Liam Pieper is an author and ABIA-winning ghostwriter. The first was a memoir, The Feel-Good Hit of the Year, shortlisted for the National Biography Award and the Ned Kelly Best True Crime award. His second was the Penguin Special Mistakes Were Made, a collection of funny true stories. He was co-recipient of the 2014 M Literary Award, winner of the…

Brydie Lee-Kennedy is an Australian TV writer. She has written on shows for Netflix, Apple TV and Disney. In a former life, she was a cabaret performer, kid's party entertainer and sex columnist. Today, we're discussing her debut novel Go Lightly. Our interview begins at 26.00 We've got a Substack publication now! On the last day of the month, we s…

Welcome to The Re-Read: bonus episodes where we chat with previous Better Words guests and catch up on what's happened since they joined us on the pod. Dr Jodi McAlister is a romance author and romance scholar. Her latest novel is Not Here To Make Friends. Listen to our previous chat with Jodi here. You can follow @jodimcalister on Instagram In thi…

Emma Darragh spends most of her time on Gadigal and Dharawal Lands. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong, where she works as a sessional academic. Her writing has appeared in numerous Australian publications, including Cordite, Westerly, Meniscus, TEXT, and The Big Issue Fiction Edition. Emma’s debut novel-in-storie…

Lottie Hazell is a contemporary literary scholar, board game designer and writer in Warwickshire. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and her research considers food-writing in 21st Century fiction. Today, we’re discussing her debut novel Piglet. Our interview begins at 16:00 We've got a Substack publication now! On the last day of the month, we sh…

Madeleine Gray is a writer and critic from Sydney. She was a 2021 Finalist for the Walkley Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism and has written for many publications. She also lived in the UK for several years, has an MSt in English Literature from the University of Oxford and is a current (remote) doctoral candidate at the University of Manchester. Gr…

Kelly McCaughrain is a YA writer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her first book, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds won the Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year Award and NI Book Award. She was the Queens University Belfast Children's Writing Fellow 2019-2021. Her new YA, Little Bang, is about teen pregnancy and was published by Walker Books in …

Welcome to The Re-Read: bonus episodes where we chat with previous Better Words guests and catch up on what's happened since they joined us on the pod. Libby Page became a Sunday Times bestselling author with her debut The Lido and has since become a staple of the 'up-lit' genre with her following novels The 24-Hour Cafe, The Island Home, and The V…

Welcome to Better Words. Hosted by book-loving besties Caitlin and Michelle. We share interviews with authors talking about their books, writing and publishing journey. We've got a Substack publication as well! On the last day of the month, we share recommendations for two things we reckon you should read/watch/listen to. The beauty of Substack is …

Welcome to our favourite episode: the yearly wrap! We're sharing our reading stats, 2024 goals and the books, TV, film and audio we loved in 2023. Make sure you're also following us on Substack. On the last day of the month, we share recommendations for two things we reckon you should read/watch/listen to – and we try to keep these separate from re…

Matt Cain is an author, broadcaster and former journalist. He was Channel 4’s first Culture Editor, Editor in Chief of Attitude magazine and currently a presenter for Virgin Radio Pride UK. He grew up in Bolton in England’s north and now lives in London. Today, we’re discussing his upcoming novel, One Love. Our interview begins at 28.00 We've got a…

Huma Qureshi is an award-winning author and journalist. Her memoir How We Met: A Memoir of Love and Other Misadventures was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Indie Readers Award. Her short story collection, Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love was longlisted for several awards. She has also worked and written for The Guardian and The Observe…

Megan Williams won the 2022 Text Prize for her debut YA novel Let’s Never Speak of This Again. She lives in Brisbane with her husband and their three children. Our interview begins at 14.00 We've got a Substack publication now! On the last day of the month, we share recommendations for two things we reckon you should read/watch/listen to. The beaut…

Michelle Upton writes short stories and novels examining our darkest fears and illuminating hope and possibility. Born in Birmingham, Michelle emigrated to Australia in 2006 and is proud to call herself Australian. Michelle has a Bachelor (Hons) degree in Literature with Psychology, and before having children, she was a primary school teacher. Her …

Jonathon Shannon is a Sydney-based writer and creative director. His work has been recognised at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, screened at the St Kilda Film Festival, and is housed in the permanent archives of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Bound to Happen is his debut novel. Our interview begins at 00.21.00 W…

Eleanor Elliott Thomas worked for many years as a human rights lawyer before devoting herself full-time to writing. She lives in Melbourne with her partner, two kids, and three cats. Today, we're discussing her debut novel, The Opposite of Success. Our interview begins at 00.17.00 We've got a Substack publication now! On the last day of the month, …

