The Garret: Writing & Publishing

Ep 274: Alexis Wright on writing Praiseworthy

Sat, 04 May 2024 23:00:00 +0000

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 Northern Territory.

Alexis was previously the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne, and she is the inaugural winner of the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

This interview was recorded live for Vision Australia in March 2024, after Praiseworthy was longlisted for The Stella Prize.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 273: Sam Elkin on his queer legal saga

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 21:30:00 +0000

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 board member.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 272: Laurie Steed on writing the short story form

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 20:00:00 +0000

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 Greater City Shadows, his short story collection, was shortlisted for the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.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, Overland, Island, Westerly, and elsewhere.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 271: Kate Larsen on why the relationship is the project

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 20:00:00 +0000

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, workplace culture and wellbeing, online communication and communities, and being an ally for inclusion and community leadership of underrepresented groups.

Kate has appeared on The Garret before, speaking about her poetry collection Public. Open. Spaces. and the crisis of arts funding in Australia. You can listen to that interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 270: James Bradley on the colonisation of the oceans

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 20:00:00 +0000

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 Monthly, The Guardian, Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review and Meanjin. In 2012 he won the Pascall Prize for Australia’s Critic of the Year, and he has been shortlisted twice for the Bragg Prize for Science Writing and nominated for a Walkley Award.

James has previously appeared on The Garret discussing his works of climate fiction.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 269: Amanda Lohrey on investigating meaning via fiction

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 05:00:00 +0000

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 senior fellow of the Australia Council’s Literature Board.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 268: Nam Lee on 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award, and the Melbourne Prize for Literature.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 267: Catriona Menzies-Pike on the art of literary criticism

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 266: Sara Saleh on writing poetry and creating 'The Gaza Suite'

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 Prize and the 2020 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. Her poems, essays and short stories have been published widely and she is co-editor of the ground-breaking 2019 anthology 'Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity'.

In this interview Sara speaks about 'The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat' and reads 'The Gaza Suite'. Sara recently spoke on The Garret about Songs for the Dead and the Living.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 265: Tracey Lien on writing family, home and place

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 264: Christos Tsiolkas on sex, middle age and the importance of criticism

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 Literary Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among many other honours). His work of historical fiction, Damascus, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction.

In 2021 Christos won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. He has appeared on The Garret before. Listen to Christos discuss his previous novel, Damascus, here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 263: Kirli Saunders on poetry and multi-disciplinary practice

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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. Kirli has a lso spoken on The Garret before about her verse novel Bindi.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 262: LIVE | Richard Flanagan at The Capitol discussing 'Question 7'

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 have received numerous honours and are published in 42 countries. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014.

Richard has been interviewed on The Garret before, and you can listen to his thoughts on his previous novel, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, here.

Thanks to The Wheeler Centre an RMIT Capitol

This recording took place on 9 November 2023 at RMIT Capitol for The Wheeler Centre. Thanks go to the phenomenal team at The Wheeler Centre for sharing this audio with us.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#1 industry interview of 2023: Beejay Silcox on literary prize judging

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 20:30:19 +0000

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 Supplement, The Guardian and The New York Times.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#1 poetry interview of 2023: Maxine Beneba Clarke on banning work for kids

Fri, 12 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 Greenaway Medal.

Her latest poetry collection is It's the Sound of the Thing, which was nominated for The Guardian's Best Australian Children's Books of 2023 and shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2024.

In 2023 she was Poet in Residence at The University of Melbourne.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#1 fiction interview of 2023: Pip Williams on recreating the past in fiction

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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 historical fiction, and exists in the same world as The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#1 nonfiction interview of 2023: Debra Dank on writing memoir

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

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. She continues to experience the privilege of living with country and with family. Debra completed her PhD in Narrative Theory and Semiotics at Deakin University in 2021.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 261: Lucy Treloar on writing about the hard things well

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 have appeared in publications including Meanjin, The Age, Overland and Best Australian Stories.

You can read the transcript of this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 260: Brigid Mullane on how to be a publisher

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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’ Festival, Emerging Writers’ Festival, the Sun Bookshop and the Brunswick Street Bookstore.

You can read the transcript of this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 259: Tony Birch on working class storytelling in Australia

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 Award for Indigenous Writing), and Blood (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award).

Tony has appeared on The Garret several times before, including for one of his first recorded discussions of The White Girl and reflections about creativity during the Pandemic.

You can read the transcript of this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 258: Charlotte Wood on the difference between hope and courage

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 appeared on The Garret several times before, including to discuss her non-fiction work The Luminous Solution, as well as a deep-dive into her international bestseller, The Natural Way of Things.

