Final Draft - Great Conversations

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Jenna Lo Bianco is a writer, teacher and Italophile. Her debut novel The Italian Marriage came out in 2023 with Pan Macmillan, part of a three book deal. Today Jenna joins us with her latest; Love & Rome. When Stella Chiaro left Australia for the Eternal City, Rome it was always going to be all or nothing. Stella escaped a toxic relationship determined to never let anyone diminish her light again. Now Stella's on a deadline. Find a job in the arts by April 2nd or its back home to Australia. She's firm. Nothing can dissuade her. Especially not a handsome bar owner, and definitely not a brooding photographer… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Siang Lu is the author of The Whitewash, a tremendous mockumentary style exploration of the movie industry, which won an ABIA for best Audiobook. Siang is also the co-creator of The Beige Index, your definitive guide to how white your movie viewing really.  Siang's new novel is Ghost Cities. Xiang is working as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate when it's discovered he really doesn't speak much Chinese. This is considered a less than desirable outcome and Xiang is both fired and culturally shamed for his lack of national pride.  If that wasn't insult enough Xiang soon discovers he is going viral in mainland China as the #BadChinese. Something of a cultural parody of the diaspora population. His digital notoriety sees him drawn into the orbit of the megalomaniacal director/entrepreneur Baby Bao.  Xiang is quickly whisked off to the Ghost City of Port Man Tou, where he is set to star in the city wide production of Baby Bao's simulation of reality. A movie within a city within a movie that is aiming to create an economy so circular it might just get vertigo.  Siang Lu's debut The Whitewash set the stage for his flair for cultural observation and a shrewd type of observational humour that honestly reminded me of the late great Terry Pratchett. Xiang is a kind of everyman who is constantly off-balance in the funhouse mirror world of Baby Bao, who is himself a chimeric beast of modern globalist enterprise. Now if this isn't enough Ghost Cities establishes that the whole enterprise of Port Man Tou is a strange echo of a far distant Emperor and his quest to build a city and a dynasty that will carry his legacy into perpetuity.  Ghost Cities is a novel that offers many rewards for both the casual or the committed reader. Lu's writing is effortlessly clever and glides from misadventure to catastrophe, challenging the reader to root for both Xiang and Baby Bao despite their clearly being at odds (and Baby Bao truly seeming like a monster). This reading easily offers up the kind of blockbuster Baby Bao would love to make. In the paralleled storylines, the clever mix of language and the intricately woven plotting we can also find a intellectually stimulating read; a kind of arthouse cinema for the soul that equally Baby Bao would also like to make (I mean he has taken over a whole city and is simultaneously filming all its inhabitants to film multiple movies at once). Ghost Cities is a marvel and beyond all that just tremendously fun to read. Go check out Ghost Cities from Siang Lu. Loved this review? You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read! Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Bri Lee is the award winning author of Eggshell Skull, Beauty and Who gets to be Smart.  The Work is her first novel. The art scene in New York is one of the toughest in the world. After years of struggle Lally is finally making her gallery work; supporting emerging artists and paying the bills. Patrick feels like he is teetering on the verge of something. It feels like everyone in Sydney's antiquities scene is suitably antique but maybe, with the right connections he can lower the age range. Lally and Patrick both know they have to prove themselves. That success might as well be a synonym of sacrifice, but maybe there's more than just The Work… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Siang is the author of The Whitewash which won an ABIA for best Audiobook. His new novel is Ghost Cities. Xiang is working as a translator at Sydney's Chinese Consulate when it's discovered he really doesn't speak much Chinese. Going viral online as the #BadChinese he is drawn into the orbit of megalomaniacal director/entrepreneur Baby Bao.  Whisked off to the Ghost City of Port Man Tou, Xiang is about to star in the city wide production of Baby Bao's simulation of reality, itself a strange echo of a distant Emperor and his quest to build a city and a dynasty that will carry his legacy into perpetuity.  Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Back in 2013, when I was just a little baby radio producer starting out on Final Draft some incredible books came out. I'd like to say I read them all but that would be a lie. Today's book for book club has been on my radar since that time and so to inspire you all to dive deep into your to be read pile I've got Hannah Kent's Burial Rites. Back in 2013 Hannah Kent was a debut author and this would have been a short introduction. Now she is an international best selling, and multi award winning author. And it all started with Burial Rites. In nineteenth century Iceland Agnes Magnusdottir stands accused of murder.  As she awaits her sentence; execution, she is sent to labor on the farm of the district officer. There she is nothing more than a murderess. The family are horrified that they must keep Agnes in their home and throughout the surrounding district Agnes is a curiosity; part freak show, part warning on the fate of sinners. Only a young clergyman, sent to deliver Agnes' soul, sees her as someone more than the sum of the charges laid against her. Burial Rites was an extremely well regarded book on its arrival a decade ago and it is immediately apparent why… The book balances character development with the sort of knife edge tension you need to keep the pages turning. It is deceptive in this as the bulk of the action occurs on the farm, and within the turf homestead where Agnes has been sentenced to live out her final days. It is through the dripping of Agnes' story; her life and the events leading up to the murders, as well as the developing relationships between Agnes and her gaolers that we are driven to believe that there is more here than first appearances. The Icelandic setting is intriguing and I confess I knew little going in. What is apparent is that Agnes has suffered for her sex and her lowly status in the community. The mistreatment we are shown is both distant in space and time but also familiar as Agnes is used by men who have power over her. The developing relationship between Agnes and the priest, Toti, allows us to glimpse into Agnes' humanity even as she prepares to die. The book asks questions of life and what it can be, challenging the petty cruelties visited on those who cannot defend against them. Of course all this is subject to Kent's ability to render these characters, so distant from our experience convincingly. Of this there can be no doubt. Told through shifting perspectives we come to know the various characters through their dealings and impressions of Agnes. The writing reinforces the lives and evokes the harsh conditions, taking us into the freezing winter of Agnes last season. I'm so glad I finally picked up this book and highly recommend it to lovers of both Australian fiction and historical fiction alike.