The Garret is a podcast for lovers of books and storytelling. Always about Australian writers and their craft, in 2023 The Garret expanded focus and also interviews industry figures about what gets published (and why). The Garret is educational in outlook. A defining feature of The Garret is our transcripts. Each interview is published with a complete transcript (so you don’t have to write anything down while you listen). The Garret is a labour of love on behalf of all emerging writers. It d ...
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Ep 274: Alexis Wright on writing Praiseworthy
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Waanyi writer Alexis Wright is the only author to win the Stella Prize twice - the first time for Tracker and the second time for Praiseworthy. Alexis is also the author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, as well as Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; and Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Norther…
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Ep 273: Sam Elkin on his queer legal saga
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Sam Elkin's debut memoir is Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga. Sam’s essays have been published in the Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books and Kill Your Darlings. He co-edited Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia . He hosts the 3rrr radio show Queer View Mirror and is a Tilde Film Festival boa…
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Ep 272: Laurie Steed on writing the short story form
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Laurie Steed is a novelist and short story writer. Greater City Shadows, his short story collection, was shortlisted for the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. He also published a memoir, Love Dad: Confessions of an Anxious Father, in 2023. His fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in The Age, Meanjin, Overla…
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Ep 271: Kate Larsen on why the relationship is the project
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Kate Larsen is a writer, poet and arts and cultural consultant with more than 25 years’ experience in the non-profit, government and cultural sectors in Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom. She is one of the contributors behind The Relationship Is the Project. Kate is a thought leader in the areas of arts governance and cultural leadership, work…
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Ep 270: James Bradley on the colonisation of the oceans
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James Bradley is a writer and critic. He has returned to non-fiction with his latest work, Deep Water: The world in the ocean. His previous books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade and Ghost Species, a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus, and The Penguin Book of the Ocean. His essays and articles have appeared in The Mo…
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Ep 269: Amanda Lohrey on investigating meaning via fiction
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Amanda Lohrey writes fiction and non-fiction. Her latest novel, The Conversion, was released in 2023. Her previous novel, The Labyrinth (2021), won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, a Prime Minister’s Literary Award, a Tasmanian Literary Award and the Voss Literary Prize. Amanda is also regular contributor to the Monthly magazine and a former seni…
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Ep 268: Nam Lee on 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem
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Nam Le is one of Australia's foremost poets. His short story collection The Boat has been republished as a modern classic and is widely translated, anthologised, and taught. 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem is his first poetry collection. Nam has received major awards in America, Europe, and Australia, including the PEN/Malamud Award, the Anisf…
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Ep 267: Catriona Menzies-Pike on the art of literary criticism
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Catriona Menzies-Pike is a writer and editor based in Vancouver, Canada. Between 2015 and 2023 she was the editor of the online journal of criticism, the Sydney Review of Books. In this period she also edited four anthologies of Australian critical writing, most recently Critic Swallows Book. Her newsletter on literature and the internet, Infra Dig…
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Ep 266: Sara Saleh on writing poetry and creating 'The Gaza Suite'
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Sara Saleh is a writer/poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants. In 2023 she published her first novel, 'Songs for the Dead and the Living', as well as her first poetry collection 'The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat'. Sara is the first and only poet to win both the 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Priz…
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Ep 265: Tracey Lien on writing family, home and place
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Tracey Lien was born and raised in southwestern Sydney and now lives in Brooklyn. All That’s Left Unsaid is her debut novel, and it won the Indie Book Awards for Debut Fiction, the MUD Literary Prize, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Novel and the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize. About The Garret Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and o…
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Ep 264: Christos Tsiolkas on sex, middle age and the importance of criticism
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Christos Tsiolkas is one of Australia's most accomplished writers. His latest novel, In-Between, is an exploration of class, family and love in middle age. Christos is the author of eight novels, including Loaded (which was made into the feature film Head-On) and the international bestseller The Slap (which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Li…
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Ep 263: Kirli Saunders on poetry and multi-disciplinary practice
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Kirli Saunders is a proud Gunai Woman, award-winning author and multidisciplinary artist. Her books include Bindi, Kindred and Returning. Her play, Going Home, is in development, as is her first novel, Yaraman. In 2022 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts. You can read the transcript of this interview here. K…