You can read the transcript of this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 257: Hedley Thomas on writing 'The Teacher's Pet'

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 podcast.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 256: Tyson Yunkaporta on writing right and wrong

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 complex issues and explore global crises.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

This episode comes with a trigger warning for suicide and mental ill-health.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 255: Melissa Lucashenko on the past, present and Edenglassie

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 was shortlisted for an Aurealis award. Her sixth novel, Too Much Lip, won the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance. It was also shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Stella Prize, two Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, two Queensland Literary Awards and two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.

Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, and a founding member of human rights organisation Sisters Inside.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 254: Laura Jean McKay on writing our present and future

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 19:00:00 +0000

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 Honours in 2022.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 253: Mirandi Riwoe on writing women, freedom fighters and a bygone era

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her novella The Fish Girl won Seizure’s Viva la Novella and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her short fiction and novellas can be found in the collection The Burnished Sun.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 252: Sara Saleh on writing women's history into fiction

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 both the Australian Book Review's 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2020. Songs for the Dead and the Living (2023) is her first novel.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 251: Chris Masters on the perils and import of investigative journalism

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Jonestown (2006). His reports 'The Big League' and 'The Moonlight State' both led to Royal Commissions.

You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 250: Leigh Sales on interviewing, journalism and stories that matter

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Ordinary Day (2019) and Storytellers (2023), as well as the essay On Doubt. In 2023, her service to journalism and the community was recognised with an honorary doctorate from Edith Cowan University.

Leigh has previously appeared on The Garret, and you can listen to that interview here. You can read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 249: LIVE | Robbie Arnott at Canberra Writers Festival

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Award, a Queensland Literary Award, the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the Not the Booker Prize.

His follow-up, The Rain Heron, won the Age Book of the Year award, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the ALS Gold Medal, the Voss Literary Prize and an Adelaide Festival Award.

Limberlost is his third novel. It won the Age Book of the Year Award and the BookPeople Book of the Year Awards, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

Thanks to Canberra Writers Festival

This recording took place at 2:30pm on Sunday 20 August at Kambri Cultural Centre (ANU), and thanks go to the phenomenal team at Canberra Writers Festival for sharing this audio with us.

If you are interested in running festivals, judging prizes and writing reviews, we recommend this interview with Beejay Silcox, Judge of The Stella Prize and Artistic Director of Canberra Writers Festival.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 248: LIVE | Kate Mildenhall at Canberra Writers Festival

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Book of the Year and shortlisted for the 2020 Aurealis Awards. The Hummingbird Effect is her third novel. Kate also teaches creative writing and co-hosts The First Time podcast.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

Thanks to Canberra Writers Festival

This recording took place at 2:30pm on Saturday 19 August at Kambri Cultural Centre (ANU), and thanks go to the phenomenal team at Canberra Writers Festival for sharing this audio with us.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 247: Erin Riley on justice, social work and queer memoir

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 House Australia Write It fellow in 2021, and have been published in Kill Your Darlings, Bent Street and various corners of the internet.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 246: Anna Funder on liberating the wife of Orwell, Eileen O'Shaunessy

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 received the the Samuel Johnson Prize (the UK's premier award for non-fiction and All That I Am the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Originally trained as an international human rights lawyer, Anna is a former DAAD Fellow in Berlin, Australia Council Fellow, and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 245: Briohny Doyle on elegy, time and the non-human world

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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, and The Age.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 244: Beejay Silcox on literary criticism and the art of judging

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Beejay Silcox is a writer and literary critic, and also the Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers Festival.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 243: Maxine Beneba Clarke on book bans and writing poetry for young people

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Maxine has appeared on The Garret before, and you can listen to her most recent interview here.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 242: Sally Young on researching Australia's media monsters

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 media, including the award-winning Paper Emperors: The Rise of Australia's Newspaper Empires, which Media Monsters follows on from. Her other works include How Australia Decides, Shooting the Picture (with Fay Anderson) and The Persuaders.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 241: Kate Larsen on poetry, the state of Arts funding and our online world

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 been published or commissioned by The Relationship is the Project, Meanjin, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Voice & Verse and anthologies, magazines and arts organisations across Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom.

In this interview Kate discusses her 2023 essay in Overland, 'Tears for Peers: the hidden costs of Arts funding'.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 240: Isabelle Oderberg on writing to break the silence around miscarriage

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 what a literary agent does.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 239: Sarah Krasnostein on Peter Carey and Arts criticism

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Garret with Jess Hill discussing writing their Quarterly Essays.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 238: Ghassan Hage and Randa Abdel-Fattah on 'The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism'

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Shrinking Society'.

Ghassan is internationally renowned for his research on the intersection of racism, nationalism and colonialism. He is a professor of anthropology and social theory at the University of Melbourne and a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology in Germany. His most recent sole-authored books include 'Alter-Politics: Critical Anthropology and the Radical Imagination', 'Is Racism an Environmental Threat?' and 'The Diasporic Condition: Ethnographic Explorations of the Lebanese in the World'.