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Victoria Purman is a bestselling author in Australia and the US. Her historical fiction includes A Woman's Work, The Nurses' War, The Women's Pages, and The Land Girls. Victoria's new novel is The Radio Hour. The year is 1956. When Martha Berry started out at the national broadcaster nearly thirty years ago she couldn't imagine where it would take her… Not so far it turns out, as she shunts between jobs as secretary for men who wouldn't know one end of their pencils from the other if they didn't occasionally stick it in their… ear. Now Martha has been tasked with looking after the new wunderkind writer. He's been commissioned to create a new hit series but all he's got so far is a title. With television on the horizon, Martha refuses to believe that the days of the radio serial might be over. But if no one steps up to write As The Sun Sets, well the title might become more than a little prophetic! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

John Richards was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Award in 2021 and the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in August 2022. The Gorgon Flower is his first published work of fiction. The Gorgon Flower is a wonderful collection of dark and macabre stories. I've always thought of short story collections like albums or mixed lolly bags. The best of them have something for everyone but you're probably still not going to share because you love it all. The range of ideas in The Gorgon Flower extends from the historic to the speculative. Each story challenges the reader with tilted perspectives and invites you in to discover the world in a new way. I'm not going to try and cover every tale in the book but I would like to give you a sense through the longest and perhaps darkest tale; the titular The Gorgon Flower. The Gorgon Flower In the mid nineteenth century Lord Tobias Henry Edmundson embarks on a quest to rediscover the enigmatic Gorgon Flower. The flower was first brought to European attention by Tobias' father, an eminent botanist. Since his youth Tobias has been plagued, some might say obsessed with the flower that he remembers as a carnivorous marvel that entranced those who saw it. His father's original find was destroyed in a fire that also took his father's life and now Tobias plans to pick up the trail This is a strange and dark story told in two parts; first through Tobias' field diaries and then through testimony from the ship's doctor.  Tobias' diary chronicles the long march into the jungle where the flower was last sighted. The expedition are met with horrific discoveries of missionaries left in some sort of decay that seems to pass over the indigenous inhabitants. The crew are alarmed, with many fearing it is only a matter on time before they are stricken by the horrible malady. The Gorgon Flower combines psychological thriller with body horror to create a kaleidoscopic spiral into Tobias' obsession.  Within the story the Gorgon Flower is both a siren and something of a post-colonial wrecking ball leveling the ambitions of those who would exploit the terrain. The prose is crafted just so to entice the reader to believe whilst sowing seeds of doubt (forgive the botanical reference). This is fun, intellectual horror at its best. And that's just one part of the collection!

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Nikki Mottram has a psychology degree from The University of Queensland and has worked in child protection promoting the welfare of children at risk of harm. These experiences inform her writing beginning with her 2023 novel Crow's Nest. Nikki's latest novel is Killarney. Dana Gibson has more than a little on her mind when she accompanies her colleague Lachlan on a welfare check in the town of Killarney. With local tensions simmering, possible drug running through the town and an allegation against a member of the clergy things are starting to look bad. Then torrential rain breaks the banks of the river trapping Dana in Killarney. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Bri Lee is the award winning author of Eggshell skull and Who gets to be smart.  The Work is her first novel. The art scene in New York is one of the toughest in the world. While artists stay locked in their studios creating works of inspiration, the industry of ‘the arts' whirs away creating the buzz that keeps it all relevant. After years of struggle Lally is finally making her gallery work. Her risk is paying off and she is finally able to support emerging artists and pay the bills. Never mind the occasional cost if the art is good and the buyers are excited. Patrick feels like he is teetering on the verge of something. It seems like everyone in the Sydney antiquities scene is suitably antique but maybe, with the right connections he can lower the age range. One big client is all he needs and there's a new client with their eye on the handsome young associate  Lally and Patrick both know they have to do The Work to prove themselves. In their world success might as well be a synonym of sacrifice. They are together alone, until a chance meeting at a New York art conference throws them into each other's orbits. If you're familiar with Bri Lee's non-fiction you are certain to be a fan of The Work. If you're not familiar with Bri's earlier books, well then have I got a reading list for you. The Work continues with the themes of Eggshell Skull and Who Gets to be Smart, exploring power and privilege; who has it and how they use it to perpetuate power dynamics in our world. For Lally and Pat, Lee inverts many common stereotypes; Lally is older, she's got money while Pat is struggling. Lally commands respect while Pat is essentially a handsome nobody. All this serves to highlight the level of scrutiny that Lally puts herself through, wondering at the fragility of her position. Pat meanwhile works hard but essentially believes he will get there. As first they meet and then explore a transcontinental relationship we are treated to dynamic and vibrant dialogue that ranges from art history to the zeitgeist. There are some truly memorable moments as they spar with each other (and noone, not even the local community fundraiser is safe). The Work deals with a darker side of the glittering world Lally and Pat inhabit. As power is leveraged against people based on their sex, their background or even just for the hell of it, we are confronted with our world as a place where caprice and indifference rise to the level of assault. Shock and awe are vehicles for public affirmation and it can be hard to find anyone with any principles left. The Work is a striking, character driven exploration of the world of art, culture and the capital that drives it all. It asks questions of its characters and doesn't flinch from their dark sides. I know I was rooting for a happy ending for Lally and Pat, but in the journey I found so much more as their lives clashed with the issues and ideas driving us today.