Even before her first book, The Female Eunuch, was published she caused a stir – and the burning of many a bra – and she has not stopped fanning the flames of feminism despite softening her stance in regard to women’s underwear. In more recent times she has written about menopause (The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause, 1991), the beauty of teenage boys (The Beautiful Boy, 2003), and female genital mutilation, earning both praise and criticism along the way.

She has studied and written about Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, has been staunch in her refusal to accept transsexual women as female, and has openly criticised the NT Intervention. In 2003 she told Andrew Denton that she considers that falling in love turns you into an immediate bore, and a stalker. The victim of a stalker herself some years ago, Greer has no desire to travel this path. She married once, in 1968, a union that lasted three weeks, during which time she claims to have been unfaithful seven times. Always controversial, Germaine Greer was one of nine contestants in the 2005 series of Celebrity Big Brother UK, but walked out after five days citing, among other things, psychological cruelty. In 2006, Greer claimed that ‘the animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin’ after Steve Irwin’s death.

Greer is now retired but retains her position as Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and Comparative Studies at the University of Warwick, Coventry. This May, she is coming to Darwin to participate in WordStorm 2010: The Festival of Australasian Writing, and will be hosting a very special dinner at Pee Wees on the Point, looking back at her landmark book The Female Eunuch, from a perspective of forty years.

WordStorm 2010 also features writers from Asia and the Pacific, as well as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian authors, including those from the Territory. Tim Flannery, Wendy Harmer, Morris Gleitzman, Jean Tay, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Alice Pung, O Thiam Chin, Marie Munkara and Wesley Enoch are just a small sample of the talent whipping up a storm during the festival.

Special events this year include a literary lunch featuring Wendy Harmer and Jennifer Byrne, performances by Deborah Cheetham and Don Walker at Darwin Entertainment Centre, an Indonesian poetry breakfast and an Indigenous Writers Conference. A festival favourite is the WordStorm comedy debate, where sport and penmanship come head to head–this year, the argument is “That Books are Better than Barra”.

Interwoven with these events are the daily readings, workshops and panels, this year staged in the beautiful Botanic Gardens. Panels this year cover various literary genres and topics as diverse as climate change, home & land, comedy as resistance, crime & punishment, the stolen children, feminism & Islam.

–STORY BY ROBYN MCLEAN

When Anne Phelan financed a framing business from her school teacher’s wage, little did she know that it would mean a change of careers and an introduction to some of the most esteemed artists in Australia. From a small framing business and wall of art in Gardens Hill Crescent, Framed – The Darwin Gallery grew into a gallery with ten rooms, twenty exhibitions a year and a reputation for quality art and craft from across Australia.

Many of Australia’s Museums have purchased works shown in the gallery and these have become part of the precious collections for all Australians to savour.

During the twenty five years in business, there have been forays into other ventures: a gallery in Katherine they ran for 16 years, a city gallery called Sunstorm, a Parap Gallery in the very early days, an Art Hire business sourcing artworks for hotels and motels, and organizing commissions for large public projects and awards.

Its contacts and knowledge gained is so extensive that no challenge seems too daunting. In the years ahead may Framed– The Darwin Gallery continue to meet the challenges and needs of a fast changing Darwin and one with a maturing taste for original artworks.

–Story By Anne Phelan

The Top End offers a refreshing range of out-of-the-ordinary flavours to excite the tastebuds. And while growing food in the tropics presents a challenge, the sumptuous rewards of success make the mouth water, titillate the tongue with desire.

Immerse yourself in the ripe and luxuriant tastes of Darwin and surrounds at a topical panel discussion and tropical luncheon to be held as part of WordStorm, the Festival of Australasian Writing this May. With a menu sourced from within a 100km radius of Darwin, this unique culinary experience aims to prove that local is luscious, and that it is possible to satisfy the most discerning palates without the heavy economic and environmental costs of long-distance transport.

Global warming and the ever-increasing human population present unprecedented challenges to existing methods of food production, storage and transportation. In 2008, only 37 days worth of grain supply were held in reserve across the entire globe. In 2009, there were 6.7 billion people on Earth. It is predicted that in 40 years there will be approximately 9 billion mouths to feed. Current agricultural practices will not satisfy this demand.

Most of us, brought up in a world where food is an easily obtained, pre-packaged commodity sourced from the supermarket shelves, cannot imagine scarcity, and none of us would relish putting to the test the theory that the world is 24 hours and two meals away from barbarism and chaos.

Hosted by the NT Writers’ Centre in association with Griffith Review, a panel of dedicated foodies, including Darwin’s own Leonie Norrington, will discuss the food chain, and the complex relationships we have with the food we eat, prior to the meal. Covering a range of issues such as sustainability and the cultural importance of food, Nick Earls, Pauline Nguyen and Melissa Lucashenko will join the discussion, each bringing their own flavour to the food debate.

In his book, Now or Never, Tim Flannery – who will also be appearing as part of WordStorm – calls for a different approach to food in the 21st century: we should be eating what is good for the planet, as well as what is good for ourselves. Eating locally produced food is a vitally important part of what he labels a ‘sustainabilitarian’ diet. And in the Top End, we are spoiled with delicious local choices. Come and sample some. Satisfy your appetite.

Kath Manzie Youth Literary Award Winner Shona Welsh and Daryl Manzie

The application states that “the judges will be looking for a script that is vividly imagined, expertly crafted and lends itself naturally to a performance medium. The winning script will then be workshopped for a live performance at the 2010 Darwin Festival”.

Another new award is the, the Birch Carol and Coyle Screenwriting Award, awarded for a screenplay for a feature or short film or television program, “executed with technical excellence and creativity”.

The Awards will now also be held as part of the NT Writers Centre’s “Wordstorm” festival in May, becoming the opening welcome event.

The Awards, which have been running since 1984, help to recognise the Territory’s finest wordsmiths, acknowledging and celebrating the talent that our creative residents have to offer, and help to cultivate our ever-growing creative writing industry.

Entries for the 2010 NT Literary Awards close on January 31. Entry forms can be found at www.ntl.nt.gov.au.