Randa has appeared on The Garret before 'Coming of Age in the War on Terror', which was was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She is a Future Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University.

In this interview, Astrid quotes Omar Sakr reflecting on the influence Ghassan has had on his poetry, and you can listen to Omar's interview here.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 237: Omar Sakr on poetry, fiction and the perception of both

Wed, 31 May 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Poetry and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, the John Bray Poetry Award, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, and the Colin Roderick Award. Omar is a widely published essayist and editor whose work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish.

Omar last appeared on The Garret in 2002 after Son of Sin was published. Listen here.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 236: Overland: Natalia Figueroa Barroso and EJ Clarence

Wed, 24 May 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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. Her work has appeared in the collections Racism: Stories on Fear, Hate and Bigotry; Any Saturday, 2021: Running Westward and Between Two Worlds and various literary magazines.

EJ is an emerging writer exploring the long narrative arc of Forced Adoption through Own Voices fiction, poetry, prose and personal essays which acknowledge the tenth anniversary of Julia Gillard’s National Apology.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 235: Ellen van Neerven on racism and misogyny in sport

Wed, 17 May 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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: Comfort Food, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize, and Throat, which was shortlisted in 2021 for the Queensland Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and won the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, the Multicultural NSW Award and Book of the Year in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 234: Pip Williams on writing commercial historical fiction

Sun, 14 May 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 world as The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Her first work was One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family’s travels in search of the good life.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 233: Zoya Patel on moving from memoir to fiction

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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, Refinery29 and more. Zoya has won numerous awards for her writing and editing, and she was a 2020 judge for the Stella Prize and Chair of the 2021 Stella Prize judging panel.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 232: Eloise Grills for The Stella Shortlist

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Awards.

Her first poetry collection, If you’re sexy and you know it slap your hams, was shortlisted for the 2020 Mary Gilmore Award.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 231: Adriane Howell for The Stella Shortlist

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 230: Louisa Lim for The Stella Shortlist

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

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 Orwell Prize for political writing.

She is a Senior Lecturer in Audiovisual Journalism at the University of Melbourne. She previously spent a decade in China as a correspondent for the BBC and NPR, and her work can also be read in the New York Times, the Guardian and the Washington Post.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 229: Debra Dank for The Stella Shortlist

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Debra Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman. Her memoir We Come With This Place is shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2023.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 228: Edwina Preston for The Stella Shortlist

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Edwina Preston is a Melbourne-based writer and musician. Preston is the author of a biography of Australian artist Howard Arkley, Not Just a Suburban Boy (2002), the novel The Inheritance of Ivorie Hammer (2012), and the novel Bad Art Mother (2022).

Her writing and reviews have appeared in The Age, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Heat, Island, Griffith Review and The Conversation.

Read the transcript for this interview here. 🫢 And we apologise for the quality of Astrid’s audio. The mic was broken and we didn’t know…

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 227: Sarah Holland-Batt for The Stella Shortlist

Sun, 09 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Sarah Holland-Batt is the author of three books of poetry –The Jaguar (2022), The Hazards (2015) and Aria (2008) – and a book of essays on contemporary poetry, Fishing for Lightning (2021).

Her honours include the 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry, a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo in the United States. She is presently the Judy Harris Writer in Residence at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, and Professor of Creative Writing and Literary Studies at QUT.

Read the transcript for this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 226: The Garret is back for 2023

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 20:00:00 +0000

The Garret is back. We kick off with interviews with the six writers shortlisted for The Stella Prize - Sarah Holland-Batt, Edwina Preston, Debra Dank, Louisa Lim, Adriane Howell and Eloise Grills. New interviews start Monday 10 April 2023.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 225: The Garret, The Stella and March 2023

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Our host Astrid Edwards is one of the judges of the 2023 Stella Prize. As a result, The Garret is on hold until March 2023.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 224: Robert Watkins on what it takes to be a publisher

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Robert Watkins is the Publishing Director of Ultimo Press. He has over 20 years experience in the Australian book industry having worked in book retail, sales, marketing, publicity, publishing and more recently as Head of Literary at Hachette Australia.

Robert’s love for a good story well told has led to publishing some of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary authors, including Maxine Beneba Clarke, Claire G. Coleman, Sarah Schmidt and Michael Mohammed Ahmad. He is an advocate for progressive and inclusive publishing that speaks to contemporary issues, whether that be in narrative non-fiction or literary and reading group fiction.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 223: Dervla McTiernan on crime fiction and people who look down on genre

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Dervla McTiernan is a wildly successful crime writer. Her debut novel, The Ruin, was a critically acclaimed international bestseller which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Fiction and the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback. The second and third installments in the series, The Scholar andThe Good Turn, garnered similar praise. In 2022 she released her first stand alone crime novel, The Murder Rule.

