A group of key Australian writers festivals and literary groups have signed an open letter calling for the end of uncertainty over the Book Council of Australia.
The proposed council and $6m in funding was announced by Tony Abbott in December 2014 at the prime minister’s literary awards. Abbott said the body would “celebrate good reading and good writing”.
However, eight months later it remains “unclear what the council will do, how it will run, who will be invited to contribute,” and how the funding will be allocated, the letter states.
The 39 signatories include the Melbourne and Brisbane writers’ festivals, the emerging writers’ festival and Australian Literary Agents’ Association, and together represent more than 25,000 Australian writers.
The letter states there has been “no visible consultation with the industry to date” and any enquiries made to the government have “gone largely unanswered”.
Sam Twyford-Moore, former director of the Emerging Writers’ festival, said the group’s key demand was “dialogue, to start understanding why this may have taken so long,” and encouraged the arts minister, George Brandis, to consult with those for whom literature is “their job”.
Twyford-Moore said this consultation could be as simple as “setting a room aside in Canberra” and inviting participants from the sector.
While the signatories are mainly non-profits, he was hopeful that at least some of Australia’s major publishing companies would read the letter and want to “be a part of that conversation”.
The letter outlines a number of recommendations for the council, including threats to the industry that would arise with any changes to federal arts funding, such as “potential consequences to national literacy rates” and a reduced “ability to effectively promote and market Australian work overseas.”
A broad definition of the term “book” was also called for, “particularly when it comes to Indigenous oral storytelling practices and for writers from culturally diverse backgrounds”.
Twyford-Moore said the $6m in funding represents “a good chunk of money for literature, which we don’t often get” and the council had potential to be a powerful agent in Australian literature.
“I just want it moving, because we have to start getting books written, published and out into reader hands,” he said.
Funding cuts to the Australia Council, and formation of the National Program for Excellence in the Arts, was a “connected but separate” issue, he said.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported in December that the money used to establish the Book Council would be “cut over three years from the Australia Council budget”.
The letter has been sent to Brandis, Labor’s spokesman for arts, Mark Dreyfus, and the Greens MP Adam Bandt. All three will appear as guest speakers at the national writers’ congress from 11 to 12 September.
