Yesterday, the Melbourne Writers Festival announced their 2016 program, and it featured a pretty big surprise — P.J. Harvey is joining the lineup. Although Polly Jean is best known for her lyrically loaded blues, she’ll be appearing as a poet.
Last year the musician collaborated with friend and photojournalist Seamus Murphy on the book The Hollow of the Hand. It documents the pair’s travels to Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington DC and sees Murphy’s images stitched together by Harvey’s words. The project was an attempt to draw parallels between the lives of those living in war-torn areas and the US capital, where as Harvey explains, “a lot of decisions were made that affected Afghanistan, affected Kosovo.” She and Seamus will speak at the festival on September 1, it’s her only Australian appearance and we’re sorry to say we don’t think she’ll bring her guitar.
The two will join a stellar lineup of home-grown and international literary talent, including Man Booker winners Richard Flanagan and Yann Martel, American Novelist Justin Cronin and British comedian and novelist Alexei Sayle. Festival director Lisa Dempster says “the presentation of the poetry and the photos and a discussion afterwards will be one of the nights of the year.”
We don’t disagree, and highly recommend securing your tickets now.