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. John Richards was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Award in 2021 and the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer in August 2022. The Gorgon Flower is his first published work of fiction. His debut short story collection, The Gorgon Flower is a wonderful blend of dark and macabre stories ranging from the historical, speculative fiction and the joyfully uncanny. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Victoria Purman is a bestselling author in Australia and the US. Her historical fiction includes A Woman's Work, The Nurses' War, The Women's Pages, and The Land Girls. Victoria's new novel is The Radio Hour. The year is 1956. When Martha Berry started out at the national broadcaster nearly thirty years ago she couldn't imagine where it would take her… Not so far it turns out, as she shunts between jobs as secretary for men who wouldn't know one end of their pencils from the other if they didn't occasionally stick it in their… ear. Now Martha has been tasked with looking after the new wunderkind writer. He's been commissioned to create a new hit series but all he's got so far is a title and a drinking problem. Martha loves the radio and she can't believe that its future could be in the hands of this buffoon. Someone has to step up and save As The Sun Sets, but could that someone possibly be Martha? The Radio Hour is a gorgeous evocation of the golden years of radio and a period of enormous transition as Australia prepares for television to debut on screens across the country. The conceit of the social transformation wrought by television is matched by the social rumblings wrought by the mass consumption of popular stories on the radio… When we meet Marha she is fifty years old and considered somehow left behind by a world that prides women only in the domestic sphere. Sexist attitudes are matched by sexist laws and even Martha's existence in government service is only supported by the fact she never married (married women were barred from working for the government). The Radio Hour cleverly illustrates this through Martha's friendship with ‘The Calendar Girls'. In the world of 1956 Australia April, May and June could equally be Martha's daughters or her peers and their work relationship fosters tremendous dialogue that explores the mores of this world, whilst pointing a way forward. Martha's is by no means the typical hero's journey but it's a journey she must undertake. Sexism and patriarchy may not look like your typical end level boss, or dragon guarding a mountain of treasure (but then maybe you're just not looking at it the right way!) In the world of the novel, radio serials are the communal fire the country gathers around. Martha loves them too much to see them fail and so she must undertake to rescue her hapless boss by writing As the Sun Sets herself. You can't be it if you can't see it and so Martha must simultaneously write herself into the story even as she crafts a narrative that opens up the Australian public to the modern world (or at least modern as it was in the 50's_ The Radio Hour unapologetically tugs at the heart strings as it follows Martha's creative journey. The novel doesn't hide her trajectory towards success, not does it pretend that Martha alone can fix the problems of a top-heavy masculine culture, that still predominates some seventy years later. Instead the novel revels in the power of stories to facilitate change, their power to show people a different world, or perhaps just the world they live in just without a prejudicial lens. 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Paul Morgan was born in London, and now lives in Melbourne. He is the author of The Pelagius Book and Turner's Paintbox. His new novel is The Winter Palace. As Germany prepares to march into Poland, Anton Lewicki-Radziwill prepares to join his company in the Polish Army. He leaves behind his wife Elisabeth and their home, affectionately dubbed The Winter Palace. Anton is sure it will be a short campaign and he will join Elisabeth again in time for the harvest. Of course we know better and the war to come is more than anyone could imagine… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Susannah Begbie grew up in rural New South Wales on a sheep farm and is now a GP who has worked all over Australia. She is the winner of Hachette's Richell Prize for 2022.  The Deed is her first novel. Tom Edwards has spent most of his life running the farm by himself. He's not well pleased that his kids never came back to take their place on the land as he wanted. Tom's also dying and so he's come up with a plan. His kids will return to the farm and build him a coffin, in four days no less. They build him a coffin and they'll do it right, or he'll disinherit the lot of them.   Jenny is the first back to Ellersly. She never really left the area and is the one to find Tom's body. Christine is reliably prompt, Dave hurries because as the only son he thinks he's getting it all and Sophie gets there, as she always does in her own time. The conditions on Tom's will at first puzzle then infuriate the siblings. Worse, the local lawyer stands to benefit from their disorganization and works to sow confusion in the ranks. The Deed is a tremendous family drama that variously shocks, delights and intrigues the reader with the machinations of the town of Coorong. The novel is told from the varying and contradictory points of view of the four Edwards siblings and their father Tom. Tom's view is hard bitten and uncompromising. He feels he never got any favours and so he's not about to start handing them out himself.  As we flit between each of the children we see what this has meant through their lives. Jenny as eldest feels almost invisible and just wants someone who can see her for herself. Dave's role as the only son ultimately drove him away from the pressure. Christine feels noone ever appreciated her work keeping everything together, a role she's continued in her own family. And Sophie as youngest always tried to keep Tom smiling and perhaps never learned that she could be serious. The interplay of the siblings and the obvious tension arising from the reading of the will lights the fuse that plays out in a kind of battle between allies. As readers we are poised to choose sides but ultimately root for the four to come together and overcome. It's an interesting tension and hard to escape that for many people managing wealth transfer following the death of a parent is a macabre journey into bitterness and avarice. The conceit of building the coffin is brilliantly set to allow us to discover something of the landscape around Ellersly. For mine I had no idea about how this might be achieved and still imagine a rough hewn box not unlike the pencil boxes we all made at school writ large. The journey itself is set up to trouble the power dynamics and drive forward the characters. The Deed is a strange journey that is carried by the strength of its characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing and energy of the narrative opening up parts of greater Australian life outside of my day to day.  