Sidney Myer Asia Centre
Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room

Tom Swick
A Glamorous Invisibility: The Travel Writer's Changing Role and Image

How do travel writers work? What are the tools and strategies they employ to engage and interpret the world? And how has that work evolved over the centuries? Tom Swick will consider these questions along with the status of travel writers in both the literary world - where many of them squirm when pinned with the label - and the public eye - where they are often seen as paid vacationers.

Elaine Lewis & Colin Nettelbeck
Le Grand Bal – a journey through the jazz and literary scenes of Paris

Elaine Lewis and Colin Nettelbeck will speak about the jazz and literary scenes of Paris and how their own Parisian travels and experiences influence their work. Elaine Lewis will read from Left Bank Waltz, her memoir of creating the Australian Bookshop in Paris, and Colin Nettelbeck will read from his cultural history of French jazz and literature, Dancing with De Beauvoir: Jazz in French Culture.

Fiona Dunlop
Gastro-communication: the way of the future...

Marc Llewellyn & Simon Capp
Sea Change in Italy... in famiglia

Greg & Lucy Malouf
Consuming Travel

Renowned restaurateur and international food consultant Greg Malouf of Momo’s restaurant will join with Lucy Malouf, freelance food writer and co-author of their award-winning food-travel books, to delight our taste buds with tales of their travels. They will transport us to Moorish medina and the turquoise seas of Turkey for a feast of Middle Eastern gastronomy and culture.

Andrea Inglis & Richard White
Local travels – summer holidays and winter retreats

Summer holidays on the Mornington & Bellarine Peninsulas and winter retreats in the Macedon & Dandenong Ranges hold a treasured place in the memories of many Victorians and give us something to look forward to in the future. Andrea Inglis and Richard White will trace the history of local travels through accounts of 19th century travel writers in a panel hosted by Clare Williamson, curator of the exhibition ‘Victorians on Vacation’ at the State Library of Victoria.

Greg Elms
Creative Conundrums of Travel Photography

Can the experience of travel be summed up in photographs? Join Lonely Planet travel photographer Greg Elms in an illustrated discussion of an assignment in China. Tackling travel photography from a grass roots perspective, Greg will draw upon his recently published travel book, Snake Fang Salad, to illuminate photography’s creative potential as well as its conundrums.

Gillian Kendall
Teaching English Abroad & Surviving to Tell the Tale

You never quite know what will happen when you teach English overseas – Gillian Kendall ended up as the only woman on a small Chinese ship travelling from Shanghai to Texas! Mr Ding’s Chicken Feet recounts this cosmopolitan graduate student’s strange journey, surrounded by Chinese men. in an alien world, thick with cigarette smoke, unusual sea creatures, and male sexuality. Gillian will speak about her humorous experiences, and the joys and surprises of English teaching abroad/aboard.

Tom Neal Tacker & Angus McDonald
Multi-tasking: Freelance travel writing and photography

Freelance travel writing and photography may not be an easy way to earn a living, but the rewards for those who succeed can be very attractive. Tom Neal Tacker will reveal how his diverse interests and experiences in food, wine and travel writing keep his articles in the international press and Angus McDonald will speak about preparing a photobook on India’s hill trains for publication.

Sylvia Sagona & Michael Jenkins
What do you do on a cultural tour?

Have you ever wondered what you would do on a cultural tour? As an academic specialising in French and Italian fine arts and cultures, Sylvia Sagona will share her experiences of taking cultural tours through Europe’s mythical landscapes, and Egyptologist Michael Jenkins will speak about the ethical responsibilities of leading others through the pyramids into the past.

Lonely Planet Panel
How to capture the essence of local culture in travel writing

Lonely Planet authors provide their personal experience on how they translate the true spirit of local culture, food and vibe into Lonely Planet guidebooks. Travel writing shouldn’t be just about listing out attractions and information but instead, making a deep connection with heart of the destination.

Gillian Kendall & Howard Wolf
American Travel Writers and their Images of the World

Travel writing is a long established tradition in the United States, dating from the accounts of pioneers and explorers in the New World to the global success of Bill Bryson today. American travel writers Gillian Kendall and Howard Wolf will speak about their own unique contributions to this popular genre.

Sidney Myer Asia Centre
Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room

George Dunford
The Big Trip - How to make the most of your Gap Year

In a session that caters to students and young people planning their first independent expedition overseas, George Dunford offers a sneak preview of information and ideas, tips and tricks from his forthcoming Lonely Planet publication, The Big Trip: Your Ultimate Guide to Gap Years and Overseas Adventures.

Brian Thacker
How to travel for free – sleeping around and couch-surfing

Brian Thacker shows us a snapshot of the world by staying on people’s couches! Using various websites to source his couches, his round-the-world odyssey took him to Chile, Brazil, USA, Canada, Iceland, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, Turkey, Kenya, South Africa, India and the Philippines. Find out more about the growing trend of couch-surfing with 10 000 new members joining every week.

Tony Wilson & Brian Thacker
Travelling is a Joke

Travelling doesn't always have to be serious as Tony Wilson and Brian Thacker know very well. Their humorous approaches to writing about travel combine wit and drama in exotic locations and different cultures. In this session, they will reveal how they still manage to see the funny side of things in the most difficult of situations!

Lucy Sussex & Antoni Jach
Historical Voyages - Reality and Illusion

Lucy Sussex’s forthcoming memoir, Across a Sea of Words, retraces the path of early migrants from England to Australia, while Antoni Jach’s novel, Napoleon's Double, follows the voyage of young conscripts who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte to Egypt and sailed with Nicolas Baudin to New Holland. Reading from their work, Lucy and Antoni will demonstrate how these phantasmagoric journeys, based in historical reality, are characterised by a shifting series of illusions and deceptive appearances.

Arnold Zable
Sea of Many Returns: the art of travel and writing about place

The writer/traveller is a participant-observer, crossing cultural boundaries, fully engaged in the journey, yet also recording their responses and observations. The talk will explore the art of observation, and how to transform these observations into works of fiction and non-fiction, whether essay or memoir, short story or novel.

Josiane Behmoiras & Tony Birch (tbc)
Slow Travel Writing: Local and International Perspectives

Josiane Behmoiras and Tony Birch will speak about slowing down the pace of travel in local and international contexts, and explain how this process affects their writing about the places that they visit.

Robert Dessaix & Sophie Cunningham
The Naked Traveller

Is it possible to travel naked, stripped of everything we are at home? Is 'unmediated being' possible anywhere in the world these days? Robert Dessaix will discuss the pleasures of travelling to forget and will read for the first time from his forthcoming travel memoir Arabesques. Sophie Cunningham in turn, will discuss her travels to research her novel Bird and the personas she inhabited as she travelled: not so much stripped naked as re-clothed…

Martin Hughes
Recalibrate your Clock

What on earth is Slow Travel? Is it about tuning into your senses, changing perspective and reconnecting with your own patch? About spending more time in fewer places and steering clear of tourist routes? Or about compiling lists of things-you-must-do-before-you-die?

Tony Wheeler
Reflections on Burma

Tony Wheeler will talk about Burma, exploring his connection with the place over the past 30+ years. Following the itinerary covered in Rice Trails, he will recount his travels with photographer Richard I'Anson through the rice growing Irrawaddy Delta area - where so much of the damage caused by the recent cyclone took place.