CQU Press celebrated a double bunger triumph at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival on the weekend (4-6th August 2006).

CQU Press author Michael Wilding had his own session in which he was interviewed by former senator and current president of the NSW Writers’ Centre, Irina Dunn, about his new novel, Wild Amazement.

Coinciding with this event, Wild Amazement was prominently reviewed in The Bulletin magazine by Barry Oakley.

David Myers’ Glorious Gods and Swaggering Heroes was featured in another event in which David shared the stage with Melbourne author Jennifer Cook with her 2 books, Persephone and Ariadne, written primarily for the young adults market.

David and Jennifer read from their books and after a dialogue about how best to revive the Greek myths as contemporary literature took questions from the enthusiastic audience of more than 100 people.

Both authors did signings at the festival tent bookshop afterwards.

Later that afternoon celebrated detective fiction author Peter Corris (author of the Cliff Hardy series) launched Wild Amazement and High Court Judge Ian Callinan launched Glorious Gods and Swaggering Heroes to an invited audience of 50 people.

Peter Corris reminded the audience of Michael Wilding’s seminal role in Sydney with the Balmain Push of the 1960s and 1970s and his position in the development of Australian literature.

Justice Ian Callinan compared the satiric spirit of David Myers’ title with Robert Graves’ I Claudius and revealed with some amusement that the Brisbane libraries were shelving Glorious Gods in the section for Religion, even though his book was clearly irreverent, if not downright blasphemous.

A chance meeting with a CQU alumnus, known as John, in the Festival bar, led to John turning up the next day and taking some excellent professional photos of the double book launch.

John recognized David from the yellow plastic bags with CQU Press prominently displayed on them.