ABOUT THE EVENT:

Edited by Brigitta Olubas, Hazzard’s official biographer, and Susan Wyndham, who interviewed both Hazzard and Harrower, this is an extraordinary account of two literary luminaries, their complex relationship and their times.

On Monday 29th April at The Royal Oak, join Brigitta and Susan in conversation with Debra Adelaide.

Copies of 'Hazzard and Harrower- The Letters' will be available for purchase at the venue through Roaring Stories, with Olubas and Wyndham signing copies after the discussion.

To reserve your copy of 'Hazzard and Harrower- The Letters' purchase our Bundle Ticket option which includes a ticket plus a copy of the book reserved for you. You can pick up the book on the night at the event bookstore or if you wish to collect instore before the event, you can do so and have your book signed by the author on the night of the event.

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Attendees are asked to arrive at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Seating is unallocated – another reason to arrive early to secure an optimal spot. Why not make a full evening of it, too, by ordering a meal at the Royal Oak before or after the event? One of Balmain's oldest and most loved pubs, it serves a delicious range of food and beverages.

If you miss out on a ticket, you can still watch the event as it is livestreamed from the Roaring Stories Facebook page (accessible on the Home page and from the Live tab). A recording will also be available to view later as an upload on the Roaring Stories YouTube channel.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower met in person for the first time in London in 1972, six years after they began a correspondence that would span four decades. They exchanged letters, cards and telegrams, and made occasional phone calls between Harrower’s home in Sydney and Hazzard’s apartments in New York, Naples and Capri. The two women wrote to each other of their daily lives, of impediments to writing, their reading, politics and world affairs, and in Hazzard’s case, her travels. And they wrote about Hazzard’s mother, for whose care Harrower took increasing — and increasingly reluctant — responsibility from the early 1970s (precisely the period when she herself virtually stopped writing).

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ABOUT BRIGITTA OLUBAS

Brigitta Olubas is professor of English at the University of New South Wales. She is the acknowledged expert on the writing of Shirley Hazzard and is Hazzard’s authorised biographer. She coedited the first collection of essays on the writing of Elizabeth Harrower and is the author of Shirley Hazzard: A writing life and Shirley Hazzard: Literary expatriate and cosmopolitan humanist.

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ABOUT SUSAN WYNDHAM

Susan Wyndham is a journalist and writer. As New York correspondent for The Australian newspaper and literary editor of the Sydney Morning Herald she interviewed Shirley Hazzard and Elizabeth Harrower. She is the author of Life in His Hands: The true story of a neurosurgeon and a pianist and editor of My Mother, My Father: On losing a parent.

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ABOUT DEBRA ADELAIDE

Dr Debra Adelaide is the author or editor of 18 books, including fiction, non-fiction, edited collections and reference works. Her 2018 novel, The Household Guide to Dying, was published to acclaim in Australia and around the world, and was short- and long-listed for several literary awards, including the former international Orange Prize, now the Women’s Prize, for fiction. Other fiction includes Letter to George Clooney (2013), which was shortlisted for the Nita B. Kibble Award, The Women’s Pages (2015), and Zebra (2019), winner of the short story category in the Queensland Literary Awards. Her most recent books are The Innocent Reader: reflections on reading & writing (2019) and Creative Writing Practice: reflections on form & process (ed with Sarah Attfield, 2021). Debra Adelaide taught creative writing for 20 years and is now an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. She lives and writes on Bidjigal country in Sydney’s inner west.

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

Refunds

Please note that tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled or postponed due to extenuating circumstances. Refunds are not issued within 48 hours notice of event date. Humanitix fee is nonrefundable.

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This event is presented by Roaring Stories Bookshop Balmain and New South Publishing

With thanks to our venue partner The Royal Oak.

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