Carlton holds a special place in the hearts of many Melburnians. The sixties saw it give birth to Australia's coffee culture, in the seventies it was the cultural heart of the country, and Readings was born there in 1969. Although it has changed, it is still a unique area. Readings is still in Carlton, as are other mainstays like La Mama Theatre, Jimmy Watson's Wine Bar, Brunetti, Tiamo, King & Godfree and CO.AS.IT., the Italian cultural institute.
Last year my son, Joe, and I were contacted by the then-Deputy Lord Mayor, Nicholas Reece; he wanted to float the idea of a literary celebration in Carlton. It was an idea that we at Readings had also been playing around with and that meeting with Nick spurred us on; in a few short months our head of programming, the unstoppable Chris Gordon, had fleshed out our wonderful A Day in Carlton. It was a great success, and so we began planning for 2025.
This time there'll be over thirty events and we've added more beloved Carlton venues like The Carlton Courthouse, La Mama, Jimmy Watson's and CO.AS.IT., and we'll be returning to the Church of All Nations and Cinema Nova. It will be a day of fun, ideas, good wine and food – actually, it will be a bit more than a day, with events on Thursday and Friday nights.
I'm excited by the series of conversations with some of my favourite writers in the intimate La Mama theatre. I'm excited that Trent Dalton, the celebrated author of Boy Swallows Universe, will be coming down from Brisbane for the whole weekend.
I hope you'll come along and celebrate Carlton and Australian writers with me, Chris, Joe and the rest of the Readings team. Explore the program here.
