Bellingen, Ep. 1

June 12, 2022 — In what was a literary all-timer, Literary Death Match teamed with the geniuses at the Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival for an out-of-this-world festival closer that saw Sophie Overett narrowly topple Michael Burge in a tense Literary Spelling Bee finale that won Overett the LDM Bellingen, Ep. 1 crown, and literary immortality to go with it. 

Here's the star-studded lineup from the night: 

JUDGES: 

Literary Merit: Sofie Laguna, multi-award-winning author of four novels, including Infinite Splendours, winner of the 2021 Colin Roderick Literary Award and the HT Priestley Medal, and The Song of Lewis Carmichael, the novel for children illustrated by her husband, Marc McBride

Performance: Thomas Keneally, playwright, essayist, actor and the Booker Prize-winning novelist of Schindler’s Ark (which became the film Schindler’s List). Plus, he appeared on the 55-cent stamp! His latest, Corporal Hitler’s Pistol, was released in 2021

Intangibles: Costa Georgiadis, landscape architect, environmental educator and television presenter for ABC's iconic, Logie award-winning program, Gardening Australia

 READERS:
Round 1:
* Alison Gibbs, author of the debut novel Repentance, and her short story "Emily Presents" was one of four winners of the inaugural Griffith Review Emerging Voices Prize

* Michael Burge, author of Tank Water and Questionable Deeds: Making a stand for equal love, deputy editor of Guardian Australia’s Rural Network and director of the annual High Country Writers Festival in Glen Innes

Round 2: 
* Sophie Overett, author of the debut novel The Rabbits, and winner of the 2021 Kathleen Mitchel Award, the 2020 Penguin Literary Prize, and is one half of Lady Parts, a podcast about women’s roles in genre cinema  

* Robbie Arnott, author of Flames and The Rain Heron, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Award and named the 2021 Age Book Of The Year. His latest, Limberlost, will be published in October

Hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga (author of the award-nominated novel Collision Theory)

Produced by Adam Norris.

Where: Book Warehouse Marquee, Bellingen
When: June 12, 8pm (until 9:15pm)