of Australia’s greatest writers.
Learn more about these fabled authors’ work and writing lives with the scholars who are salvaging their stories from the archives, in conversation with Caroline Baum.
State Library of New South Wales, The Library Auditorium LG1. Macquarie Building, 1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney 2000.
Tickets are $20.00. Book online at SWF website https://www.swf.org.au/program/season-2024/literary-legends
Or call the box office on 02 9256 4200
Charmian Clift’s Kiama: A Life-long Inspiration
When Charmian Clift died in 1969 she was working on an autobiographical novel titled The End of the Morning, set in her childhood home of North Kiama and describing the childhood of her alter ego, Cressida Morley. Described by the author as ‘the owl on my shoulder’, Clift had been working on this all her life. The people and place of Kiama had also inspired the novels High Valley and Walk to the Paradise Gardens, and featured in a number of the author’s essays.
In this talk, Nadia Wheatley will discuss the significance of The End of the Morning as a source for her award-winning biography, The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. A power-point presentation will evoke the landscape of the novel, and of Clift’s early life.
Local Kiama people will be invited to join the discussion of Charmian Clift’s place.
This is a Friends of Kiama Library and Kiama & District Historical Society joint event.
Please join us for afternoon tea after the talk.
$8 FOKL/KDHS members/ $10 guests (includes afternoon tea). Everyone welcome.
Tickets go on sale 1 May and will be available at the library, online. https://library.kiama.nsw.gov.au/Events/Adults-events/Nadia-Wheatley-The-End-of-the-Morning-by-Charmian-Clift or call 02 4233 1133.
Kiama Library, 7 Railway Parade, Kiama NSW 2533
Having the last word: Charmian Clift’s The End of the Morning
Jessie Street Library — Members and their guests
When Charmian Clift died in 1969 she was working on an autobiographical novel titled The End of the Morning, which recounts the childhood of her alter ego Cressida Morley, who appeared in the trilogy written by Clift’s husband George Johnston. Although the author did not live to complete the work, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. Now published for the first time, it allows Clift to have the last word about this character who was so dear to her.
In this talk, Clift’s biographer and the editor of this posthumous work will discuss its significance both as a work of literature and as a biographical source.
11:30 sandwiches and coffee; talk starts 12:15
Bookings open to JS Library members and their guests
Having the last word — Charmian Clift’s The End of the Morning
‘The end of the morning was always marked by the quarry whistle blowing the noon knock-off…’
When Charmian Clift died in 1969 she was working on an autobiographical novel titled The End of the Morning, describing the childhood of her alter ego, Cressida Morley. Although the author did not live to complete the work, the typescript left among her papers was fully revised and stands alone as a novella. Edited by Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley, this will be published for the first time in April 2024.
In this talk, Nadia Wheatley will discuss the significance of The End of the Morning, both as a work of literature and as a source for her award-winning biography, The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift. A power-point presentation will evoke the landscape of the novel, and of Clift’s early life.
Refreshments 5.45 pm. Talk starts 6.00 pm.
Event is FREE. Book here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/author-talk-nadia-wheatley-on-the-end-of-the-morning-by-charmain-clift-tickets-856660894797
Five Dock Library, Level 1, 4-12 Garfield St, Five Dock 2046
Nadia Wheatley: Charmian Clift’s Kalymnos
Launch of program for Charmian Clift’s Kalymnos: A Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop, which Nadia Wheatley will lead on the island in April 2025.
In the winter of 1954, Australian author Charmian Clift arrived on the remote and poverty-stricken Greek island of Kalymnos with her author-husband, George Johnston, and their two young children. Clift described herself as ‘looking for a mermaid’— for something magical or mystical that would change her life.
What she found was her own unique literary voice, expressed in her first solo book, Mermaid Singing. In this memoir she recorded her observations of the island’s society of sponge divers and matriarchs, and her own adaptation to the rhythms of Kalymnian life. This authentic Greece was the change Clift was seeking.
Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley, will share these discoveries in a talk illustrated with archival and contemporary photographs.
Following this presentation, Limelight Arts Travel will launch the program for Charmian Clift’s Kalymnos: A Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop (to take place on Kalymnos in April 2025).
Event is FREE. To RSVP, book online at Gleebooks Events. https://www.gleebooks.com.au/event/nadia-wheatley-charmian-clifts-kalymnos/
Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd Glebe, 02 9660 2333
Making Sneaky Little Revolutions: Charmian Clift’s Journalism
Sydney Lyceum Club Lunch, Members and their guests
Charmian Clift published three novels and two travel books, but it was her journalism that made her a household name in Austraia. These ‘sneaky little revolutions’, as the author once called the pieces she wrote for her weekly newspaper column, had a transformative effect on their readers. This talk will look at Clift’s column in the context of the secondary status assigned to woman’s journalism in the 1960s.
