New Writers Festival director settles in

The new director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, Steve Grimwade, is celebrating his first two months in the job.

The RMIT University alumnus took over from Rosemary Cameron at the start of November, after a stint as festival Associate Director.

Mr Grimwade’s wish list of writers he would love to see in Melbourne during his time as director include “Margaret Atwood, Jimmy Carter, Murikami, David Simon from The Wire, English writer David Mitchell, writer-performers like Patti Smith, playwright David Hare’’.

He said he has been pleased with the development of the festival over the past five years, with half its audience under 40.

And nerves as his new position began haven’t played a part for the man who has spent a career in writing, editing and publishing.

“I’m purely excited,” Mr Grimwade said. “It’s an amazing opportunity and a privilege to head up an organisation like this, and bring in who you believe are some of the most important writers and thinkers and have them all at the one place at the same time.

“The impact of having a volume of writers and thinkers in the one place can’t be overestimated.”

Mr Grimwade studied RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) program, graduating in the late 1990s.

It was here, he said, that he met so many of the people with whom he would share life in the publishing industry over the next decade.

“The PWE course has proven itself as one of the most important places for developing and maturing writers – there are very few grassroots organisations or educational institutions that provide the structure and the opportunity that RMIT does,” Mr Grimwade said.

Through contacts met in class, Mr Grimwade went on to join the board of Express Media, an organisation providing support and development opportunities for young Australians in writing and media. He began as a board member, moved to administration and ended up as Artistic Director.

He has worked at the Victorian Writers’ Centre as editor of its magazine and then Program Manager while working as a sessional teacher at RMIT, teaching Desktop Publishing and Industry Overview.

Until recently he has been a freelance editor and also co-hosted 3RRR’s weekly program on books and writing, Aural Text.

“My life has always been too full, and I’m stopping the radio show and creating more space to do the one job,” Mr Grimwade said.

Add to that full life Mr Grimwade’s role as curator of the exhibition The Independent Type: Books & Writing in Victoria, at the State Library of Victoria this year. It is now on an 18-month tour around the state.

Mr Grimwade has also just released Literary Melbourne, an anthology of writing by Melbourne authors.

The festival director was once simply a punter, recalling that he would get the Writers Festival program, circle the events he wanted to see and then carry the program around in his bag.

“It would sit in my bag for three weeks and by the time I came to do anything about it, I had missed out on half of those events,” he said. His advice to others is “to book early”.

So which author is on the bedside table of one of the key people in Melbourne’s literary world? Joyce Carol Oates.

And can he nominate a novel he just couldn’t put down? Booker-shortlisted Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

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