Loved this review? You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read! Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Donna M Cameron is a novelist and an award-winning playwright and short film writer. Her new novel is The Rewilding. Jagger Eckerman is the office joke. As son of the billionaire boss everyone knows he's a nepo baby with no real role in the company. But even nepo babies can tantrum and that's what happens when Jagger realises he's being used as the fall guy for the company's dodgy dealings. Blowing the whistle was easy but Jagger wasn't prepared for what comes next. Now he's stuck in a cave hiding out from a hitman and firmly in the sights of a climate activist who already called that cave home! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Ernest Price is a transgender man working as a secondary English teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. His writing has been published by Queerstories and Overland. The Pyramid of Needs is his first novel. Linda is about to hit the big time. The fact that there aren't a lot of seventy year olds going viral just means it will be even more sensational when she does, and viral clicks can't help but lead to more sales of her Supreme Self Supplements. Jack is living his best life as a teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. Or at least he's trying to when his older sister Alice gives him a call. Their mother has taken a fall while live streaming at their home in Noosa. Jack hasn't spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man more than ten years ago. Alice can talk to him about regret, but why does he have to put himself at risk for the family who rejected him? Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Yumna Kassab is the author of  novels including Australiana and The Lovers. Her writing has been listed for prizes including the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Queensland Literary Awards, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and The Stella Prize.  Yumna Kassab is also Parramatta's first laureate in literature In Politica the reader is transported to conflict engulfing a country. Through glimpses of ordinary life and revolutionary struggle we are shown the cost of war on a people and the tenacity, the fierceness of will required to carry on. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Miranda Darling is a writer, poet, and co-founder of Vanishing Pictures. She has published both fiction and nonfiction; Thunderhead is her fifth book. Across a single day we are thrown into the life of Winona Dalloway. From the moment she wakes, stealing a few precious moments before her time is not her own, to the dinner party that looms over her calendar, the reader follows Winona as she tries simply to be herself… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Miranda is a writer, poet, and co-founder of Vanishing Pictures. Her latest novel is Thunderhead. Across a single day we are thrown into the life of Winona Dalloway. From the moment she wakes, stealing a few precious moments before her time is not her own, to the dinner party that looms over her calendar, the reader follows Winona as she tries simply to be herself… Stepping out into the streets of Sydney, Winona has her lists and her responsibilities, all punctuated by the incessant buzzing of texts and reminders from her husband lest she stray from the day's purpose.  Winona wonders, perhaps suspects that she is looking at the world differently to everyone else. That might explain how they seem to navigate it so effortlessly while she only manages to muddle through. The Thunderhead of the title looms large over the narrative, threatening to burst, drenching the fragile balance of Winona's life. Winona Dalloway is a wonderfully original character for the sharpness of her insights and the myriad of voices she offers on the minutiae of her day to day. Throughout the novel the reader is confronted, as is Winona, by the specter of mental health. Within the novel it is both the reality of Winona's experience of the world and a cudgel used to beat her into some semblance of the everyday. As we travel alongside Winona it becomes apparent that the way she looks at the world is not the problem so much as the voices that tell her she needs to be other or more than they perceive her to be. Within the world of Thunderhead Winona is in fact a guiding light and even as we shift back and forth between her contradictory views of the world, we are certain that her fresh take on the everyday must be more wonderful than simply blindly living it. There is a lyricism to Darling's rendering of the inner world of Winona. Images float in and out of view as she encounters her world both as its surface and its potential. We are introduced to the Transcendence Project; Winona's search, perhaps striving to make an authentic connection with another person. Something that could lift them both out of the humdrum and confirm that there is a point to this existence. As the day passes and Winona moves toward the inevitable, we learn that she is not simply one person struggling with the pressures of her world. Winona is subject to something more sinister, something threatening to strip her of her very essence. But… I've said too much. Thunderhead is a tremendous evocation of life lived on the edge of a threatened if perhaps not enacted violence. A study in control and escape that offers the reader a glimpse into a world of expectation imposed and shattered.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Sharlene Allsop is the debut author of The Great Undoing which through its journey to publication was shortlisted for a 2019 Overland writing residency, and Highly Commended for the 2020 Boundless Indigenous Writers' Mentorship. Scarlet Friday is a truth teller in a hyper connected world. Even as everyone hurtles towards the future Scarlet delves into the past to understand our place, her place. While Scarlet weaves the threads of her past, discovering her Great-Grandfather's military service and the hostile reception he received as an Aboriginal man returning to a country that wouldn't recognise his humanity, the rest of the world is teetering on the brink. As systems shut down around the world, Scarlet finds herself on the run. Far from home she is a refugee seeking safe passage back to Australia. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Final Draft has been invited by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia to join its Community Radio Network. This means that we've been working hard to develop episodes that will be shared across Australia on the hundreds of community radio stations that contribute to the diverse media landscape of this country. In this special news update Andrew talks about the process and let's you know when the podcast will get back to its regular scheduling!

