Adelaide University

The J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice is a research centre operated by Adelaide University, devoted to understanding creativity. It also functions as a cultural hub where leading literary, musical, and multimedia scholars and artists learn from one another and collaborate. In 2023, The Coetzee Centre approached the Vizard Foundation requesting support for the development of a literary festival celebrating two Nobel Prize anniversaries for Australian authors: the 50th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973 to Patrick White, and the 20th anniversary of the award of the Prize to JM Coetzee in 2003.

The festival consisted of several events, speeches, screenings, and panel discussions exploring the works of Coetzee, White, and others. Panellists and speakers include JM Coetzee, director Fred Schepsi (who directed the film adaptation of White’s Nobel Prize winning ‘Eye of the Storm), composer Paul Grabowsky, Australian poet and writer David Malouf, novelist Alexis Wright, and a host of prominent Australian actors and playwrights.