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Ep 262: LIVE | Richard Flanagan at The Capitol discussing 'Question 7'
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Richard Flanagan is a Tasmania writer. Question 7, his latest work, was published in 2023 and will no doubt become that rare thing - a commercial bestseller that attracts critical acclaim. His novels Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist, Wanting and The Narrow Road to the Deep North hav…
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#1 industry interview of 2023: Beejay Silcox on literary prize judging
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Beejay Silcox is a writer and literary critic. She is the Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers Festival, and in 2023-2-24 the Chair of Judges of The Stella Prize. Her literary criticism and cultural commentary regularly appears in national arts publications, and is increasingly finding an international audience, including in the Times Literary…
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#1 poetry interview of 2023: Maxine Beneba Clarke on banning work for kids
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Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race and the poetry collections Carrying the World and How Decent Folk Behave. Her children's picture books include the CBCA Honour book The Patchwork Bike and the illustrated poem When We Say Black Lives Matter, which was longlisted for the Kate Gr…
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#1 fiction interview of 2023: Pip Williams on recreating the past in fiction
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Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills. Her debut novel was the wildly successful The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020), which was based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives and became an international bestseller. The Bookbinder of Jericho (2023) is her second work of hist…
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#1 nonfiction interview of 2023: Debra Dank on writing memoir
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Debra Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja writer and educator. Her 2023 memoir We Come With This Place - a book she never intended to publish - won the ALS Gold Medal and four NSW Premier's Awards, and was also listed for many other prizes. An educator, she has worked in teaching and learning for many years – a gift given through the hard work of her parents.…
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Ep 261: Lucy Treloar on writing about the hard things well
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Lucy Treloar is a novelist. Her debut, Salt Creek, won the Dobbie Literary Award among others and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the UK's Walter Scott Prize. Wolfe Island, her second novel, won the Barbara Jefferis Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's and NSW literary awards. Lucy's essays and short fiction …
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Ep 260: Brigid Mullane on how to be a publisher
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Brigid Mullane is a publisher at Ultimo Press, and in this interview she discusses her career and her path into publishing. She was previously Managing Editor at Hachette, Editor of Kill Your Darlings, and Communications Manager at Writers Victoria. She has also worked in a variety of roles at Melbourne Writers Festival, National Young Writers’ Fes…
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Ep 259: Tony Birch on working class storytelling in Australia
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Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist. In this interview Tony reflects on his most recent novel, Women and Children. His works include The White Girl (winner of the 2020 NSW Premier's Award for Indigenous Writing and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Prize), Ghost River (winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier's Literary Awa…
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Ep 258: Charlotte Wood on the difference between hope and courage
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Charlotte Wood has won the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award (as well as many other awards). She is the author of ten books - seven novels and three non-fiction works. Her latest novel is Stone Yard Devotional, which she describes as an 'interior' and 'austere' work, and her most personal work of fiction to date. Charlotte has ap…
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Ep 257: Hedley Thomas on writing 'The Teacher's Pet'
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Hedley Thomas is a journalist and has won eight Walkley awards, the first for his investigations into the Australian Federal Police investigations of Dr Mohamed Haneef, and the second for the podcast 'The Teacher's Pet'. In 2023 he published 'The Teacher's Pet' the book, and in this episode Hedley takes the reader behind the scenes of the global po…
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Ep 256: Tyson Yunkaporta on writing right and wrong
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Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal scholar and founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne. He is the author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (2020) and Right Story Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking (2023). His work focuses on applying Indigenous methods of inquiry to resolve…
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Ep 255: Melissa Lucashenko on the past, present and Edenglassie
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Melissa Lucashenko is a Goorie author of Bundjalung and European heritage. She writes about ordinary Australians and the extraordinary lives they lead, and her latest novel is Edenglassie. Her first novel was published in 1997 and since then her work has received acclaim in many literary awards. Killing Darcy won the Royal Blind Society Award and w…
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Ep 254: Laura Jean McKay on writing our present and future
