Festival aims to showcase shire

A new reading and writing festival will be launched in the Shire of Capel this year, to encourage reading, writing and connecting.

The Fact or Faction Readers and Writers Hub will take place during the first week of September with events scattered all over the shire and with people of all ages welcome from anywhere in the South West.

Capel shire community services manager Jeremy O’Neill said while all of the events would be free, RSVPs would be greatly appreciated.

“As you can imagine, some of the events might go quickly,” he said.

“The first event we’re having is a speakers forum at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar and they have a set capacity.”

The speakers forum and the festival itself is set to be headlined by University of New South Wales Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence Toby Walsh who will lead a panel of writers from around the country in discussing communicating and living with machines as smart as people.

Mr O’Neill said the idea behind the festival was to create an educational event different to what the shire had offered before while attempting to showcase the shire in its entirety to out-of-town visitors.

“We have some events happening in Capel, we have an author’s talk at the Peppermint Grove Beach Community Centre, at the BCGS library in Gelorup and at the Dalyellup Community Centre; we also have one of our culmination events at the South West Rail and Heritage Centre in Boyanup,” he said.

Shire chief executive Ian McCabe said it encouraged learning and diversity in the workplace as a way of connecting the community in schools or through activities.

“What better way than to engage with books and our future and be part of Fact or Faction,” he said.