Ernest Price is a transgender man working as a secondary English teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. His writing has been published by Queerstories and Overland. The Pyramid of Needs is his first novel. Linda is ready to hit the big time. The fact that there aren't a lot of seventy year olds going viral just means it will be even more sensational when she does. She's a young seventy anyway, barely even sixty really and tik tok takes off ten years. The fame is important and viral clicks can't help but lead to more sales of her Supreme Self Supplements. Yes, Linda is just one livestream away from fame and fortune and nothing can stand in her way. Jack is living his best life as a teacher in Naarm/Melbourne. Or at least he's trying to when his older sister Alice gives him a call. Alice and Jack's mother has taken a fall, apparently she was live streaming at their home in Noosa and tripped over a garden rake?! Alice insists they fly up to Queensland and look after their parents but Jack hasn't spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man more than ten years ago. Alice can talk to him about regret, but why does he have to put himself at risk for the family who rejected him? The Pyramid of Needs is a dark and insightful comedy about family dynamics that takes an unflinching look at what it means to be trans in a world where your very humanity can be leveraged for clicks and hate online. The novel throws us immediately into Linda's delusion that she will make it; fame, fortune the whole shebang is only she can leverage her downline to maximise subscribers before m month end. See Linda is into pyramid schemes (at least that's what the haters call them). In Linda we are presented with the triumph of individualism about to breathe its last gasp. Linda has been manifesting success for so long she has not only ignored her son for ten years, she might even be leveraging Jack's transition for clout. We are not meant to love Linda, probably not even meant to like her. But we are meant to understand what Jack has gone through to be who he is. The novel counterpoints Linda's narrative with Jack's more balanced, albeit anxious storytelling. Jack knows the trip is a bad idea but like so many a Shakespearean tragic hero before him he must go along for the ride. The action of The Pyramid of Needs is in the brilliant interplay between the Kelly family as they try, or perhaps fumble towards family unity. Even as Alice tries to negotiate some sort of detente, Linda maneuvers the siblings to become props in her next big livestream event. The parallels between Linda's Pyramid scheme fetish and her life as a Noosa influencer in all its smoke and mirrors glory are clear. What the novel also cleverly shows us is how Linda tries to marshall that same level of self delusion to reshape Jack's reality and his life since his transition. The novel shows us the personal pain and struggle as Jack faces his mother misgendering and dead naming him. We get to see inside Jack's world, where he works to be a good person, the sort of teacher he never had, but also must deal with the loneliness and difficulty of the damage from his youth. I loved The Pyramid of Needs in its darkness and its light. It has an ending I won't quickly forget and in Jack we have a character who grabs your heart almost as quickly as Linda tries to poison it with vitriol.

Vikki Wakefield is an author of fiction for young adults and adults. Her novel This Is How We Change the Ending was a Book of the Year in the 2020 CBCA Awards. Vikki's new novel is To the River. Twelve Years ago a fire in a remote town rocked the country, killing nine people. The Caravan Murders, as they came to be known, were never solved. The suspect, seventeen year old Sabine Kelly went on the run and has remained hidden. To the authorities it was an open and shut case. Sabine and her family were bad news and it was only a matter of time before something happened; that a group of innocents and a police officer were killed made it a tragedy. Journalist Rachel Weidermann investigated the case years ago to no avail. Sabine was a ghost and no one was talking. In a world saturated with true crime she couldn't make the story work. Now divorced and made redundant from her job, Rachel lives on the river, a long expanse of bush and perhaps just the perfect place to hide. The first thing to say about To the River is that its setting is immaculate. Wakefield based the long expanse on sections of the Murray in South Australia. The novel's eponymous river is a site of both beauty and danger and onto its shores we find Rachel and Sabine. The novel's narration alternates between the two women as the navigate lives that seem to be held in limbo. Rachel is struggling to redefine herself having lost her job and her marriage. Sabine has lived for twelve years as a fugitive and is now threatened with losing her last living relative, her pop Ray. Whilst seemingly as different as they could possibly be, Rachel and Sabine are thrown together by circumstance. Sabine has lived too long on the run and needs someone to tell her story. Rachel wants this story but is unsure whether she is willing to follow it into the past and a truth she might never be able to verify. To the River is pacy and thrilling with overlapping points of view promising quick cuts between the action. The story pits a race to find the truth against our modern sense of fake news. Rachel's journey into Sabine's life threatens to offer up more questions than answers and hovering over it all is the question; can she trust this woman who may have murdered her family. At the heart of it all is a big question; who gets to be heard, who gets to be believed? To the River is a tremendous page turner of a novel. The kind you'll read in a weekend and then wish you'd taken it a little slower just so you had more to enjoy.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Elizabeth Coleman is a screenwriter and playwright. Her play Secret Bridesmaids Business has been adapted into a tv series and she's also written for Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Today Elizabeth is joining us with her new novel, the second in her Ted Bristol Mystery series; A Dance With Murder. Ted Bristol is trying to balance the personal and the private. Her latest case, protecting a ballerina from a stalker, is complicated by her burgeoning relationship with the ballerina's ex. Meanwhile there are complicated couplings everywhere and while Ted definitely wants to grow her PI business she's hoping to avoid the body count! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. Her novels include Australiana and The Lovers. Yumna's writing has been listed for prizes including the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Queensland Literary Awards, NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and The Stella Prize.  Yumna Kassab is also Parramatta's first laureate in literature In Politica the reader is transported to conflict engulfing a country. Through glimpses of ordinary life and revolutionary struggle we are shown the cost of war on a people and the tenacity, the fierceness of will required to carry on. I'd like to begin this review with the tremendous narrative style that guides this storytelling. Kassab weaves voices together to reveal a story that is both grounded in these people's everyday lives and allowed to float through the passions, concerns and petty jealousies that guide us all, whether we acknowledge them or not. This style was also in evidence in Kassab's early novel Australiana. In that work the reader found the voices of an Australian town laid bare and the perspectives of the townsfolk, often at odds, found a cohesion in their shared geographic and historical journey. Politica weaves together these voices to chronicle the history of the conflict from its early days, through the height of the violence and into a strange liminal zone where people question whether they ever knew another way of life. The power of these competing and complementary voices is to keep the reader constantly shifting between space, time and perspective and so while we may not ever have the first hand knowledge of Politica's contested ground, we are forced to look at it from every angle. In a way we both feel alienated from the action but also cannot fail but to resonate with some of those we hear from. The narrative is divided across five sections. In each we discover aspects of life through the conflict; a father and son's relationship, a dynasty of resistance fighters, or a woman's struggle to eke out a space for herself.    