Born in County Cork, Ireland, Dervla practised as a corporate lawyer for twelve years. After the GFC she moved with her family to Western Australia, where she now writes full time.

Dervla first appeared on The Garret in 2020, and you can listen to that interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 222: Rick Morton on editing anthologies and switching to fiction

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Rick Morton is a senior reporter for The Saturday Paper, a regular guest on ABC’s The Drum and an award-winning author of three non-fiction books: 100 Years of Dirt, On Money and My Year of Living Vulnerably. In 2022 he edited the anthology Growing Up in Country Australia.

He has appeared on The Garret before, and you can listen to that interview from 2021 here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 221: Neela Janakiramanan on writing what really happens to our doctors

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Dr Neela Janakiramanan is a reconstructive plastic surgeon and advocate, and with the 2022 publication of The Registrar she adds novelist to her list of achievements.

Neela was also one of the medical leads in the Kids off Nauru campaign and in bringing together the Australian medical community and operationalising the Australian Medevac legislation to facilitate medical care for refugees in offshore detention.

Neela is a regular contributor to Women's Agenda, and has also written for The Age/Sydney Morning Herald andThe Saturday Paper, and often appears on ABC's The Drum.

You may also be interested in our recent interview with literary agent Melanie Ostell, who is mentioned in this interview.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 220: Claire Coleman on literary speculative fiction (yes, it is a thing)

Sat, 09 Jul 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Claire Coleman is a Noongar writer, born in Western Australia and now based in Naarm. Her family have been from the area around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun on the south coast of WA since before time started being recorded.

She has written three works of speculative fiction to date - Terra Nullius: A Novel (2017), which was shortlisted for The Stella Prize, among many other awards, The Old Lie (2019) and Enclave (2022). Her acclaimed non-fiction book, Lies Damned Lies: A personal exploration of the impact of colonisation was published in 2021.

Claire has appeared on The Garret before. You can find a detailed discussion of Terra Nullius here, as well as a discussion recorded live at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in 2019 here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 219: Phillipa McGuinness writes about skin, power and beauty

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Phillipa McGuinness is a former book publisher turned author. She is the author of The Year Everything Changed: 2001, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards and the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and also Skin Deep: The inside story of our outer selves.

Phillipa has appeared on The Garret before, and you can listen to that interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 218: Yassmin Abdel-Magied talking about her revolution

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese Australian writer and award-winning social advocate. She has published two middle grade novels (You Must Be Layla and the award-winning Listen, Layla), as well as her memoir Yassmin's Story. Talking About A Revolution is her 2022 anthology, which combines new and old works.

Yassmin has spoken in over twenty-five countries on social justice and inclusive leadership. She founded her first organisation, Youth Without Borders, at the age of sixteen, leading it for nine years before co-founding two other organisations focused on serving women of colour. Her TED talk ‘What does my headscarf mean to you?’ has been viewed over 2.5 million times and was selected as one of TED’s top 10 ideas.

Yassmin has appeared on The Garret before. In her previous interview she discussed writing YA fiction and who she approaches giving speeches (and preparing for her TED Talk).

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 217: Winnie Dunn and Amani Haydar on 'Another Australia'

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Winnie Dunn is the editor of and Amani Haydar is a contributor to 'Another Australia'.

Winnie is the General Manager of Western Sydney based literacy movement, Sweatshop. She is a writer of Tongan descent from Mount Druitt, and her work has been published in the Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review, Meanjin, SBS Voices, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Southerly and Cordite.

Amani is an artist, lawyer, and advocate for women's health and safety based in Western Sydney. Her memoir, The Mother Wound, received the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Non-fiction and the Matt Richell Award for new Writer of the Year, among many other short- and long-listings. Amani's writing and illustrations have been published in ABC News Online and SBS Life and her self-portrait Insert Headline Here was a finalist in the 2018 Archibald Prize.

Winnie previously appeared on The Garret in late 2021, as did Amani in mid 2021.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 216: Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler on their YA writing partnership

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler are partners in life and writing. Tracks of the Missing (2022) is their second collaboration, after the highly-awarded Black Cockatoo (2018).

Carl is a Jaru and Kija man from Halls Creek. Carl works with young Indigenous boys through the Clontarf Academy focusing in improving engagement with education and providing a positive role model. Carl was nominated for Australian of the Year in 2016.

Hakea is an experienced English teacher who has taught around Australia including in remote Aboriginal communities. Hakea is committed to Indigenous education with a particular focus on story as learning and empowerment.

Carl and Hakea’s debut novella Black Cockatoo was published by Magabala Books in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Readings Children’s Book of the Year, shortlisted in the CBCA Young Reader category, shortlisted for an ABIA award, selected as a feature text for the 2018 Summer Reading Challenge.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 215: Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell on the absurdity of motherhood

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell collaborated to create a genre-defying work about motherhood.

