You have to wonder what Melbourne’s literary magazine people were to make of Festival Director Steve Grimwade’s suggestion that they spend half a day of the Melbourne Writers Festival in a shipping container. But ‘Magazine’ as it’s called is just that, a shipping container, somewhat decorated on the outside and fitted out internally like a micro-urban—salon where interviews from eight of Melbourne’s lit journals/mags chat in 15 minute blocks to writers from the festival.
It’s the first year for this soiree and it’s a bit of an experiment. Tucked down by the Yarra on River Terrace, the shipping container is somewhat out of the buzz and action in the Atrium. The name too, ‘Magazine’ doesn’t entire convey what it does. People stop and peer in from the edge, staring in on the inhabitants like a living diorama. For the magazines involved however, it’s a great initiative to raise their profile with a broader festival-going audience.