Politica is not a linear narrative and in this we find another impact and power of Kassab's style. As we work through the novel we may be rocketed backwards or forwards through events or memories. The conflict is both fresh and seemingly endless and in this we discover something of the horror that is carried by all who are touched by the violence. Life in the conflict may seem to age prematurely whilst also leaving individuals in stasis. After years the people may wonder if they have really lived at all outside of the conflict.  Be careful though. I want to avoid trying to draw too easy a conclusion from Politica; about its purpose, or inspiration, or the message it may have for our world right now. What seems apparent to me is that the novel offers a chance to explore something of the violence that I have never had in my life, but that I know exists in the world. This violence is a real part of people's lives and their shared histories. It's not that a novel like Politica can necessarily bridge that gap in my understanding (if anything can), rather it is another nod to the power of narrative to reach out across one groups ignorance and misunderstanding and offer stories that might help us be better.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. David Brooks is an award winning essayist, short-fiction writer, novelist and poet. His new collection, The other side of daylight explores our connection to the world, the environment and the non-human animals we share it with. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Sharlene Allsop is the debut author of The Great Undoing. The Great Undoing offers up a speculative future where our endless drive for connectivity and security threatens to turn society on its head. Scarlet Friday is a truth teller in a hyper connected world. Her job is to explore archives and provide context for the official narrative of history. Knowing is something of a state of being in Scarlett's world. With everyone connected by BloodTalk it can seem like the world is unifying. Yet even as everyone seems to be hurtling towards the future Scarlet delves into the past to understand our place, her place. Scarlet work becomes something of an obsession when she discovers her Great-Grandfather's military service and the hostile reception he received as an Aboriginal man returning to a country that wouldn't recognise his humanity. Scarlett feels driven to unlock his past to make sense of her own present.  But the past is never truly buried and outside Scarlett's archives the rest of the world is teetering on the brink. As systems shut down around the world, Scarlet finds herself on the run. Unwelcome in England, she is now a refugee seeking safe passage back to Australia. The Great Undoing is a strange and compelling novel about what it means to live in a world that runs on information. As protagonist, Scarlett Friday is both victim and foil to this ever present need to know. Sharlene Allsop's speculative future sees us all connected through the (hopefully) fictional technology of BloodTalk. Conceived as kind of biohack that links us all into a hyper online world wide web, BloodTalk both facilitates and hinders life depending on who you are. Allsop is playing with ideas of an ever evolving world order that demands accountability. BloodTalk connects but it also compels, meaning people can fall out of its good graces and then they are adrift. In this world the right people are always at home but also seemingly never connected to land or place so much as their digital existence. Connection is also inextricably linked to the past and Scarlett's role as a truth teller shows the reader something of this future's need to reconcile itself to its past. The conceit of truth telling is creatively imagined through the literal writing of Scarlett's story; the book is written over the pages of a faded tome, Ernest Scott's A Short History of Australia. Scott's work is a triumph of colonial, ‘victor' history and the very thing a truth teller would seek to contextualize not overwrite. Through this device we see the interplay of present and past and must work to read these coherently, even as they intrude on each other. The real battle for connection builds in pace as Scarlett is forced on the run. When she was safe in her world Scarlett seemed to project the luxury of time, that sense that we will always have tomorrow to figure things out. Thrown out of her old life she must try to find the things that connect her, even as she makes a desperate bid to get back to the land that has raised her up. The Great Undoing is a fascinating and insightful novel about identity and where we draw our sense of self. The narrative works hard to hold together its threads as we shift back and forth through Scarlett's story. Like most speculative fiction it is most satisfying, and most terrifying when it skirts closer to our contemporary world than we might otherwise feel comfortable with.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Today SWF Artistic Director Ann Mossop joins Andrew to discuss the Sydney Writers Festival 2024 Program Launch. Discover the festival theme, Ann's picks of the festival and a hot take on when AI authors will be gracing our festival stages! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

One of the pure pleasures that I have in sharing great Australian literature is bringing in a new poetry collection and the poet gives us an opportunity to hear them read some of their work in their own words. Today I have for you David Brooks new collection. David is an award winning essayist. He's a short fiction writer. He's a novelist. He is a poet and an academic. I wanted to share his poem. It is called An Invasion of Clouds from David's collection The other side of daylight. The collection has a real preoccupation and consideration of animals, our relationship to our non human friends and an invasion of clouds is just a such a great exemplification of that. So for today on the on the book club, can I please share David Brooks reading and invasion of clouds…

