YPRL’s Booklover’s Festival for 2022 is delivering some exciting guest speakers, creative writing group meet-ups and more!
It’s time to feed your curiosity to explore and unlock your voice: what excites you? What nourishes you? What can you discover about yourself?
YPRL’s annual Booklovers Festival is for readers and writers, for makers and doers, for anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them, for those who are curious about the world which existed before them. Whatever your interests are, we have something perfect just for you.
Register now for these exciting events:
Writing with Grief
Thursday 17 November, 7.00pm-9.00pm
Mill Park Library
Led by Gabriela Georges, and facilitated by The Grief Cocoon, you will explore grief and loss through a mix of playful and reflective writing and storytelling exercises. No writing experience necessary. This workshop is also suited for people experiencing the effects of isolation, anxiety and other emotions and life experiences they would like to work through.
Storytime with Aunty Sharon
Saturday 19 November, 11.00am-12.00pm
Thomastown Library
Join local author Aunty Sharon Hughes as she reads her book 'Our Aunty Sharon'. After the story time session, for First Nations children’s writers at any stage of experience, the wonderful Aunty Sharon Hughes will teach you to make your own books to tell your own story. Your book might even end up in our library for everyone to read!
Discuss, pick sides, learn new things...
Christos Tsiolkas and Angela Savage in Conversation
Saturday 19 November, 3.00pm-4.00pm
Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub
Which books have special places in the hearts of some of your favourite writers? Do book choices divide friendships? Pick literary sides with best-selling, acclaimed authors Christos Tsiolkas and Angela Savage for an insightful, entertaining and delicious bookish discussion about the books which have influenced them as writers and readers and the books they can’t agree on. The perfect event for book groups, readers, and writers.
First Knowledges with Zena Cumspton and Lesley Head
Tuesday 22 November, 7.00pm-8.00pm
Watsonia Library
Join Zena Cumpston and Lesley Head for an incredible discussion from the First Knowledges series and find out more about the reciprocal relationships with plants which have provided both sustenance to Indigenous communities and many of the materials needed to produce a complex array of technologies. Managed through fire and selective harvesting and replanting, the longevity and intricacy of these partnerships are testament to the ingenuity and depth of Indigenous first knowledges. Plants: Past, Present and Future celebrates the deep cultural significance of plants and shows how engaging with this heritage could be the key to a healthier, more sustainable future.
Gardening, cooking and writing!
Garden Like a Nonno with Jaclyn Crupi
Wednesday 23 November, 10.00am-11.00am
Whittlesea Library
In Garden Like a Nonno, Jaclyn Crupi shares everything she learnt about productive gardening from her nonnos, Michele and Vincenzo. In this talk, Jaclyn shares their knowledge about soil health and improvement, composting, worm farms, and fertilisers you can make at home. She also will explain how to save seeds from your own vegetable plants to use next season, germinate seeds, plant seedlings and protect them until they are laden with produce. Keeping chickens, maintaining gardening tools and preserving what you grow will also be touched on. This talk is suitable for complete beginners as well as seasoned green thumbs. So come along and learn how to garden like a nonno!
Nonna Knows Best with Jaclyn Crupi
Thursday 24 November, 11.00am-12.30pm
Diamond Valley Library
In Nonna Knows Best, Jaclyn Crupi celebrates the passion, generosity of spirit and good old- fashioned wisdom of nonnas and shares the secrets that make them so special, including mouth-watering recipes from la cucina della nonna (nonna’s kitchen), foolproof tips, sayings and advice for every life moment. Jaclyn will also give a pasta making demonstration complete with tips for different pasta shapes and answer all your home-made pasta questions.
Books by Jaclyn Crupi: Garden Like a Nonno: the Italian art of growing your own food, Nonna know best: the Italian art of living well.
Creating A Memoir with Heidi Everett
Sunday 27 November, 11.00am-1.00pm
Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub
Telling your story is the key to unlocking someone else's prison. Experience the enlightening art of creative memoir writing! Be expertly guided through unique and surprising creative thinking exercises with author and acclaimed mental health lived experience advocate Heidi Everett. This hands-on fun writing workshop will impart skills to honour your lived experience through creative memoir. No experience in writing is needed, but a personal interest in lived experience of diverse mental health is recommended.