MEDIA RELEASE COURTESY OF: WORDSTORM

How can the nations of this region address climate change? Is Australia still ‘the lucky country’? Can an intervention be benign? Is there a place for feminism in Islam? How can the world’s displaced find a place of refuge?

Plans are on the boil for WordStorm, the Festival of Australasian Writing, that will be held in Darwin, May 13-16 2010, where these issues - and many more - will be considered, discussed and debated.

Wordstorm has a unique place in Australia’s writers’ festival scene, with its strong focus on Indigenous and South East Asian writers. It’s a festival that talks to, and about, the region it inhabits. It is well away from the larger east coast writers festivals in major capital cities, and it has an intimacy and rare cultural mix that has writers and readers raving about it. Located in the storytelling wellspring that is the Northern Territory, the mythical heart and soul of the country, you cannot experience this festival and not be moved in some very personal way.

The South East Asian guests include the hip, the controversial, the lyrical and the award-winning. Hear about feminism and Islam with Dina Zaman and Lily Yulianti Farid, see the film that’s been viewed by almost every Indonesian, ‘Laskar Pelangi’ written by Andrea Hirata, encounter a violent and sexual Singapore you’ve never seen before with O Thiam Chin, become familiar with the first novels to be published in Tetum by Teodosia Batista Ximenes and read the book that features a clone of ‘The Prophet’ by Isa Kamari.

Wordstorm 2010 also features Australian writers who delve into Australian-Asian relations, such as Alice Pung and Patrick Allington. We’ll be reviewing the Balibo story with NT writer Jill Jolliffe and Tony Maniaty, and confronting the climate change issue with Australian legend Tim Flannery. Australian literary icons Arnold Zable, Nicolas Rothwell and Robert Adamson will take you on journeys into the heart of what matters.

Indigenous writers will be packing a punch this year with the likes of Professor Marcia Langton, Archie ‘Day of the Dog’ Weller, the legendary Alexis Wright, comedian Mary G, soprano Deborah Cheetham, poet Ali Cobby Eckermann and David Unaipon Award winner Marie Munkara to name a few. An Indigenous Writers & Educators Conference will run 12-13 May, and speakers include the above, as well as Wesley Enoch, John Maynard, Mark Bin Bakar, Melissa Lucashenko, Dizzy Doolan and more.

However, the festival won’t all be serious, with Cold Chisel’s Don Walker, the hilarious Wendy Harmer, Indigenous soprano Deborah Cheetham will make your heart soar, and slap your thighs with tears and laughter alongside Mary G. A Comedy Debate, a Poetry Slam, and other Special Events will show off the cream of the guest list in unique Darwin settings.

Tickets will be available online from February, mark the dates in your diary and prepare yourself - a storm is coming to Darwin.