The Final Draft Great Conversations podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Dr Mykaela Saunders is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, teacher and researcher. She is the editor of the Aurealis Award–winning This All Come Back Now, and the winner of the 2022 David Unaipon Award for Always Will Be. Always Will Be carries the subtitle; Stories of Goori Sovereignty from the Futures of the Tweed. The collection explores possible futures where First Nations sovereignty is both reclaimed, respected and offers a future for a fragile planet. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want More Great Conversations with Australian Authors?Great conversations looks back at some of the fantastic authors and writers we feature every week on Final Draft. It's not always possible to use the full conversation live to air and this is your chance to discover more secrets and hidden gems about the books you love… Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft.We love to hear about what you're reading, what you love about books and what you've discovered from the show! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Today I'm bringing you a debut novel. It's called Tidelines and it's by Sarah Sasson. Sarah Sasson is an Australian physician and writer. Her poetry, short stories and non-fiction have been published in Australia, the United Kingdom and USA.  On a suburban street in the south of Sydney Grub waits in her car. In the house opposite lives the man who was her brother's best friend. Grub is there to confront him. To finally wring from him the confession that her family's life would have been better if he'd never entered it. Grub is still mourning for all her family has lost. Each of their lives seemed untouchable and now she struggles to recognise the happy family of her teenage years. Unfolding across the years of their adolescence, Tidelines is the story of Grub and her family. Of her bond with her brother, and the different directions their lives took.   ---- I read Tidelines over the summer and there is a lot about this book that screams ‘beach read'. From the atmospheric cover featuring a figure suspended, afloat in water, to the opening chapters; alive with the saltwater promise of Grub and her brother enjoying the dwindling days of a teenage summer in the early 2000's. Tidelines is that glorious afternoon at the beach, but it is also the early evening when you realize you didn't wear enough sunscreen.  I don't love that analogy but I'm hoping it conveys the sense that this book wants to complicate simple enjoyment and show us a world full of complicated motivations and far reaching consequences. The book begins in a Sydney summer ringed by heat and fire. The ever present danger is backdrop to the siblings exploring their world and pushing into that space between adolescence and adulthood. Grub is in awe of her brother Elijah and this sheen of talent and cool carries them both into new experiences. Compared to Elijah's seeming effortless ability to turn his hand to anything, Grub feels adrift. As they grow Grub will harness her talents and turn to medicine and Elijah to art but always they will have each others back. It's here that the story turns and Grub must reconcile her youth and her ideal vision of her family as their world threatens to crash down around them. The power in this novel lies in the struggle between the ideal that we all want to occupy and the reality that too often overcomes us. Grub is confronted with a world that perhaps was hidden, perhaps she had chosen to ignore. In discovering her brother's struggles with his mental health, she must reevaluate the life she had thought they had enjoyed. Tidelines is a nuanced exploration of grief and loss shown over a young life. It's never enough to look for simple answers when things fall apart and Grub must come to terms with her whole life if she is going to make peace with how her present seems so chaotic. I appreciated that this book looked unflinchingly into the dark corners of Grubs world and showed us how this could be so many of our lives. It's a book to read critically and one to allow to sink in, even as you appreciate the storytelling of this tremendous new author. Sarah Sasson joined me on Final Draft and you can look out for that interview on the podcast.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Jane Harrison is a playwright & author descended from the Muruwari people. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed play Stolen and we most recently spoke last year about her acclaimed novel The Visitors. Jane is also the festival director for the Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival started in 2016. This year the event is happening over four days in Naarm (and digitally countrywide) Blak & Bright celebrates the diverse expressions of First Nations writers and covers all genres from oral stories to epic novels and plays to poetry. Check out the full Blak & Bright lineup Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Grace Chan is a speculative fiction writer and psychiatrist. Her short fiction has appeared in Going Down Swinging, Aurealis, amongst many others, and she has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards, the Norma K Hemming Award, and Viva la Novella.  Today I've brought in Grace Chan's techno-futurist novel Every Version of You. In the not too distant future Australia, like much of the world around it, is a harsh and hostile place to live. Those with the means can protect themselves in hermetically sealed apartments and even afford the occasional luxury of fresh food that grew in the earth rather than a lab. Tao-Yi and Navin have grown up in a world in decline and have watched as their existence moved into increasingly digital spaces. The world of Gaia began as a digital frontier but now it is the place where Tao-Yi works and socialises. Gaia's immersive nature parallels the declines in Navin's health until it seems there is little choice but for Navin to upload himself permanently into the system. What harm could it do? Navin is convinced there are only benefits as he stares down his own mortality. So much of their lives already pass in Gaia, this would just be making it official. Tao-Yi is less sure. Her mother stubbornly refuses to log in and Tao-Yi doesn't know what it will mean for all of their humanity if she lets go of this terrestrial life. --------- I am a fan of science fiction and fantasy from way back, and while I rarely worry about the emergence of dragons into my workaday life, there is always something of a concern about bracket creep when it comes to near future speculative fiction. Where twenty years ago Every Version of You might have sat alongside The Matrix as firmly in the realm of science fiction. Now we can read updates on our own digital proxies about Neuralink implant chips into people's brains. I'm confident that I'll get this to you before the tech outpaces the story but not so much about the longevity of this review as anything other than an artifact. And so it becomes essential to engage with stories like Every Version of You, and so much the better that Grace Chan's novel is such a compelling read! The story is refreshingly ordinary even as it stretches us into the digital fantastic. The world of Tao-Yi and Navin is circumscribed much in the ways all our lives were during the pandemic and hence their escape into Gaia all the more relatable. The world of Gaia is both incredible and prosaic. Never fear that tachyon processing will free us of our most banal predispositions. Every Version of You assures us that we will still have insecurity and jealousy, but so also will we have ambition and love. Traveling alongside Tao-Yi we must face the possibility that the digital world is our world but that it cannot perfectly coexist with our flesh and blood selves. This entanglement is not clear cut and I cannot assure the book offers answers. It is the journey that is the adventure as we struggle alongside Tao-Yi and Navin to understand how they might continue to exist and to be themselves when so much of what that means is disappearing. This is also a love story and that was what completely suckered me into the futurism. I'm not so sure what it might mean to live forever, digitally or otherwise, but it has long been a concern of fiction to wonder how that long life and all its changes might impact our hearts. Could you love someone digitally and how do we let go of the humanness that comes with life as we know it. These are the real questions of speculative and science fiction; not how do we transcend our mortality, but how do we hold on when it seems to be escaping us?

