Literature Events: February Edition

By now most will have given themselves enough time to fail through a few practice resolutions.

Whilst January is a month to weed out real promises from the practice promises, February marks the hard line where resolutions must become actions. It is the migratory month, marking an important movement from the couch to the desk, and maybe to the fridge in between.

This will be the year you actually read The Monthly (not just buy it). The year for metaphorical travel, as your subscription to The New Yorker officially begins.

This is The Year of the Essay, and the Victorian Writer’s Centre have a 1-day course to prove it, hosted by Australian philosopher and writer Damon Young (Feb 19).

It is a year to rediscover credibility; with Vogel shortlisted author Romy Ash offering advice on building authenticity at Writer’s Research on February 8.

2012 is about getting down to business; with Jack Dann’s No Nonsense Guide to Speculative Fiction on February 25.

Twelve years after the horrors of the millennium bug, 2012 is finally the year to look forward. To help get you up to speed with what’s coming, the Copyright Agency is hosting its annual seminar, Digital Publishing Today, on February 23 featuring experts from Google, Booki.sh, Kobo, Text Publishing and Cambridge University Press.

On hand to make sure 2012 will be just as real as last year, is the ever reliable Wheeler Centre, hosting Alain de Botton on February 21 (more tickets to be available soon) and the annual Gala Stories to Believe In on February 11 – with Alice Pung, Elliot Perlman, Lally Katz, Tony Birch, Andy Griffiths and many more.

Just think that in 2012 seven billion people share the same limited scope of human thought. Hence, the more tomorrows you put before today, the greater the chance someone else will carpe your diem.