AustLit

'Jonathan Pearlman is the founding editor of Australian Foreign Affairs, the new print journal founded in Australia in 2018. He is also a correspondent for The Telegraph (United Kingdom) and The Straits Times (Singapore).

He previously worked as a correspondent in the Middle East, and has covered other international stories including the 2008 US election and the violence in eastern Congo. Jonathan's work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Diplomat, Good Weekend and Australian Book Review. He was a finalist in the Walkley Awards.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Vicki Laveau-Harvie was born in Canada, but lived for many years in France before settling in Australia. She worked as a translator and editor in France, and then lectured in French Studies at Macquarie University in Australia. After retiring, she taught ethics in a primary school.

Vicki's debut work, her memoir The Erratics, won the Finch Memoir Prize in 2018 and The Stella Prize in 2019.'

Source: Introduction.

'Judith Brett is a biographer and historian, and an Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University.

The Enigmatic Mr Deakin (2018) won the 2018 National Biography Award, and was shortlisted in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, NSW Premier’s History Awards and Queensland Literary Awards. And her latest, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting(2019), may yet do the same.

She has also written three Quarterly Essays - Fair Share: Country and City in Australia (2011), Exit Right: The Unravelling of John Howard (2007) and Relaxed and Comfortable: The Liberal Party's Australia (2005).

Her previous works include Robert Menzies' Forgotten People (2007), Ordinary Peoples' Politics (with Anthony Moran in 2006) and Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class (2003).'

Source: Introduction.

'Guy Rundle is a gonzo journalist and satirist. He is writer-at-large for Crikey. He has written several books, including Practice: Journalism, Essays and Criticism (2019), Inland Empire: America at the end of the Obama era (2014) and Down to the Crossroads: On the trail of the 2008 election (2008).

He has also written two Quarterly Essays, Clivosaurus: The politics of Clive Palmer (2014) and The Opportunist: John Howard and the triumph of reaction (2001).

Guy was previously the editor of Arena Magazine, producer of TV shows from Comedy Inc to future retro cult classic Vulture, the writer of several shows for the satirist Max Gillies.'

Source: The Garret.

'This is a special episode of The Garret. It is an exploration of how we are passing Australian literature - including contemporary literature written by writers who appear on The Garret - on to the next generation.

Maxine McKew and Larissa McLean Davies discuss the importance of teaching Australian literature in schools, and what this mean for our students, our teachers, and of course, our writers.

Maxine’s work in government led to the National Agreement on Quality Standards in Early Childhood, and she published Class Act: An analysis of some of the key challenges in Australian schooling in 2014. For the past five years she has worked at MGSE in a variety of roles. In 2018 she launched the podcast Talking Teaching.

Larissa is an Associate Professor in Language and Literacy and the Deputy Director - Learning and Teaching in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Australian literature and the teaching of English are her specialities.

You can check out two of the current research projects at Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers and Teacher-Researchers: Promoting Literature in English Education.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Kate Richards is a memoirist, poet and most recently, a novelist. Her work goes where few writers have ever gone. It is profound and honest, and represents not only a contribution to Australian literature, but a contribution to literature on mental health and identify.

'Her first work, 2013's Madness: A Memoir, received the Adelaide Festival's Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards. Kate followed that stunning debut with 2014's No Place For Me: Making Sense of Madness, which was shortlisted for the Human Rights Award. In 2019 Kate has moved the world of fiction with her first novel, Fusion.'

Source: The Garret.

'In partnership with the State Library of Victoria, The Garret hosts a series of live events with leading Australian writers. This event was recorded on Tuesday 21 May 2019.

In this event, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Magan Magan discuss Growing up African in Australia with host Astrid Edwards and Shantel Wetherall. The discussion explores all angles of Growing Up African in Australia - Maxine's role as editor, Magan's role as editor and contributor, and Shantel's experience as a reader who grew up as part of the African Diaspora.'

Source: The Garret blurb.

'Tony Birch has appeared on The Garret before, and in this episode we are going to do something a little different. Our host Astrid Edwards had the honour of reading The White Girl (2019) before publication, and this interview represents Tony's first in-depth public discussion of the work.

'Tony is an acclaimed writer. His short story collection Common People (2017) was shortlisted for both the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Indigenous Writers Prize in the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Ghost River (2015) won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Blood (2011) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

'Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio. He taught creative writing at Melbourne University for many years and was the inaugural Bruce McGuinness Research Fellow within the Moondani Balluk Centre at Victoria University.'

Source: Garret website.