Ceridwen is a writer based in Sydney. She’s the author of several acclaimed works of fiction (Blood Kin, Only the Animals, In the Garden of the Fugitives, Life After Truth, Once More With Feeling) and non-fiction (On J.M. Coetzee: Writers on Writers and Inner Worlds Outer Spaces: The Working Lives of Others). Her non-fiction essays have been published by newyorker.com, the Smithsonian Magazine, WIRED, Vogue, the Monthly and Alexander, among many others. She’s the recipient of an Australian Museum Eureka Award, and the 2020 and 2021 UNSW Press Bragg Prize for science writing.

Eliza is a teacher, writer and theatre actor, originally from America and now living permanently in Australia. Her theatre performances include: The Memory of Water, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New Jerusalem, The Accident, Charles Mee’s Snow in June, Donnie Darko and Three Sisters. She trained at Studio Magenia Ecole de Mime in Paris and the Moscow Art Theatre, UC Berkeley and the ART Institute at Harvard University.

Ceridwen has appeared on The Garret twice before, and you can listen to her interview from 2018 here, and her interview from 2020 here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 214: Melanie Ostell on what it takes to be a literary agent

Wed, 25 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Melanie Ostell is a literary agent. She advocates for her authors and their works, and helps them build a writing career. She has more than twenty-five years’ experience in the Australian book publishing industry across a range of roles, including editor, publisher and educator. In this interview, she considers the role of the literary agent, why she represents the writers she works with, and what she looks for when reading an unpublished manuscript.

Melanie mentions Tara June Winch, who she represents, in this interview. You can listen to Tara speaking about her phenomenal work The Yield here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 213: Julianne Schultz on finding the soul of Australia

Wed, 11 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Julianne Schultz is a journalist and the author of several books, including The Idea of Australia, Reviving the Fourth Estate and Steel City Blues.

She is the Chair of The Conversation and Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture at Griffith's Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research. Julianne was the publisher and founding editor of Griffith Review. She has served on the board of directors of the ABC, Grattan Institute and Copyright Agency, and chaired the Australian Film TV and Radio School, Queensland Design Council and National Cultural Policy Reference Group.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 212: Anita Heiss on 'Am I Black Enough For You?'

Sun, 01 May 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Anita Heiss is a proud member of the Wiradyuri nation of central New South Wales, and she writes across genres including non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial fiction and children’s fiction. Her memoir Am I Black Enough for You? was a finalist in the 2012 Human Rights Awards, and was updated and republished in 2022.

Anita’s other non-fiction works include Dhuuluu-Yala (To Talk Straight): Publishing Aboriginal Literature, and, as editor, Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia and The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, which she co-edited with Peter Minter.

Her adult fiction includes Not Meeting Mr Right, Avoiding Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming, Paris Dreaming and Tiddas. Her novel Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards and longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Prize, and was the University of Canberra 2020 Book of the Year. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray was shortlisted for the 2021 HNSA ARA Historical Novel.

Anita has appeared on The Garret before, and you can listen to her 2021 interview discussing Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 211: Lee Kofman on writing honestly and reading as a writer

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Lee Kofman is a Russian-born, Israeli-Australian novelist, essayist and memoirist. She has published a number of books, including her memoir, The Dangerous Bride, and Imperfect: How Our Bodies Shape the People We Become. In 2022 she released The Writer Laid Bare, a book about the craft of writing. 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.

Lee has previously appeared on The Garret, and you can listen to her first interview here. Lee also mentions her friend Leah Kaminsky, who speaks about her own writing process on The Garret here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 210: Kári Gíslason on retelling stories from the past

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Kári Gíslason is a writer who crosses forms. His memoir, The Promise of Iceland, told the story of his return to his birthplace, Iceland. He co-wrote Saga Land: The island of stories at the edge of the world, which won the Indie Book Award for Non-Fiction, with Richard Fidler. He also writes fiction, including The Ash Burner and The Sorrow Stone. Kári lectures in Creative Writing at QUT.

In this interview, Kári talks about writing with his friend Richard Fidler. Richard has previously appeared on The Garret, and you can listen to Richard reflect on writing with Kári in this interview (recorded live at the Ubud Readers and Writers Festival in 2019).

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 209: Mirandi Riwoe on finding the story

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Mirandi Riwoe is the author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain, which won the 2020 Queensland Literary Award – Fiction Book Award and the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize and longlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 2022 she has released The Burnished Sun, a collection of novellas and short stories. Mirandi's work has also appeared in Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Review and Best Summer Stories.

