Griffith REVIEW'S mainland launch events draw large audiences
Tasmania issue goes into reprint after selling out in two weeks
After its national launch by the Premier of Tasmania with the Vice-Chancellor of UTAS to a capacity crowd in Hobart's Town Hall on 4 February, Tasmania - The Tipping Point? has gone on the road.
Launch events in capital cities across Australia have also drawn large audiences, reflecting the remarkable popularity of the issue â last week the book was the fifth best seller nationally through independent booksellers, and the issue has gone into reprint after selling out within its first two weeks of publication.
The Conversation has also published a series of essays in conjunction with Griffith Review and the University of Tasmania on the subject of Tasmania - The Tipping Point?, including new commissions from UTAS authors.
At the Canberra event at Paperchain Bookstore on 14 February, Tasmania - The Tipping Point? was launched by Tasmanian Senator Peter Whish-Wilson and anchored by Associate Professor Natasha Cica of the Inglis Clark Centre at UTAS, who co-edited this issue. Big hART theatre company director and Australia Council fellow Scott Rankin also spoke on themes from his essay 'Tasmanian utopias', which explores the creative power and potential of life on the north-west coast of our island.
In Sydney the following week, well-known broadcaster Peter Thompson chaired a panel discussion between Professor Jonathan West of UTAS (whose essay 'Obstacles to progress' created a storm on social media platforms when it appeared on crikey.com). Professor Cassandra Pybus (whose essay 'China in the Tasmanian imaginary' also featured in a major interview on ABC Radio National's Late Night Live) and Assoc Prof Cica. This event was part of the Sydney Ideas series run by the University of Sydney.
Next came Melbourne, with Assoc Prof Cica chairing a discussion at the Wheeler Centre on 21 February. Novelist Favel Parrett discussed the impact of her southern Tasmanian childhood on the style and themes of her fiction. Tasmania's strong connection to Antarctica was a question explored by award-winning science writer Jo Chandler, and Scott Rankin also appeared.
The Brisbane event on 26 February at Avid Reader bookshop also attracted a capacity crowd, launched by Radio National's Weekend Arts presenter Sarah Kanowski, a former editor of Island magazine. Contributor Joanna Talberg read from her memoir 'Stratus anxiety', an account of her life on a remote property beyond Zeehan in the 1970s.
This week, Tasmania - The Tipping Point? will feature in Writers' Week during the Adelaide Festival, with Professor Julianne Schultz, the founding editor of Griffith REVIEW - chairing a panel including well known writer Danielle Wood of UTAS, gay rights advocate Rodney Croome, novelist Margaret Merilees and Assoc Prof Cica.
Tasmanian events coming soon include a Radio National Big Ideas panel chaired by Paul Barclay on 12 March - and a Denison Debate on 14 March on the topic 'The Creative Economy - Fantasy, Strategy or Reality?', featuring Prof Schultz, Tasmanian Economic Development Minister David O'Byne, Esa Laaksonen (the director of Finland's Alvar Aalto Academy) and Rachel Edwards of Island magazine.
New Tasmania - The Tipping Point? articles will continue to be published through March on the Griffith Review website.
Podcasts of the Sydney and Melbourne events and more will soon be online.