'Carrie Tiffany's first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (2005), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and received the WA Premier’s Award for Fiction. Her second novel, Mateship with Birds (2011), was awarded the inaugural Stella Prize and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her third novel, Exploded View (2019), is an equally impressive work.'

Source: Garret website.

Melina Marchetta is one of Australia's best-loved novelists. Her most famous work is the multi-award winning Looking For Alibrandi, which was released as a feature film adapted by Melina herself.

Melina has published eight other novels, including Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road. In 2011, her novel The Piper’s Son was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award.

She has also written a fantasy trilogy, The Lumatere Chronicles, as well as crime novel, Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil.'

Source: The Garret.

'Peggy Frew's fiction is startling and evocative. Her first novel, House of Sticks (2011), won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer, and was shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing. Hope Farm (2015), her second novel, won the Barbara Jefferis Award, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Islands (2019) is her third novel.

'Her short works have been published in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin and The Big Issue. In 2008, her short story 'Home Visit' won The Age Short Story Award.

'Peggy is also a member of the-winning Melbourne band Art of Fighting.'

Source: The Garret.

'The shortlist for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced on 2 July in Sydney. Gail Jones (shortlisted for The Death of Noah Glass), Jennifer Mills (Dyschronia) and Melissa Lucashenko (Too Much Lip) appear in this interview, which was recorded on 2 and 3 July and released on 4 July 2019.'

Source: The Garret.

'Marieke Hardy is the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, and in this interview she takes us behind the scenes of programming the 2019 Melbourne Writers Festival.

Marieke is also a screenwriter, author, curator and immersive theatre maker. She has written columns for The Age, Frankie and The Drum, and also written for television including Laid, The Family Law and Seven Types of Ambiguity. She released her memoir You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead in 2011, co-curated the international literary salon Women of Letters, and appeared on the ABC's The Book Club.'

Source: The Garret.

Lee published her memoir, The Dangerous Bride, in 2014, and co-edited Rebellious Daughters, an anthology of personal essays by prominent Australian authors, in 2016.

Lee's short works have been widely published in Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States. Lee holds a PhD in social sciences and MA in creative writing. She has also published three fiction books written in Hebrew and published in Israel.'

Source: The Garret.

'John Marsden has influenced generations of children and teenagers. He has published more than 40 books, including the beloved Tomorrow When the War Began series. In 2019 he released his manifesto on teaching and parenting, The Art of Growing Up.

He has sold over five million books and has won every major award in Australia for young people's fiction.

John founded two schools in Victoria, Candlebark and Alice Miller. The two schools enrolled 380 students in 2019.'

Source: The Garret blurb.

'Angela Savage is an award-winning author and the Director of Writers Victoria.

'Angela is known for her crime fiction. Her debut novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript, and all three of her Jayne Keeney PI novels were shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards. The Dying Beach was also shortlisted for the 2014 Davitt Award.

'In 2019 she made the move to literary fiction with Mother of Pearl, the novel for which she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing from Monash University.'

Source: Abstract.

'Elizabeth Bryer is a writer and translator. She is an editor at Brow Books, and was previously the inaugural translations editor of The Lifted Brow for two years.

'From Here On, Monsters (2019) is her debut work of literary fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Lifted Brow, Seizure, Meanjin, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings, Sydney Review of Books, among many others.

'In 2017 Elizabeth received the prestigious PEN America/Heim Translation Fund Grant to translate Aleksandra Lun’s The Palimpsests. Her translations of fiction by Carlos Yushimito, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Aleksandra Lun and María Jose Ferrada have appeared in The Lifted Brow, Overland, Words Without Borders, Asymptote and Nashville Review.'

Source: Abstract.

'Jay Kristoff is the award-winning author of the fantasy series The Lotus War and The Nevernight Chronicles, as well as The Illuminae Files with Amie Kaufman. In this interview, our host Astrid quizzes Jay on Nevernight, Darkdawn and Godsgrave, the three books that make up The Nevernight Chronicles.'

Source: The Garret blurb.

'Just off the plane from Italy, Ali Cobby Eckermann talks candidly about life and love, as she transitions from Kaurna land to begin a tenure as Adjunct Professor with RMIT on the lands of the Kulin Nation.

'Her first collections of poetry little bit long time and Kami(2010) both quickly sold out their first print runs. Her first verse novel His Father’s Eyes was published in 2011 and her second, Ruby Moonlight, was awarded the inaugural kuril dhagun National Manuscript Editing Award and the 2013 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry and Book of the Year Award. In 2017, Ali received the prestigious and international Winham-Campbell prize.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Tara June Winch is a Wiradjuri writer based in France. Her first novel, Swallow the Air, was critically acclaimed and saw Tara named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Her second book, the collection After the Carnage, was longlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for fiction, shortlisted for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Christina Stead prize for Fiction and the Queensland Literary Award for a collection. Her third novel, The Yield, was released in 2019 and is simply stunning.

