‘Blue Cathedral’ Author Excited to Celebrate Tasmania Reads Week

Cameron Hindrum.

Cameron Hindrum is among the Tasmanian writers who are contributing to this year’s Tasmania Reads Week. This annual celebration of reading features events and activities for all ages at several of the state’s libraries and businesses.

Hindrum recently spoke to Tasmanian Times about Tasmania Reads Week. He has written plays, poems, and a novel called The Blue Cathedral, which he is particularly proud of.

“I’m really lucky in that I had the opportunity to have it reissued last year,” he said.

“It’s not something that happens very often with a novel.”

Last year (2023) was the fortieth anniversary of the High Court’s decision to stop the construction of the Gordon-below-Franklin dam in Tasmania’s south-east.

“[The Blue Cathedral] largely centres on the protest action around that proposal,” Hindrum explained.

He added that he was very interested in the blockade and its effect on the Queenstown community, so he decided to make one of his main characters a protester who joins the blockade. The other character is a young troublemaker named Billy.

“I [was] trying to play into both sides, I suppose.”

Hindrum lauded Tasmania Reads Week as a platform to celebrate Tasmanian literature.

“The fact that [reading] is getting a focus celebration is really, really important,” he said.

“There’s an incredible amount of excellent Tasmanian writing out there and, unfortunately, some of it is stuff you may not necessarily encounter or hear about.”

Hindrum will host a session titled ‘Waiting in the Wild’ as part of Tasmania Reads Week. It will be held at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart on 23 March. The panellists include Hilary Burden, Simon Grove, Karen Harrland, and Lyn Reeves.

“I’m really looking forward to the conversation,” Hindrum said.

“Broadly, it is all about how the environment that we live in has informed what we write and what we say about the world.”

Hindrum is also holding a session with Martin Flanagan during Tasmania Reads Week.

“[Martin] is obviously a very well-known Tasmanian journalist and writer,” Hindrum said, “so I’m really looking forward to unpacking with him some of those things that have contributed to [Tasmania’s] narrative richness and that have informed our respective work.”

Hindrum hopes that Tasmania Reads Week will foster a deeper appreciation for Tasmanian literature, urging readers to explore the countless stories that have stemmed from the island’s history and culture.

Callum J. Jones studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania. He has written fiction and non-fiction for Tasmanian Times since 2018, and can be traced by the smell of fresh coffee.

Follow him on Twitter (@Callum_Jones_10) and Facebook (@callum.j.jones.creative).