![Out of season: Neil Gaiman appears with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall on January 31. Out of season: Neil Gaiman appears with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall on January 31.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/a3882cf8-bc40-496b-9641-cf0bd1835aba.jpg/r0_0_1024_1541_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Guaranteed bestseller: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Guaranteed bestseller: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/a8606942-bda3-46fa-90bf-1598a1f1fa0a.jpg/r0_0_1024_1630_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Out of season: Neil Gaiman appears with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall on January 31. Out of season: Neil Gaiman appears with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall on January 31.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/fcdd435e-60a2-429b-b744-18100c3da57a.jpg/r0_0_420_280_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Guaranteed bestseller: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Guaranteed bestseller: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/03a4689e-daad-401b-902d-abeb2cb28899.jpg/r0_0_420_280_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Out of season: Neil Gaiman appears with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall on January 31. Out of season: Neil Gaiman appears with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall on January 31.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/7c96c7ed-a11e-4afe-acd1-d0cb21b3997e.jpg/r0_0_360_426_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Guaranteed bestseller: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Guaranteed bestseller: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/393d3168-c558-46cf-9e93-61eb85296dca.jpg/r0_0_359_427_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
PRE-FESTIVAL FESTIVAL
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The program for Sydney Writers' Festival (May 18-24) is taking shape with an exciting guestlist to be announced in March. Meanwhile, the festival starts early with some out-of-season musical literary events: singer Amanda Palmer at the Metro Theatre on Tuesday; Julia Donaldson, the best-selling children's author of The Gruffalo, with her guitarist husband at Sydney Theatre, February 21; musician-songwriter-novelist John Darnielle at Carriageworks, February 25; prolific authorand Palmer's husband, Neil Gaiman with FourPlay String Quartet at City Recital Hall, January 31. The festival has a new executive director, Jo Dyer, who brings business and artistic skills from her experience as a film producer, executive producer of the Sydney Theatre Company, general manager of Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Australian Festival for Young People.
GOODBYE TO THE GODFATHER
A memorial service will be held at 5pm on Monday at Sydney University's Great Hall for Maurice Saxby, "the godfather of Australian children's literature". The much-awarded writer, teacher and advocate Saxby died in December aged 89. Children's publisher Margaret Hamilton says at least 300 people are expected to celebrate his work and generous nature. Among the comments collected in a memory book is this from children's laureate Jackie French: "Maurice turned me not just into a children's writer, but with his kindness and insight, made me the one I am now. So much of the strength and diversity of Australian children's literature is due to him...But his true legacy will last as long as stories are told to young people in Australia." A Turkish author recalls a moving trip to Gallipoli with Saxby and his wife. And a teacher who was his student in the 1960s remembers that his all-female class was concerned he was single so presented him with one of the girls gift-wrapped. He politely declined - and later had two happy marriages.
THE ARTIST INSIDE
Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk about creativity and her hugely popular books from Eat Pray Love to The Signature of All Things will want Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, which Bloomsbury will publish on September 22. She has a guaranteed bestseller in her "manifesto" about overcoming obstacles and being guided by curiosity, ideas that grew out of conversations with social media followers. A publicity video shows three women designing the exuberant cover by throwing pigments at paper. Gilbert has spoken endearingly about her own writing process in Sydney and will give another talk, How to Be Creative, at the All About Women Festival at Sydney Opera House on March 8.
BIOGRAPHIES IN PROGRESS
The shortlist for the 2015 Hazel Rowley Fellowship, named for the late biographer, gives a hint of the fascinating work being done by Australian writers. The $10,000 fellowship will be awarded at Adelaide Writers' Week on March 4 to one of these finalists: Ann-Marie Priest, who is researching poet Gwen Harwood; Barry Divola – Australian band The Sunnyboys and singer-songwriter Jeremy Oxley; Biff Ward – memoir Vietnam, Mon Amour; Caroline Baum – life and letters of Lucie Dreyfus, wife of Alfred; Lyn Gallacher – Ruth and Peter Mann, owners of Melbourne record store Discurio; Naomi Parry – indigenous resistance leader Musquito; Patrick Allington – David Malouf's writing; Ronnie Scott – Agatha Christie's travels.