Mirandi has appeared on The Garret before, and you can listen to her reflect on Stone Sky Gold Mountain here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 208: Jane Caro on writing realistic fiction

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 20:00:00 +0000

Jane Caro is a Walkley Award-winning columnist, novelist, broadcaster and social commentator.

She has published twelve books, including a young adult trilogy about the life of Elizabeth Tudor, her memoir Plain Speaking Jane, and The Mother (her first novel for adults).

She created and edited Unbreakable, which featured stories women writers had never told before and was published just before the Harvey Weinstein revelations.

Her most recent non-fiction work is Accidental Feminists, about the fate of women over 50. Jane has previously appeared on The Garret, and in this interview she reflects on her non-fiction works and Accidental Feminists.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 207: Jess Hill and Sarah Krasnostein on writing Quarterly Essays

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Jess Hill and Sarah Krasnostein are the two most recent authors of Quarterly Essays. Jess released The Reckoning: How #MeToo Is Changing Australia in late 2021, and Sarah released Not Waving, Drowning: Mental illness and Vulnerability in Australia in early 2022. Quarterly Essays are prestigious, but they are notoriously difficult and always come with intense time pressure. In this interview, Jess and Sarah discuss how they did it and why they signed up for it.

Jess is an investigative journalist and the author of See What You Made Me Do. She has been a producer for ABC Radio and journalist for Background Briefing, and Middle East correspondent for The Global Mail. Her reporting on domestic abuse has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards. See What You Made Me Do won the 2020 Stella Prize and the ABA Booksellers’ Choice Adult Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Sarah is the multi-award-winning author of The Trauma Cleaner and The Believer. Her writing has appeared in magazines and journals in Australia, the United Kingdom and America. She holds a doctorate in criminal law.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 206: Josh Kemp and Australian Gothic fiction

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Josh Kemp writes Australian gothic fiction. Banjawarn, joint winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, is his stunning debut novel. His short stories have been published by Kill Your Darlings, Overland, Seizure, Tincture and Breach. He’s previously been shortlisted for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and longlisted for the Fogarty Literary Award.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 205: Yumna Kassab on writing experimental stories

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Yumna Kassab's debut collection of short stories, The House of Youssef, was listed for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the Queensland Literary Award, the NSW Premier's Literary Award and The Stella Prize. Australiana, published in 2022, is her first novel.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 204: Eliza Hull and stories of disabled parenting

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Eliza Hull is a musical artist, writer, journalist and disability advocate. In 2022 she is the editor behind We've Got This: Stories By Disabled Parents. Her podcast series by the same name, We've Got This, was one of Radio National’s and ABC Life’s most successful series of all time. Eliza was also a contributor to Growing Up Disabled in Australia.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 203: Justin Smith on writing with humour and kindness

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Justin Smith is a Melbourne writer, journalist and broadcaster. He is a columnist with the Melbourne Herald Sun and a weekly guest on Channel Seven’s Sunrise. He has recently turned his hand to novel writing, publishing Cooper Not Out in 2022 and Babies of the Rose in 2020.

Justin has had a long career in radio as a presenter and executive producer. He has hosted national programs, he was embedded with Australian troops in Afghanistan, and was the Drive host on Sydney’s 2UE. He’s won multiple awards for journalism and broadcasting.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 202: Jackie Huggins on writing her parents' biographies

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Dr Jackie Huggins, a member of the Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru peoples, is currently leading the work for Treaty/Treaties in Queensland. Her biography of her mother, Auntie Rita, was published in 1994, and in 2022 she will publish her biography of her father, Jack of Hearts: QX11594. A new edition of her classic work Sister Girl: Reflections on Tiddaism, Identity and Reconciliation was released in early 2022.

Jackie is the former Co-Chair National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, former member of the National Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Co-Chair Reconciliation Australia, the State Library Board of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. She was Co-Commissioner for Queensland for the Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, and for several years was a Judge of the annual David Unaipon Award.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 201: Omar Sakr on 'Son of Sin' and writing fantasy

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 19:00:00 +0000

Omar Sakr is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, These Wild Houses and The Lost Arabs. Son of Sin is his first novel, and in this interview we also find our about his forthcoming poetry collection and a possible fantasy book on the horizon.

Omar is a widely published essayist and editor whose work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish.

If you enjoy this interview, listen to Omar's first interview on The Garret from 2020.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 200: At home with Omar Musa

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian author, poet and woodcutter. His latest work is the one-of-a-kind Killernova.

He has also released three poetry books (including Parang and Millefiori), four hip-hop records, written an acclaimed one-man play (Since Ali Died), and received a standing ovation at TEDx Sydney at the Sydney Opera House.