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Laura Jean McKay is a fiction writer, and her latest work is the short story collection Gunflower. Her previous novel, The Animals in That Country, was awarded the international Arthur C. Clarke Award, as well as the Victorian Prize for Literature and the ABIA Small Publishers Adult Book of the Year. Laura was awarded the NZSA Waitangi Day Literary…
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Ep 253: Mirandi Riwoe on writing women, freedom fighters and a bygone era
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Mirandi Riwoe is an award writer of historical non-fiction. In 2023 she released Sunbirds, a historical fiction romance interrogating a bygone era - Java in 1941 before the Japanese invasion of World War II and in the lead up to the revolution to overthrow the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies to become Indonesia in 1949. Her 2020 no…
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Ep 252: Sara Saleh on writing women's history into fiction
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Sara Saleh is an award-winning writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon. Her poems, short stories, and essays have been widely published nationally in English and Arabic. She is co-editor of the groundbreaking 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other, and made history as the first poet to win …
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Ep 251: Chris Masters on the perils and import of investigative journalism
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Chris Masters has practiced the dark art of investigative journalism for decades. He spent extended periods with Australian forces in Afghanistan, and in 2023 published Flawed Hero, his account of reporting on Ben Roberts-Smith and subsequent defamation trial. He is the author of Flawed Hero (2023), No Front Line (2017), Uncommon Soldier (2013) and…
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Ep 250: Leigh Sales on interviewing, journalism and stories that matter
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Leigh Sales is one of Australia’s most recognised and respected journalists. As the new presenter of Australian Story and the recent host of the ABC’s flagship current affairs program, 7.30, she has interviewed dozens of prominent people. Leigh is the winner of three Walkley Awards. She has written three long form works - Detainee 002 (2007), Any O…
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Ep 249: LIVE | Robbie Arnott at Canberra Writers Festival
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Kate Mildenhall and Robbie Arnott recorded this session 'Into the Wild' LIVE at Canberra Writers Festival in August 2023. Robbie's acclaimed debut, Flames, won a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist award and a Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prize, and was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, a New South Wales Premier’s Literary…
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Ep 248: LIVE | Kate Mildenhall at Canberra Writers Festival
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Kate Mildenhall and Astrid Edwards recorded this session 'The Hummingbird Effect' LIVE at Canberra Writers Festival in August 2023. Kate's debut novel, Skylarking, was longlisted for Debut Fiction in The Indie Book Awards 2017 and the 2017 Voss Literary Award, and her bestselling The Mother Fault was longlisted for the 2021 ABIA General Fiction Boo…
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Ep 247: Erin Riley on justice, social work and queer memoir
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Erin Riley is a social worker, and has spent most of the last decade working alongside marginalised populations in community aged care. Erin is also a writer, and their A Real Piece of Work is their debut memoir and collection of essays. Erin brings a queer lived experience to their professional work and to their writing. They were a Penguin Random…
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Ep 246: Anna Funder on liberating the wife of Orwell, Eileen O'Shaunessy
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Anna Funder is the author of the international bestsellers Stasiland (2002) and All That I Am (2012). Her third major work, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life (2023) interrogates the historical record to uncover Eileen O'Shaunessy, the wife of George Orwell, and her influence on his writing. Her books have won multiple literary awards: Stasiland …
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Ep 245: Briohny Doyle on elegy, time and the non-human world
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Briohny Doyle writes extraordinary fiction. Echolalia was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2021, and in 2023 she released Why We Are Here. Briohny is a lecturer in creative writing at The University of Sydney and a former Fulbright scholar, and her writing also appears in The Monthly, The Guardian, Meanjin, The Griffith Review, a…
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Ep 244: Beejay Silcox on literary criticism and the art of judging
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Beejay Silcox is a writer and literary critic, and also the Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers Festival. Her literary criticism and cultural commentary regularly appears in national arts publications, and is increasingly finding an international audience, including in the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian and The New York Times. Read t…
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Ep 243: Maxine Beneba Clarke on book bans and writing poetry for young people
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Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race and the poetry collections Carrying the World and How Decent Folk Behave. Her children's picture books include the CBCA Honour book The Patchwork Bike and the illustrated poem When We Say Black Lives Matter, which was longlisted for the Kate Gr…
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Ep 242: Sally Young on researching Australia's media monsters
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Sally Young is professor of political science at the University of Melbourne. Media Monsters: The Transformation of Australia’s Newspaper Empires (2023) interrogates the history of Australia's media dynasties and the move from newspaper print to radio and TV and the online world. She is the author of six previous books on Australian politics and me…