Janice Hallett is the author of three best-selling novels. Her debut, The Appeal, was awarded the CWA Debut Dagger of 2021. Her second novel, The Twyford Code, was named Crime & Thriller Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2023. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels was an instant Times and Sunday Times bestseller on its launch in Janu…

Alice Pung OAM is one of Australia's foremost writers. She wrote the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and edited anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her debut novel Laurinda won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and has been adapted for the stage. Her second novel, One Hundr…

Elise Esther Hearst is a Melbourne-based playwright and author, working and living on Boon Wurrung country. She studied Creative Arts at Melbourne University and playwriting at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Upcoming productions include A Very Jewish Christmas Carol (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Yentl (Malthouse Theatre). One Day We’re All Go…

Clare Fletcher was born and raised in regional Queensland, Australia. Her debut novel, romantic comedy Five Bush Weddings, was published in 2022, and today we're discussing the follow-up, Love Match. Clare also co-hosts That Rom Com Pod with fellow author (and previous Better Words guest) Karina May. Our interview begins at 00:28 We've got a Substa…

Lex Croucher grew up in Surrey, reading a lot of books and making friends with strangers on the internet, and now lives in London with an elderly cat. With a background in social media, Lex now writes historical-ish rom-coms for adults (Reputation, Infamous) and historical fantasy rom-coms for teenagers. We're discussing their debut YA novel, Gwen …

Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the author of Dark Mode, an internationally published psychological thriller. Her earlier books are How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, collected fiction and essays, which was a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award. Her writing appears in the Sydney widely across Australian publication…

Karina May is a Sydney-based former magazine journalist turned digital marketer, avid reader and writer of lively love stories that span the globe. When she's not dreaming up her next meet-cute, you'll likely find her rescuing her paperback from the bath, or out guzzling espresso martinis in the name of research. We're discussing her new novel, Duc…

Trang Thanh Tran writes speculative stories about food, belonging and the Vietnamese diaspora. When not writing, they can be found over-caffeinating on iced coffee and watching zombie movies. She Is A Haunting is their debut novel. Our interview begins at 00:19 We've got a Substack publication now! On the last day of the month, we share recommendat…

Claire Christian tells stories: she is a writer, theatre maker and facilitator. She has three novels published with Text publishing. Beautiful Mess won the Text Prize in 2016. It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake was released in 2020. She has had the great joy of directing Michelle Law’s smash hit comedy Single Asian Female since 2017. She is a proud m…

Josh grew up on a farm in the Lake District before moving to Manchester with his family, where he spent his teenage years loving the city. He moved to London to train at RADA as an actor and has performed in the West End and on Broadway. After deciding to change careers, Josh began training as a mental health nurse and, at the same time, started wr…

Genevieve Novak is a writer from all over, but who now lives in Melbourne on Wurundjeri land. She writes romantic comedies, women’s fiction, and columns for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald that make men on Twitter very upset. Her first novel, No Hard Feelings, was released in 2021, and her second novel, Crushing, is out now. Genevieve's corgi…

Karen Comer is a freelance editor and presents writing workshops to children and adults. Earlier in her career, she worked in educational publishing and was the editor for the children's art magazine BIG. She lives in Melbourne. Grace Notes, a YA verse novel, was published in February 2023 with Hachette. Her MG verse novel, Sunshine on Vinegar Stre…

Jessica Dettmann is the author of three novels: How To be Second Best, This Has Been Absolutely Lovely, and Without Further Ado, and a picture book called There’s No Such Book. After a decade working as a book editor for Random House, HarperCollins and freelance, she made the transition to writing after having kids. She was born and raised in Sydne…

Leanne is an Asian-Australian author of Singaporean and Malaysian heritage who loves writing the diaspora experience into contemporary and fantasy fiction. She started her career as an IT business analyst (boring – her words, not ours!) and is now an escape room creator (much more interesting). She has designed internationally recognised games with…

It's our favourite episode of the year – our favourite books, films, TV and audio of the year. Thank you for joining us in 2022 and supporting our wonderful authors. We've started a Substack for Better Words to give you extra mini recommendations each month outside of our podcast episodes. Come join us! You can also find us Storygraph: Michelle and…

We're switching things up for Season 9: Welcome to The Re-Read. In this mini-season, we check in with a selection of past guests to find out what they've been working on. Expect lots of books, some babies and plenty of chat. This season works a little differently, without book recommendations from us at the start of each episode. But we promise you…

We're switching things up for Season 9: Welcome to The Re-Read. In this mini-season, we check in with a selection of past guests to find out what they've been working on. Expect lots of books, some babies and plenty of chat. This season works a little differently, without book recommendations from us at the start of each episode. But we promise you…

We're switching things up for Season 9: Welcome to The Re-Read. In this mini-season, we check in with a selection of past guests to find out what they've been working on. Expect lots of books, some babies and plenty of chat. This season works a little differently, without book recommendations from us at the start of each episode. But we promise you…