'Tara's Indigenous dance documentary, Carriberrie, screened at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. Tara was previously mentored by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka as part of the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Jess Hill is an investigative journalist, and she has been writing about domestic abuse since 2014. See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse (2019) is the culmination of that work and represents a new way of thinking about and acting on domestic abuse in Australia. It is also an example of exceptional research and the power of storytelling in non-fiction.

'Jess's reporting has received two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards. She is also a former Middle East correspondent and producer for ABC Radio.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Alice Bishop is a short story writer. A Constant Hum - about the Black Saturday Fires - is her debut collection. The work was nominated for the 2019 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and the origins of the work were commended in the 2015 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, as well as the inaugural Richell Prize and the 2017 Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award.

'Her essay 'Coppering' was shortlisted in the 2017 Horne Prize. Alice's other pieces have been published by Meanjin, Overland, Australian Book Review, Seizure, Voiceworks and Lip Magazine.'

Source: The Garret.

'Anna Krien is the author of the award-winning Night Games and Into the Woods, as well as two Quarterly Essays, Us and Them and The Long Goodbye. In 2019 she moved from non-fiction to fiction with her first novel Act of Grace.

'Anna’s writing has also been published in The Monthly, The Age, Best Australian Essays, Best Australian Stories and The Big Issue.

'In 2014 she won the UK William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, and 2018 she received a Sidney Myer Fellowship.'

Source: The Garret.

'Jane Sullivan is a literary journalist and novelist.  She writes the Saturday column ‘Turning Pages’ and book features for The Age. She won the inaugural Australian Human Rights Award for journalism.

'Jane has also published two novels - The White Star (2000) and Little People (2011), as well as Storytime (2019), her reflection on rereading the books of her childhood as an adult.'

Source: The Garret.

'This episode 'Is all contemporary fiction speculative fiction?' was recorded live at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival on Friday 25 October 2019. It features Claire G. Coleman, Krissy Kneen, Pitchaya Sudbanthad and Michelle Tanmizi.

'Speculative fiction has lurked in the shadows of the literary scene for years while realism hogged the limelight. Now, as the natural and political spheres crumble around us, speculative fiction’s dystopian worlds don’t seem so different from our own. In this timely conversation, our panelists ask whether we’re now at the point where all contemporary fiction is in fact speculative fiction.'

Source: The Garret.

'This episode, 'Back in Time', was recorded live at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival on Sunday 27 October 2019. It features Richard Fidler in conversation with Astrid Edwards.

'Richard Fidler is taking his gift for storytelling back in time. He has traipsed through Istanbul uncovering legendary Constantinople with his son, and journeyed to the sites of the beautiful and bloody Icelandic sagas with his friend Kári Gíslason. Now he takes the UWRF stage to talk about his love of history and travel, and the stories where the two meet.'

Source: The Garret.

'Christos Tsiolkas is one of Australia's most courageous writers. He has published six novels, several of which have been adapted for the screen. Damascus (2019) is his latest work.

'Christos is best known for Loaded (1995), which became the movie Head On, and The Slap (2008) was turned into an Australian and U.S. television miniseries after it won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

'Christos is also a playwright, essayist, screen writer and film critic. His other works include Dead Europe (2005), which won the Age Fiction Prize and the Melbourne Best Writing Award, and The Jesus Man (1999). His critical literary study On Patrick White came out in 2018.'

Source: The Garret.

'Maxine Beneba Clarke is a highly awarded Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. The Hate Race (2015), her memoir of growing up in Sydney in the 1980s and 1990s, immediately entered the canon of contemporary Australian literature. The Hate Race received the NSW Premier's Literary Award Multicultural NSW Award 2017 and was shortlisted for an ABIA, an Indie Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and The Stella Prize. This interview is a close study of Maxine’s memoir.

'Maxine is prolific. Her other works include The Saturday PaperPortraits (2019) and the critically acclaimed short fiction collection Foreign Soil (2015), as well as three picture books - Fashionista (2019), Wide Big World (with Isobel Knowles in 2018) and The Patchwork Bike (with Van T. Rudd in 2016).