His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was published in 2014 and was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Miles Franklin Award. Musa was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 199: Reading Audit 2021

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 19:00:00 +0000

We have a bit of a different episode for you today. There are no writers or guests, just our host Astrid Edwards doing a reading audit of what she has read so far this year.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 198: At home with Jennifer Down

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Jennifer Down is a highly awarded writer, named a Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year consecutively in 2017 and 2018. Her third long form work is 2021's Bodies of Light.

Our Magic Hour, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. Her second book, Pulse Points, was the winner of the 2018 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the 2018 Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection in the Queensland Literary Awards, and was shortlisted for a 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 197: At home with Emily Bitto

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Emily Bitto is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her debut novel, 'The Strays', was the winner of the 2015 Stella Prize, and in 2021 she released her second novel, 'Wild Abandon'.

Her fiction, poetry and non-fiction has appeared in various publications, including Meanjin, The Age, the Monthly, the Saturday Paper, The Big Issue, and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is also the co-owner of Carlton wine bar Heartattack and Vine.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 196: At home with Andy Jackson

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 19:00:00 +0000

Andy Jackson is a poet of compassion and intellect. His 2021 collection, 'Human Looking', explores the voices of the disabled and ill with tenderness and love.

Andy's first collection, 'Among the Regulars', was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and his 2020 collection 'Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold' was shortlisted for the John Bray Poetry Award.

Andy has featured at literary events and arts festivals in Ireland, India, the USA and across Australia, and has co-edited disability-themed issues of the literary journals Southerly and Australian Poetry Journal. He works as a creative writing teacher and tutor for community organisations and universities.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 195: At home with Charlotte Wood

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Charlotte Wood is the award-winning and acclaimed author of six novels, a collection of interviews and a book about cooking. She has won the Stella Prize, the Prime Minister's Literary Award, the Indie Book of the Year, and most recently the ABIA for Literary Fiction.

This interview explores her 2021 work of non-fiction, The Luminous Solution: Creativity, Resilience and the Inner Life. Charlotte has appeared on The Garret before, once exploring her most famous work, The Natural Way of Things, and again discussing her novel, The Weekend.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 194: Bookselling with Louise Ryan

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Louise Ryan has been working in the Melbourne Publishing industry for 32 years, ten years at Readings and 22 in publishing houses Allen & Unwin and Penguin Random House. A recent recipient of the George Robertson Award for distinguished service in the publishing industry, she is now the manager of Readings flagship Carlton store. She serves on the Board of Melbourne Writers Festival, and is the co-author of Twins: A Practical and Emotional Guide to Parenting Twins.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 193: At home with Winnie Dunn

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Winnie Dunn is a writer of Tongan descent from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including Sweatshop Women, which is Australia’s first and only publication produced entirely by women of colour. Her work has been published in the Sydney Review of Books, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review, Meanjin, SBS Voices, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Southerly and Cordite.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 192: At home with Jay Kristoff

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Jay Kristoff has such a devoted audience his readers tattoo his characters on their own bodies. Jay writes fantasy, science fiction and YA, and his work repeatedly makes it to the New York Times bestseller list.

Jay's latest book is 'Empire of the Vampire', the first in a trilogy that our host Astrid has been waiting for since she was 13 and read Anne Rice's 'Interview with the Vampire'.

Jay has appeared on The Garret before to discuss 'The Nevernight Chronicles', and also at a live event with Amie Kaufman, his regular YA writing partner.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 191: On the road with Claire G. Coleman

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. She writes fiction, essays, poetry and art writing while either living in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. In 2021 she released her first work of non-fiction, Lies, Damned Lies: A personal exploration of the impact of colonisation.

During an extended circuit of the continent she wrote a novel, Terra Nullius: A Novel, which won the black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship and was listed for eight awards including a shortlisting for The Stella Prize. Her second novel was The Old Lie, and her third, Enclave, will hopefully be released in 2022.

Claire has appeared on The Garret twice before - talking about Terra Nullius: A Novel, and at a live event at the 2019 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Indonesia.

NOTE: Claire was on the road due to the pandemic when we recorded this interview, and the sound quality is not at our usual standard. We recommend reading the transcript whilst listening to the interview.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 190: At home with Lucia Osborne-Crowley

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a journalist, essayist, writer, and legal researcher. Her debut was the 2020 memoir 'I Choose Elena', a work she has followed up in 2021 with 'My Body Keeps Your Secrets'.

Her news reporting has appeared in ABC News, Guardian, Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Women's Agenda. Her long-form writing has appeared in The Lifted Brow and Meanjin.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 189: At home with Yves Rees

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Dr Yves Rees is a Lecturer in History at La Trobe University and co-host of Archive Fever. Rees was awarded the 2020 Calibre Essay Prize for their essay 'Reading the Mess Backwards' and 'All About Yves' is their memoir and debut.

