The Garret: Writers & the publishing industry

Elizabeth Bryer is a writer and translator. She is an editor at Brow Books, and was previously the inaugural translations editor of The Lifted Brow for two years. From Here On, Monsters (2019) is her debut work of literary fiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in The Lifted Brow, Seizure, Meanjin, GriffithReview, Kill Your Darlings, Sydney Review of Books, among many others. In 2017 Elizabeth received the prestigious PEN America/Heim Translation Fund Grant to translate Aleksandra Lun’s The Palimpsests. Her translations of fiction by Carlos Yushimito, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Aleksandra Lun and María Jose Ferrada have appeared in The Lifted Brow, Overland, Words without Borders, Asymptote and Nashville Review. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Angela Savage is an award-winning author and the Director of Writers Victoria. Angela is known for her crime fiction. Her debut novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, won the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript, and all three of her Jayne Keeney PI novels were shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards. The Dying Beach was also shortlisted for the 2014 Davitt Award. In 2019 she made the move to literary fiction with Mother of Pearl, the novel for which she was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing from Monash University. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Marsden has influenced generations of children and teenagers. He has published more than 40 books, including the beloved Tomorrow When the War Began series. In 2019 he released his manifesto on teaching and parenting, The Art of Growing Up. He has sold over five million books and has won every major award in Australia for young people's fiction. John founded two schools in Victoria, Candlebark and Alice Miller. The two schools enrolled 380 students in 2019. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lee Kofman is a Russian-born, Israeli-Australian novelist, essayist and memoirist. In 2019 she released two books - Imperfect: How Our Bodies Shape the People We Become and Split: True Stories of Leaving, Loss and New Beginnings. Lee published her memoir, The Dangerous Bride, in 2014, and co-edited Rebellious Daughters, an anthology of personal essays by prominent Australian authors, in 2016. Lee's short works have been widely published in Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States. Lee holds a PhD in social sciences and MA in creative writing. She has also published three fiction books written in Hebrew and published in Israel. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marieke Hardy is the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Writers Festival, and in this interview she takes us behind the scenes of programming the 2019 Melbourne Writers Festival. Marieke is also a screenwriter, author, curator and immersive theatre maker. She has written columns for The Age, Frankie and The Drum, and also written for television including Laid, The Family Law and Seven Types of Ambiguity. She released her memoir You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead in 2011, co-curated the international literary salon Women of Letters, and appeared on the ABC's The Book Club. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The shortlist for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced on 2 July in Sydney. Rodney Hall (shortlisted for A Stolen Season), Michael Mohammed Ahmad (The Lebs) and Gregory Day (A Sand Archive) appear in this interview, which was recorded on 3 July and released on 4 July 2019. Rodney is first, followed by Mohammed at 15:40 and Gregory at 29:50. You can listen to interviews with the other three shortlisted authors - Gail Jones, Jennifer Mills and Melissa Lucashenko - in Part 1. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The shortlist for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced on 2 July in Sydney. Gail Jones (shortlisted for The Death of Noah Glass), Jennifer Mills (Dyschronia) and Melissa Lucashenko (Too Much Lip) appear in this interview, which was recorded on 2 and 3 July and released on 4 July 2019. Gail Jones is first, followed by Jennifer Mills at 14:10 and Melissa Lucashenko at 24:05. You can listen to interviews with the other three shortlisted authors - Rodney Hall, Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Gregory Day - in Part 2. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com.  You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peggy Frew's fiction is startling and evocative. Her first novel, House of Sticks (2011), won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer, and was shortlisted for the UTS Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing. Hope Farm (2015), her second novel, won the Barbara Jefferis Award, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Islands (2019) is her third novel. Her short works have been published in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin and The Big Issue. In 2008, her short story 'Home Visit' won The Age Short Story Award. Peggy is also a member of the-winning Melbourne band Art of Fighting.  About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com.  You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melina Marchetta is one of Australia's best-loved novelists. Her most famous work is the multi-award winning Looking For Alibrandi, which was released as a feature film adapted by Melina herself. Melina has published eight other novels, including Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road. In 2011, her novel The Piper’s Son was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award. She has also written a fantasy trilogy, The Lumatere Chronicles, as well as crime novel, Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carrie Tiffany's first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (2005), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and received the WA Premier’s Award for Fiction. Her second novel, Mateship with Birds (2011), was awarded the inaugural Stella Prize and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her third novel, Exploded View (2019), is an equally impressive work. