MADELAINE Lucas will take to the stage at this year\u2019s Bendigo Writers Festival with award winning and highly successful author Christos Tsiolkas in an event titled What\u2019s Love Got to Do With It.<\/p>\n
The pair will discuss all things love, loss and Lucas\u2019 debut novel Thirst for Salt<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Australian-born Brooklyn-based author said she can\u2019t wait to take part in her first Bendigo Writers Festival.<\/p>\n \u201cThe wonderful team at Allen & Unwin were able to get me an invitation,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled because as a debut novelist, it’s so competitive to get festival slots.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m really excited for the conversation with Christos Tsiolkas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be in conversation with a writer of that calibre, and I’m also really excited to hear his thoughts about love and love in the novel.\u201d<\/p>\n Love and all it entails is something that Lucas said has always fascinated her and she looks forward to talking about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess for me, the love story is a way of tackling much larger existential themes,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat gives our lives meaning? How do we love, how do we grieve, how do those experiences shape us?<\/p>\n \u201cNot only in the choices we make in our own relationships but going back to the first examples we see of love from our parents or our families.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m anticipating a broad-ranging conversation, about love and craft, family and memory and hope. It should be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n