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Award-winning Australian novelist Robert Drewe is one of several leading writers who will help The University of Western Australia launch its 2013 Centenary celebrations this weekend with a two-day Writers' Corner at Winthrop Hall.

The celebrations which start with the spectacular free LUMINOUSNight event from 7pm on Friday 8 February are part of a special Alumni and Friends Weekend at the University.

Robert Drewe and fellow scribes will attend the Writers' Corner from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 9 February, and from 9.30am to 2.30pm on Sunday.

He is famous for his memoir The Shark Net , in which he blends fact and fiction to evoke the 1960s Perth of his boyhood - and the crime-scene of serial killer Edgar Eric Cooke.  During the weekend, Robert Drewe will discuss his latest work, Montebello , which focusses on the archipelago off the WA coast - the site of a series of British nuclear tests in the 1950s.

Poet Winthrop Professor Dennis Haskell will read his UWA Centenary poem for the first time during the weekend and Seeking Wisdom:  A Centenary History of The University of Western Australia, edited by Winthrop Professor Jenny Gregory and Assistant Professor Jean Chetkovich, will be launched by UWA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson.

Science fiction writers Van Ikin and Tess Williams, young Indigenous author Ambelin Kwaymullina, historical novelist Ian Reid and short-story writer Susan Midalia, along with many other writers in several genres, including new Greenpeace Australia CEO, David Ritter, will also take part in discussions and book-signings at UWA.

People wanting to attend the Writers' Corner must register for the Alumni and Friends Weekend.  While LUMINOUSNight is free and open to the public, other weekend activities at UWA are available only to registrants.

Media references

Virginia Rowland (Senior Project Officer, UWA Centenary Celebrations)  (+61 8) 6488 4214
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783