Lunch open to Lyceum Club members and their guests.
Charmian Clift Picnic and Guided Walk, Kiama
Sunday 22 October or Sunday 29 October (depending on weather; exact time tbc)
Join writer and podcaster Caroline Baum and biographer Nadia Wheatley for this guided walk around Charmian’s heartland of North Kiama and Bombo. Bring a picnic lunch to share. To register, send an email via this website
‘The Battle is On’ — Charmian Clift’s Feminism — Talk at Jessie Street Library Sydney
Charmian Clift titled one of her newspaper columns ‘Second Class Citizens’. She began ‘I am one too,’ and went on to say, ‘The battle is on’. Through the transformative latter years of the 1960s, Clift’s weekly ‘pieces’ enlightened and encouraged thousands of middle aged women who were just beginning to join the struggle. This talk by Clift’s biographer will explore Clift’s feminism through her life, her essays and her memoir of her time of Kalymnos, Mermaid Singing.
FULLY BOOKED
Talk — Charmian Clift in Mosman
Making Sneaky Little Revolutions: Charmian Clift in Mosman
After returning to Australia in 1964, Clift made her home in the Mosman area. This was the time when the author was writing the radical weekly newspaper column that made her a household name. The author’s life during these years will be illustrated by a series of informal family photographs taken in April 1969 at the invitation of Clift’s elder son, Martin Johnston, by his university friend, Andrew Jakubowicz. Professor Jakubowicz will co-present the session with Nadia Wheatley
Free, but bookings are essential: https://events.mosman.nsw.gov.au/events/making-sneaky-little-revolutions
Charmian Clift's 100th Birthday
State Library of New South Wales….
Illustrated Talk — ‘At Home with Charmian Clift’ — Nadia Wheatley
Followed by panel discussion and viewing of photographic display.
In 1960s Australia, Charmian Clift invited readers into her home by way of her weekly newspaper column. Her many readers in turn often said that when they read Clift’s essays, they felt as if the writer was having a chat with them in their own home. Nadia Wheatley will present the author’s life and writing through a series of picture-windows into five places where Clift made her home. There will be a display of photographs of Clift from the SLNSW collection, with additional photographs by Andrew Jakubowicz, who in April 1969 took a series of informal family photographs at the Clift-Johnston home, at the invitation of his university friend Martin Johnston.
Free, but bookings are essential: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/home-charmian-clift
Greek Festival of Sydney
PLENARY
100 years of Charmian Clift – Translating Greek island life to the world.
In 1955, while living on Kalymnos, Australian author Charmian Clift ‘translated’ the island’s culture for English-speaking readers in Mermaid Singing. In 2022, the story came back to Greece in the translation To Tragoudi tis Gorgonas. In this panel discussion, the book’s translator, Fotini Pipi, will describe her process and the Australian Ambassador to Greece, Arthur Spyrou will discuss the book’s significance for Greek and Australian readers. Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley, will put Clift’s experience on Kalymnos and the writing of Mermaid Singing into the context of the author’s life. The panel will be chaired by academic and journalist, Dr Helen Vatsikopoulos.
To book and to see full program Greek Australian Writers Festival, click on the link below., Tickets are free but you should book to reserve a spot.
https://greekfestivalofsydney.com.au/event/the-greek-australian-writers-festival/
PRESENTATION
The Write Stuff: Hydra’s Literary Age, 4.00 to 4.45
Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalzeil, authors of Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964, will discuss their research and showcase a trove of photographs of the expatriate community of this island where Charmian Clift and George Johnston wrote and lived.
Charmian Clift's Kiama — Kiama Historical Society Talk
Charmian Clift was born in Kiama in 1923 and became one of our country’s finest essayists. Her publications from the 1950s and 60s include essays, travel memoirs and novels, as well as novels co-authored with husband George Johnston. In this her centenary year, Dr Julian Neylan will talk about Kiama connections across her literary legacy, including six essays specifically about her life in Kiama and a novel set on the coastline of her Kiama childhood. He will also touch on the relevance of her essays in today’s world.
Julian Neylan has a doctorate in the History and Philosophy of Science. His enthusiasm for Australian writers has led him to the works of Charmian Clift, for which he has become an unashamed devotee.