The second Australian Writers Week was presented by the Australian Embassy in Beijing from 16-20 March 2009.
The event showcased contemporary Australian works focused on identity, diversity, and self-discovery. Audiences had the opportunity to meet and hear from five Australian authors ─ Mara Moustafine, Kate Grenville, Lucinda Holdforth, Jane Godwin and Henry Reynolds ─ who participated in a series of forums held in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.
This initiative was supported by the Copyright Agency Limited, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australia China Council, Qantas, Accor, Fortescue Minerals, Dymocks, and Weldon Global Consulting.
Kate Grenville was born and educated in Sydney. In 1976, after working as an editor for Film Australia, Grenville travelled to the United Kingdom and Europe, working at several editorial and secretarial jobs. While in Europe, she began writing fiction. She was based in London and Paris between 1976 and 1980. In 1980 she moved to Colorado, USA, to complete a masters degree in creative writing at the University of Colorado. Several of her subsequent publications were developed here and she also began her career as a teacher of creative writing.
Grenville returned to Australia in 1983, where she began work at SBS Television, in the sub-titling department. Her first collection of short stories, Bearded Ladies, appeared in 1984. That year she also won the Australian/Vogel National Literary Award for her unpublished novel, Lilian's Story. Since then, she has produced many novels which have been adapted for the screen. The Secret River was also adapted for the stage by Andrew Bovell: the stage adaptation won two Helpmann Awards, a Sydney Theatre Award, a NSW Premier's Award, and an AWGIE Award, while the television adaptation also won an AWGIE Award, as well as a Logie Award, and was shortlisted for an AACTA Award.
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Lucinda Holdforth is a non-fiction writer, based in Sydney. She is also a speechwriter. Lucinda has had articles and columns published in various Australian newspapers and magazines. Her travel book, True Pleasures, was released in 2004.
She also published an essay titled Why Manners Matter: The Case for Civilised Behaviour in a Barbarous World in 2007, which has been translated into Chinese, as well as a book of advice for speechwriting titled Leading Lines in 2019.
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Mara Moustafine was born in Manchuria to a family of Jewish, Russian and Tartar descent. Her family migrated to Australia and settled in Sydney where she was educated and on weekends attended Russian school run by other Russian migrants from Harbin.
Fluent in Russian and English, she has worked as a diplomat, intelligence analyst, journalist, business executive and as National Director of Amnesty International Australia.
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Jane Godwin is a writer of children's books, and works as a publisher of children's books for Penguin Books Australia. Her books have been published in the UK, US, Japan, France, Korea, Spain, Italy, and China. She lives in Melbourne.
Her book, The Family Tree, won the Queensland Premier’s Award (Children’s Books) in 2000, and The True Story of Mary Who Wanted to Stand on Her Head won the Aurealis Award in 2006. Godwin's work has also been shortlisted, longlisted and recognised as notable by many award bodies, including the Children's Book Council of Australia, the Young Australian Best Book Awards, the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards, Australian Book Industry Awards, and Queensland Literary Awards.
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