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Ep 241: Kate Larsen on poetry, the state of Arts funding and our online world
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Kate Larsen is a writer, arts and cultural consultant currently based on Kaurna Yerta in Tamtanya/Adelaide. As one of Australia’s best-known social media poets, her alter ego Katie Keys (aka @tinylittlepoems) wrote and posted a daily poem for over a decade. Her first printed collection, Public. Open. Space, was released in 2023. Kate’s work has bee…
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Ep 240: Isabelle Oderberg on writing to break the silence around miscarriage
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Isabelle Oderberg is a journalist with two decades of experience across Europe, Asia and Australia. Her first book, Hard to Bear, addresses a gap in the market and demonstrates it is possible to write about an experience some dismiss as unpalatable. Isabelle mentions her agent Melanie Ostell, and Melanie has appeared on The Garret before to discuss…
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Ep 239: Sarah Krasnostein on Peter Carey and Arts criticism
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Sarah Krasnostein is the multi-award winning author of The Trauma Cleaner, The Believer and the Quarterly Essay Not Waving, Drowning. A regular contributor to The Monthly and The Saturday Paper, she was awarded the 2022 Walkley Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism. Her latest work, On Peter Carey, was released in 2023. Sarah previously appeared on The …
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Ep 238: Ghassan Hage and Randa Abdel-Fattah on 'The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism'
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Ghassan Hage and Randa Abdel-Fattah reflect on the publication of 'The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism' - a combined work celebrating the 25th anniversary of Ghassan's 'White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society' and the 20th anniversary of his 'Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinkin…
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Ep 237: Omar Sakr on poetry, fiction and the perception of both
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Omar Sakr is the author of three poetry collections, Non-Essential Work (2023), The Lost Arabs (2019), These Wild Houses (2017). His first novel, Son of Sin (2022) was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards. Omar performs 'Iris', a poem from his latest collection, at the 6:30 mark. The Lost Arabs won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poet…
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Ep 236: Overland: Natalia Figueroa Barroso and EJ Clarence
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Overland Literary Journal Issue 249 features several essays, including 'A guide to the colonisation of my mother tongues' by Natalia Figueroa Barroso and 'Dovetails' by EJ Clarence. Natalia is an Uruguayan-Australian poet and storyteller and a member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement, with degrees in Communication, Screenwriting and Media Production. …
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Ep 235: Ellen van Neerven on racism and misogyny in sport
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Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. They have written two poetry collections…
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Ep 234: Pip Williams on writing commercial historical fiction
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Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills. Her debut novel was the wildly successful The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020), which was based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives. The Bookbinder of Jericho (2023) is her second work of historical fiction, and exists in the same …
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Ep 233: Zoya Patel on moving from memoir to fiction
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Zoya Patel is the author of No Country Woman, a memoir of race, religion and feminism, and Once A Stranger, her debut novel. She is co-host of The Guardian's Book It In podcast, and the Margin Notes podcast alongside Yen Eriksen. Zoya is a columnist for the RiotACT, and regular books critic and writer for The Guardian, Canberra Times, SBS Voices, R…
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Ep 232: Eloise Grills for The Stella Shortlist
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Eloise Grills is an award-winning essayist, comics artist and poet, interested in hybrid visual-textual forms. big beautiful female theory is her first illustrated memoir-in-essays. In addition to being shortlisted for The Stella Prize, the work was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards and highly commended in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award…
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Ep 231: Adriane Howell for The Stella Shortlist
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Adriane Howell is a Melbourne-based writer and arts worker. In 2013, she graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing. She is co-founder of the literary journal Gargouille. Hydra (2022) is her debut novel. Read the transcript for this interview here. About The Garret Follow The Garret: Writing…
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Ep 230: Louisa Lim for The Stella Shortlist
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Louisa Lim is an award-winning journalist, podcaster and author. Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong (2022) was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, as well as the Walkley Book Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her previous book, The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited (2014), was shortlisted for the O…
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Ep 229: Debra Dank for The Stella Shortlist
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Debra Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman. Her memoir We Come With This Place is shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2023. An educator, she has worked in teaching and learning for many years – a gift given through the hard work of her parents. She continues to experience the privilege of living with country and with family. Debra completed her PhD in Na…
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