Overview
Founder of McSweeney's and novelist of high-fivable acclaim, Dave Eggers, is heading to Australia. The 44-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winner is set to appear at a series of talks as part of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane Writers Festivals — notably providing the closing address for MWF, opening for BWF and meeting up with organisations his own models have inspired like Sydney Story Factory.
The poster boy for self-made journalists and novelists, the San Francisco-based writer and editor has cranked out no less than ten books including most recent releases Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, The Circle and A Hologram for the King and his Pulitzer Prize-winning first novel and memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
Eggers also famously founded independent publishing company McSweeneys in the '90s out of SF, an endeavour that now counts a slam dunk of a website, books, a quarterly journal and a monthly magazine, The Believer, in its bag of tricks. But McSweeney's doesn't just publish personified accounts from the font Comic Sans, the team have also released the nonprofit book series Voice of Witness, which illuminates global human rights crises using oral history. Legends.
But then there's Eggers' other, closer-to-home initiative, 826 National, the sweet network of eight tutoring centres across the States. It was the 826 model that inspired Australian organisations like 100 Story Building in Melbourne's inner west and Sydney Story Factory in Redfern.
In Sydney, Eggers is set to appear in conversation with Sydney Story Factory director, Cath Keenan — whose Redfern organisation is based around Eggers' 826 National tutoring centre model. The pair will be having mad chats at Carriageworks on Wednesday, September 3 as an extension of SWF.
In Melbourne, Eggers will apear in a series of Meet McSweeney's-type panels alongside managing editor Jordan Bass with former guest editor Chris Flynn at The Wheeler Centre, before delivering the closing night address for the MWF on Sunday, August 31 at Deakin Edge, Fed Square.
In Brisbane, he'll kick things off with the BWF opening address on Thursday, September 4 before a one-off literary cabaret vaudeville show at Brisbane Powerhouse on the Friday.
For more informaation, dates and events for Dave Eggers' Australian tour, head to Penguin over here.