We're switching things up for Season 9: Welcome to The Re-Read. In this mini-season, we check in with a selection of past guests to find out what they've been working on. Expect lots of books, some babies and plenty of chat. This season works a little differently, without book recommendations from us at the start of each episode. But we promise you…

We're switching things up for Season 9: Welcome to The Re-Read. In this mini-season, we check in with a selection of past guests to find out what they've been working on. Expect lots of books, some babies and plenty of chat. This season works a little differently, without book recommendations from us at the start of each episode. But we promise you…

Hayli Thomson lives in Sydney, Australia, and writes novels about candid characters for anybody who ever watched Jo March leap a fence and longed to be her best friend. Bizarrely, during her teen years, Hayli was afflicted with a 'headache' every third Monday in September, when she was left with no option but to stay home from school and watch her …

Jodi McAlister is an author and academic. In her author life, her latest books are Libby Lawrence Is Good At Pretending, a campus rom-com about theatre kids with too many emotions, and Here for the Right Reasons, playing with reality TV tropes. As an academic, she researches romantic love and popular culture and is a Senior Lecturer in Writing, Lit…

Abigail Bergstrom has written for national publications and worked in the publishing industry for a decade. She has edited and represented countless bestsellers, building some of today’s biggest book brands and working with some of the industry’s most prominent voices. She was nominated for Literary Agent of the Year 2020 at the British Book Awards…

Lauren Draper is a Melbourne-based writer and marketing professional. She is a graduate of RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing program and now works in children’s publishing—she loves nothing more than a story infused with magic, hijinks and a touch of nostalgia. The Museum of Broken Things, her debut novel, was acquired after it was shortliste…

Mary Watson is from Cape Town and now lives on the west coast of Ireland. She’s worked as an art museum guide, library assistant, theatre duty manager, and an actor in children’s musicals. She has a PhD from the University of Cape Town where she taught for many years. She won the Caine Prize in 2006, and the Philida Award in 2022. She writes short …

Sarah Ayoub is a journalist, bestselling author and academic with a PhD in migrant Australian YA literature. She is a Stella Schools Program ambassador, has mentored the youth curators of The Sydney Writers' Festival YA program, contributed to the anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity and most recently been a judge for the…

Mhairi McFarlane was born in Scotland (which is why her unnecessarily confusing name is pronounced Vah-Ree). After working as a journalist, Mhairi started writing novels. She lives in Nottingham with a man and a cat. Today, we're discussing her (totally bloody wonderful) eighth novel Mad About You. Our interview begins at 00:22:00 Mini book club: T…

Katherine Collette is a novelist, podcaster and engineer living in Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Helpline, was published in the US, UK, Germany and Italy. Her second novel The Competition was published in February 2022. She also co-hosts the writing podcast The First Time. Our interview begins at 00:12:20 P.S listen out for who next week's guest …

Claire Kohda is a writer and musician. She reviews books for publications including the Guardian and the TLS, specialising in books from and about East Asia. Her essay, Portraits, about her experiences growing up mixed-race, also features in East Side Voices: Essays celebrating East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain, edited by Helena Lee and …

Carly Nugent lives in Bright, Victoria. Her short fiction has featured in numerous publications, including the Bellevue Literary Review and Award Winning Australian Writing. Her first novel, The Peacock Detectives, won the Readings Children's Book Prize, was a CBCA younger readers Honour Book, and was shortlisted for the Text Prize, the Australian …

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a British-Nigerian writer, born in Peckham, who wants to tell the stories that she and her friends have longed for but never seen. In 2019 she won the Literary Consultancy Pen Factor Writing Competition with the early draft of her debut novel, which she had been writing alongside juggling her job at Carers UK. She has b…

Kimberley Allsopp has had her work appear in Kidspot, The Sunday Telegraph and WHIMN (now Body & Soul) and she co-hosts the rom-com podcast, Meet Cute, which allows her to justify some of her otherwise questionable life choices. Kimberley has worked in bookselling and publishing since 2008. Today we're discussing her debut novel, Love & Other Puzzl…

We've finally got our act together to share with you our favourite fiction, films, TV and audio of the year. Thank you for joining us in 2021 and supporting our wonderful authors. (You can blame Michelle's full-time reporting contract for why this is going live in February and not January) Season 8 will be in your ears in March! We're keeping recom…

In this festive bonus episode, we share some Christmas reads. Michelle's recommendations One Day in December by Josie Silver: A sweet rom-com about missed opportunities and love at first sight. Dracula by Bram Stoker: If you’re experiencing a winter Christmas or dreaming of one, then experience the classic that inspired a thousand stories. Caitlin'…