Rees has a regular history segment on ABC Radio Melbourne and their writing has featured in the Sydney Review of Books, The Age, Archer magazine, Guardian Australia, Overland, Meanjin, Junkee, Australian Book Review and The Conversation. Rees is trans and uses they/them pronouns. They are the co-founder of the Spilling the T transgender writing collective and volunteer with Transgender Victoria.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 188: At home with Jennifer Mills

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Jennifer Mills is the author of the novels The Airways, Dyschronia, Gone and The Diamond Anchor, as well as a collection of short stories, The Rest Is Weight. In 2019 Dyschronia was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious prize for literary fiction, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Aurealis Awards for science fiction.

She has previously appeared on The Garret, once to discuss her literary career and once after she was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 187: At home with Terri-ann White

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Terri-ann White is the founder of Upswell Publishing, a new publishing imprint in Australia.

Between 2006 and 2020 she was Director and Publisher at UWA Publishing from 2006. In that time published around 450 books, including works of fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction.

Prior to this, she founded and directed a cross-disciplinary research centre at UWA, taught literature and writing in universities, was a bookseller for 16 years, and organised festivals.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 186: At home with Briohny Doyle

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Briohny Doyle is the author of The Island Will Sink, Echolalia and Adult Fantasy. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Monthly, Meanjin, Overland, The Griffith Review, The Good Weekend, The Guardian, and the Sunday Times. She is a lecturer in writing and literature at Deakin University and a 2020 Fulbright Scholar.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 185: At home with Larissa Behrendt

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Larissa Behrendt, a Eualeyai and Kamillaroi woman, is a writer, lawyer and academic. She is the Distinguished Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and at the Director of Research and Academic Programs Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research.

Larissa won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her second novel, Legacy, won a Victorian Premiers Literary Award. Her most recent novel, After Story, was published in 2021. She has also published numerous textbooks on Indigenous legal issues.

Larissa wrote and directed the feature films, After the Apology and Innocence Betrayed and has written and produced several short films. She won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for Best Direction in a Feature Documentary.

Larissa is on the board of Sydney Festival and a board member of the Australia Council’s Major Performing Arts Panel. She was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year.

Larissa has appeared on The Garret before to discuss Finding Eliza: Colonial Power and Storytelling.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 184: At home with Mark Brandi

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Mark Brandi's debut novel, Wimmera, won the coveted British Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger, and was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. It 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, was published to critical acclaim and his third novel, The Others, was released during Sydney's 2021 lockdown.

Mark graduated with a criminal justice degree and worked extensively in the justice system, before changing direction and deciding to write.

Mark has appeared on The Garret before to discuss his first two books, Wimmera and The Rip.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 183: At home with Amani Haydar

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Amani Haydar is an artist, lawyer and advocate for women's health and safety. Her devastating and yet hopeful debut is 'The Mother Wound'.

Amani experienced the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Writing with grace and beauty in 'The Mother Wound', Amani shares the stories of her mother and grandmother to help other survivors find their voices.

Amani was a finalist in the 2018 Archibald Prize, and she uses visual art and writing to explore the personal and political dimensions of abuse, loss, identity and resilience.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 182: Michael Mohammed Ahmad

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and editor of the critically acclaimed anthology 'After Australia'. Mohammed's debut novel, 'The Tribe', won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, 'The Lebs', won the 2019 NSW Premier's Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. 'The Other Half of You' is his third novel.

Mohammed has previously appeared on The Garret discussing his 2019 shortlisting for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the 2020 anthology 'After Australia'.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 180: At home with Alice Pung

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Alice Pung is an award-winning Melbourne writer who found a few minutes to speak to us during Melbourne's latest lockdown. Alice was at home with her newborn child, and you can hear them in the background of this short bonus interview.

Alice is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her first novel, Laurinda, won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. One Hundred Days is her most recent novel.

Alice previously appeared at a live event on The Garret, alongside Hannah Kent and Clementine Ford.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 179: At home with Tony Birch

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Dr Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist. He is the author of three novels - '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 Award for Indigenous Writing), and 'Blood' (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award).

He is also the author of 'Shadowboxing' and four short story collections, 'Dark As Last Night', 'Father’s Day', 'The Promise' and 'Common People', as well as the poetry collection 'Whisper Songs'.

Tony appeared on The Garret in 2020 and spoke in-depth about The White Girl.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 178: At home with Anita Heiss

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 20:00:00 +0000

Dr Anita Heiss is an award-winning author of non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction, children’s novels and blogs. She is a proud member of the Wiradjuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, the GO Foundation and Worawa Aboriginal College.

Her novel Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms, set in Cowra during World War II, was the 2020 University of Canberra Book of the Year. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray is her second work of historical fiction, and it is the first commercial work published with only Aboriginal language on the cover in Australia.

Anita is a board member of University of Queensland Press and Circa Contemporary Circus, and is a Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre in 2020, Anita began adapting her novel Tiddas for the stage.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.