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com.  You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Birch has appeared on The Garret before, and in this episode we are going to do something a little different. Our host Astrid Edwards had the honour of reading The White Girl (2019) before publication, and this interview represents Tony's first in-depth public discussion of the work. Tony is an acclaimed writer. His short story collection Common People (2017) was shortlisted for both the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Indigenous Writers Prize in the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Ghost River (2015) won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Blood (2011) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio. He taught creative writing at Melbourne University for many years and was the inaugural Bruce McGuinness Research Fellow within the Moondani Balluk Centre at Victoria University. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com.  You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Garret LIVE at the Library In partnership with the State Library of Victoria, The Garret hosts a series of live events with leading Australian writers. This event was recorded on Tuesday 21 May 2019. In this event, Maxine Beneba Clarke and Magan Magan discuss Growing up African in Australia with host Astrid Edwards and Shantel Wetherall. The discussion explores all angles of Growing Up African in Australia - Maxine's role as editor, Magan's role as editor and contributor, and Shantel's experience as a reader who grew up as part of the African Diaspora. Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer and poet of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the Indie and ABIA award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil (2014). Her most recent poetry collection Carrying The World won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry. Maxine is the author of the CBCA winning picture book The Patchwork Bike and her critically acclaimed memoir The Hate Race is being adapted for stage for Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre. She writes for the Saturday Paper. Magan Magan is a writer and poet who has read work at the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Young Writers Festival, the Emerging Writers Festival and Melbourne Writers Festival. His work has been published in Cordite Poetry Review and the anthologies Shots from the Chamber, Australian Poetry and Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry. Magan's latest book is From Grains to Gold (2018). Shantel Wetherall is a Melbourne culture writer, presenter and maker. Her work is featured in The Guardian and she produces and hosts Hey Aunty! Podcast. About The Garret You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com.  You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Susan Orlean is one of our first international guests on The Garret. Susan lives in Los Angeles, and has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the author of seven books, including The Orchid Thief (1998), which was made into the Academy Award-winning film Adaptation (with no less than Meryl Streep playing Susan in the movie). Susan's most recent work, The Library Book (2019), is about the 1986 fire in the Los Angeles Public Library. It is also an exploration of libraries and the role they play in our communities. If you love books and words, this is an interview for you. About The Garret In 2019 The Garret is a finalist in the Australian Podcast Awards in the Literature, Arts and Music category. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Richards is a memoirist, poet and most recently, a novelist. In 2019 Kate moved from non-fiction to the world of fiction with her first novel, Fusion. Her first work, 2013's Madness: A Memoir, received the Adelaide Festival's Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards. Kate followed that stunning debut with 2014's Is There No Place For Me: Making Sense of Madness, which was shortlisted for the Human Rights Award.  Her work goes where few writers have ever gone. It is profound and honest, and represents not only a contribution to Australian literature, but a contribution to literature on mental health and identify. This episode comes with a content warning, as Kate's memoir and our discussion of it touches on trauma and mental illness. Related episodes: Sam Twyford-Moore, mentioned in this interview, spoke to The Garret about writing mania and chronic ill health. Fiona Wright, whose creative non-fiction works explore chronic ill health, also spoke about writing one's own story and how to represent illness on the page.  About The Garret In 2019 The Garret is a finalist in the Australian Podcast Awards in the Literature, Arts and Music category. You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a special episode of The Garret. It is an exploration of how we are passing Australian literature - including contemporary literature written by writers who appear on The Garret - on to the next generation. Maxine McKew and Larissa McLean Davies discuss the importance of teaching Australian literature in schools, and what this mean for our students, our teachers, and of course, our writers. Maxine’s work in government led to the National Agreement on Quality Standards in Early Childhood, and she published Class Act: An analysis of some of the key challenges in Australian schooling in 2014. For the past five years she has worked at MGSE in a variety of roles. In 2018 she launched the podcast Talking Teaching. Larissa is an Associate Professor in Language and Literacy and the Deputy Director - Learning and Teaching in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Australian literature and the teaching of English are her specialities. You can check out two of the current research projects at Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Investigating Literary Knowledge in the Making of English Teachers and Teacher-Researchers: Promoting Literature in English Education. About The Garret In 2019 The Garret is a finalist in the Australian Podcast Awards in the Literature, Arts and Music category. You can read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com.  You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.