Recently, we’ve been introducing everyone on the 2024 EWF Team!! This week, meet Henry Farnan! They are back in 2024 as our Marketing & Publicity Coordinator after joining EWF in 2023. Henry sat down with us to chat recently.

Howdy Henry! We’re excited to have you back on the EWF team for your second year as Marketing & Publicity Coordinator! We’ve obviously had a year to get to know you, but we’ve never introduced you officially – tell us about yourself, Henry! 

It’s so wonderful to be back!! I was a bit at sea moving to Naarm with my partner last year not knowing anyone else, but I feel much more rooted now and ready for another go at EWF!

That said, my being from Boorloo has become major part of my personality since moving. I didn’t realise how much I’d miss the Indian Ocean but here we are. Otherwise, I write and read, and I’m trying to revive my high school hobby of basket weaving.

What are you most excited about for your second year at EWF? 

I’m really excited about the vibes we’re adopting for 2024. I feel like you don’t see many lit festivals so drastically change their branding between years, but I think we’ve got a really cool and really strong vision for our festival this year, moving into September. I’m very excited about it. We’re in Spring for the first time ever this year and that’s certainly not the only surprise we’ve got tucked up our sleeve for EWF24…

EWF is a lit fest, which means we’re obliged to ask what kind of literature catches your attention?

I’m trying so desperately to enjoy contemporary fiction. I’m failing, but I promise I am trying. Please someone help me. I need good book recs bad.

I just can’t wait to pick up a fantasy book again or something that’s at least a little weird. I’m usually most drawn to stuff that deals in mythologies and inter-personal relationships on a really macro scale.

And characters with silly names. That’s very important to me, actually. 😎

 
Finally, what books have been cluttering your bedside table lately?

Honestly, I am still trying to untangle the knots that Tamsyn Muir has tied my brain into with Nona the Ninth.

Ever since I got back from summer in Boorloo (see, I told you it’s my whole personality now), I have rekindled my love of local libraries and have a huge stack of those glossy books on my bedside table. That said, I’m not sure how well it’s going because I can’t decide if I’m actually enjoying Nevada by Imogen Binnie or not. Lined up after that, I’ve got The Assassin Thief by Madeline Te Whiu, Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James and The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin. That is unless I decide to persevere in forcing myself to not be utterly bored by contemporary fiction. We’ll see.