Canberra has attracted a bumper lineup of big names in Aussie literature for this year's festival

Shortly after COVID lockdowns, author Robbie Arnott (Flames, The Rain Heron, Limberlost) was driving around Tasmania’s West Coast and the Highlands when it struck him.

Moved by the majesty of the mountains, giant waterfalls, snowfields and rivers, these landscapes would inspire a book.

“I could tell I’d write about it someday. I didn’t know how it would happen, but I remember feeling very sure at the time,” he says.

“Later, I was thinking about the history of some of the weird animals introduced by colonials, and I thought a western would be a good framework to explore a story set in that landscape.

“Eventually, the novel kicked and clawed its way out of my head.”

Hot off the press, Dusk is essentially a western set in a place inspired by those landscapes. It follows a set of out-of-work twins as they reluctantly take on the bounty for a puma stalking the distant highlands and picking off shepherds.

As the twins journey up into this wild, haunted country, they discover there’s far more to the land and people of the highlands than they imagined. As they close in on their prey, they’re forced to reckon with conflicts both ancient and deeply personal.

This narrative sets an ideal stage for Robbie’s Your Favourites event at the 2024 Canberra Writers Festival (CWF), in conversation with local author Karen Viggers.

“I’m going to talk a lot about wild places, Australians’ relationship to our wild places and how the stories we tell about them affect how we treat them, both on a personal level of how we move through them but also how we vote and so on,” he says.

“The more we talk about our precious wild places, the more we give to them.”

Robbie joins a bumper lineup of big names of Australian literature at this year’s CWF, including Tim Winton, Marcus Zusak, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Lucashenko and Charlotte Wood – the first Australian author to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize in a decade.

In conversation with local author Kaya Wilson, another event will bring Robbie and Charlotte together to talk about their favourite “hushed and gentle books” – those that perhaps haven’t made a lot of noise but touched them deeply.

“I’m also keen to see Inga Simpson talk about her new book The Thinning – it sounds fascinating,” Robbie says.

“Clare Wright’s going to be there, too, and I’m going to see her talk about her new book The Bark Petitions, which I think will be very important.”

This year will mark Robbie’s second appearance at the Festival, and he says there’s much about the program to get excited about.

“Beejay Silcox has done an incredible job with this year’s programming and has brought a lot of fiction and narrative storytelling to the festival,” he says.

“I had such a fantastic time last year and am really looking forward to coming back. It’s always a pleasure to be in the nation’s capital.”

The Canberra Writers Festival runs from 23 to 27 October. Visit Canberra Writers Festival for more information or to book.

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