'Her poetry can be found in The Saturday Paper most weeks, and she has published three poetry collections Carrying the World, Gil Scott Heron Is on Parole and Nothing Here Needs Fixing. Maxine’s short fiction, non-fiction and poetry have also been published in numerous publications including Overland, The Age, Meanjin and The Big Issue.'

Source: The Garret.

'Clare Bowditch is a storyteller - a singer, songwriter and memoirist. In 2019 she released her memoir Your Own Kind of Girl.

'She is also an ARIA Award-winning musician (Best Female Artist), Rolling Stone Woman of the Year (Contribution to Culture), Logie-nominated actor (for her role as 'Rosanna' on hit TV show Offspring), and a former ABC broadcaster.'

Source: The Garret.

'Charlotte Wood is one of Australia's most provocative writers. In 2019 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant services to literature, and was named one of the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence.

'Charlotte has published six novels and two books of non-fiction. She is best known for The Natural Way of Things, which received the 2016 Stella Prize, the 2016 Indie Book of the Year and Novel of the Year, was joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction and was the University of Canberra Book of the Year for 2019. In late 2019 she released The Weekend, which has already been longlisted in the 2019 Indie Book Awards.

'Her non-fiction works include The Writer’s Room, a collection of interviews with authors about the creative process.'

Source: The Garret.

'The shortlist for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced on 2 July in Sydney. Rodney Hall (shortlisted for A Stolen Season), Michael Mohammed Ahmad (The Lebs) and Gregory Day (A Sand Archiveh) appear in this interview, which was recorded on 3 July and released on 4 July 2019.'

Source: The Garret.

'Jane Caro is an author, novelist, broadcaster, columnist and social commentator. She was awarded the Walkley for Women’s Leadership in 2018.

She has published numerous non-fiction works including The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education (2007), Destroying the Joint: Why Women Have To Change the World (2013) and Accidental Feminists (2019).

Jane has also written a YA trilogy on the life of Elizabeth I - Just A Girl (2013), Just a Queen (2015) and Just Flesh and Blood (2018).'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'J.P. Pomare is an award winning writer. His short form work is published in Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Takahe and Mascara Literary Review. Joshua's first novel, the literary thriller Call Me Evie, became an instant bestseller. He is also a podcaster, and has hosted On Writing since 2015.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Karen Viggers is the author of The Stranding (2008), The Lightkeeper’s Wife (2011), The Grass Castle (2014) and The Orchardist's Daughter (2019). Her work enjoys particular success in France, where she has sold more than 800,000 copies. The Lightkeeper's Wife (La Memoire de embruns) received the Les Petits Mots des Libraires Prix Litteraire.

Karen is also a wildlife veterinarian who has worked in the remotest areas on Earth, including the Kimberley and Antartica [sic] - experience that informs all of her writing.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In partnership with the State Library of Victoria, The Garret hosted a series of live events with leading Australian writers in 2018 and 2019. In our first event of 2019, we discussed The Stella Shortlist with Jamie Marina Lau and Jenny Ackland (both shortlisted), as well as Chair of the Judging Panel Louise Swinn.

Jamie Marina Lau (劉劍冰) is a 22-year-old writer and musician from Melbourne. Her short works are published in Cordite, ROOKIE magazine and Voiceworks. Her debut novel Pink Mountain on Locust Island (2018) was shortlisted for The Stella Prize.

Jenny Ackland is a writer and teacher from Melbourne. Her short fiction has been published in literary magazines. Little Gods (2018) was shortlisted for The Stella Prize in 2019, and her debut novel The Secret Son was published in 2014.

Louise Swinn is a writer, editor, publisher and reviewer. Her work appears regularly in The Age, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is one of the founders of Sleepers Publishing, Small Press Network and The Stella Prize. Louise is Chair of Judges for the 2019 Stella Prize.'

Source: The Garret website.

'Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-born Australian writer, social advocate and mechanical engineer.

Her 2015 Tedx Talk, 'What does my headscarf mean to you?' has been viewed more than 2 million times. In 2016 she released her memoir Yassmin's Story, and was named the Queensland Young Person of the Year. In 2019 she released her first work of fiction, the young adult novel You Must Be Layla.

Her writing appears in The Guardian and Teen Vogue, as well as a number of anthologies and journals.'

Source: The Garret website.

'Mark Brandi's first novel Wimmera (2017) was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards and received the British Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger. Wimmera was also shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year, and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year. His second novel, The Rip (2019), is already receiving critical acclaim.

Mark's shorter work appears in The Guardian, The Age, and The Big Issue. Mark graduated with a criminal justice degree and worked extensively in the justice system - experience which informs his writing.'

Source: The Garret.