Bestselling author Trent Dalton has a lot going on, and a lot of love to give. After the screen adaptation of his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe devoured the Logies with five wins on Sunday, the writer is returning to the streets of his home town Brisbane with his typewriter to collect the city's love stories. It's a project he first started in 2021, spending two months on the busy corner of Adelaide and Albert Streets with his 1960s Olivetti, talking to strangers about love that endures, is lost, or unrequited.
These tales became yet another bestseller for Dalton, the joyous collection Love Stories. He's returning to King George Square on September 6 as part of the Brisbane Festival to do it all again, this time joined by 20 aspiring writers. Will there be another book in it? There will at least be an exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane, where people can read these freshly collected stories and pen their own.
Brisbane may not enjoy the reputation of Paris as a city of love, but Dalton promises it's one of the most romantic places in the world - during the first Love Stories project, hundreds of people opened their hearts to him. "You can never underestimate the people of Brisbane and their capacity to love ..
. honestly, every person you pass has a love story," he told AAP. The project's revival marks the stage adaptation of the Love Stories collection, premiering at Brisbane's Playhouse during September.
Just as Boy Swallows Universe made it to the stage, the small scree.