Museum of Australian Democracy director Jane Smith has hailed the third hosting of the Melbourne Writers Festival as a rousing success.
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Ms Smith said the festival, held at MADE on Saturday, was blessed with a significant influx of attendances.
“It was a great success and we had record numbers,” Ms Smith said.
“We sold over 400 tickets for the day.”
By her estimate, Ms Smith said there was about a 70 per cent increase in ticket sales to the previous edition.
Focusing on history, the festival featured authors Graeme Davison, Leah Kaminsky, Maria Katsonis, Maria Tumarkin, Billie Tumarkin, Emily Bitto, Clare Wright, Murong Xuecun, Ginger Briggs and Eleanor Catton, alongside The Courier journalist Matt Dixon.
Seven seminars and workshops took place, with a broad range of topics in genetics and genealogy, memoir writing, family history, the impact of internet and institutional care all addressed.
The day was capped off with a keynote session titled Storytelling Gold with authors Eleanor Catton and Clare Wright – who will discuss their works on the Australian and New Zealand gold rushes.
Ms Smith said the numbers were a reflection of growing interest in Australian democracy.
“We had a lot of people coming in for the coffee and papers session,” she said.
“A lot of people are fascinated by the contemporary issues.”