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Povo is the latest anthology from Sweatshop. Sweatshop is a literacy movement based in Western Sydney which is devoted to empowering culturally and linguistically diverse communities through reading, writing and critical thinking. Today's panel features: Adam Novaldy Anderson Adam is a mixed-race Australian-Indonesian writer and activist. Adam's short stories and essays have appeared in various anthologies and publications. He is the editor of Povo (Sweatshop, 2024). Natalia Figueroa Barroso Natalia is a Uruguayan-Australian writer from Penrith. Natalia's poem, “Anew”, was shortlisted for the 2015 Lane Cove Literary Award and her screenplay, “Roots”, was selected for a 2018 Breakthrough Emerging Screenwriter Development. Natalia was also longlisted for the 2021 SBS Emerging Writers Competition, which resulted in the collection Between Two Worlds (Hardie Grant Books, 2022). Natalia is currently working on her debut novel. Katie Shammas Katie is a Palestinian Australian writer. She has been published in Red Room Poetry and kindling & sage magazine. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Robert Skinner is the author of I'd Rather Not. To delve much further into his biography would be risk spoilers for I'd Rather Not which reads something like the autobiography of someone you'd love to meet at a party, but definitely before the beer runs out. Robert is also the founding editor of The Canary Press, Australia's greatest and possibly only short story magazine. This accolade should serve as a recommendation for his prose and again also as something of a spoiler for the events of I'd Rather Not. Now about here I'm forced to acknowledge that the lion's share of the enjoyment in I'd Rather Not come less from the series of mishaps and adventures in Skinner's life and more from the deft and entertaining way he describes them. Arriving in the city, running a literary magazine from a corridor, sleeping in a swag in a ditch; these are not inherently entertaining things (actually they do sound rather entertaining as long as they're not happening to me) but flowing from the pen of Robert Skinner they are transformed into astute and often inscrutable insights into the human condition. Beginning in the unemployment line and ending in the back of a police car, I'd Rather Not embodies the truism about the inherent value of the journey. Whether failing up or falling down we as readers are buckled in for the ride and I'd Rather Not seems determined to give us value for our ticket. It's about here in this bookclub/review that I'm beginning to realize the impossibility of the task before me. By trying to convince you in my own words of the value and enjoyment in reading Robert Skinner's words I might as well be trying to describe the invisible man. Sure I can't give you the general outline and realistically you need to just run headlong into it to get any sort of impression. What I can describe is the pure pleasure I got from immersing myself in fun and thought provoking prose. Riding along as Robert discovers himself in the Melbourne literary scene or walking through the outback beside a camel it's impossible not to think on life and how we live it. I'm still trying to paint you that impossible picture, when in fact I should just be exposing you to a little piece of I'd Rather Not. So to finish of this book club I decided to open the text to a random page, confident that I'd find a delightful and bizarre observation that would set you on the path to reading I'd Rather Not. Here's Robert on his time editing the Canary Press:      “Somehow, without meaning to, and without really knowing that such a thing existed, we became part of the Melbourne Literary Scene. It was like running joyously along a beach and accidentally joining up with a triathlon. Suddenly you find yourself jostling for space, measuring your progress not against the beach but against the people around you.” Go check out I'd Rather Not and discover the pleasure of reading for the sake of wonderful words! Discover Robert at - https://www.mrrobertskinner.com/home 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Sarah Sasson is an Australian physician and writer. Her poetry, short stories and non-fiction have been published in Australia, the United Kingdom and USA. Today we will be talking with Sarah about her debut novel Tidelines which has already met with acclaim, being shortlisted for the Varuna House Publisher Introduction Program and longlisted for the Queensland Writers' Centre Publishable Program. On a suburban street in the south of Sydney Grub waits in her car. In the house opposite lives the man who was her brother's best friend. Grub is there to confront him. To finally wring from him the confession that her family's life would have been better if he'd never entered it. Unfolding across the years of their adolescence, Tidelines is the story of Grub and her family. Of her bond with her brother … and the different directions their lives took. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author of novels and short fiction.  Her fantasy writing has won a British Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for amongst others the World Fantasy awards and the Aurealis. Today I'm bringing you her latest novel Serengotti. (I'm just going to note that Eugen's protagonist Ch'anzu uses the gender neutral pronouns ze/hir)    ----- A single day sees Ch'anzu's life come crashing down around hir. First losing hir job, then Chanzu's wife betrays hir and disappears. The world doesn't seem to want to relent and so Ch'anzu decides to pack up and leave, taking a job in the community of Serengotti. Serengotti is a township for African migrants and refugees. It is meant to be a space for settling and healing for so many who have been displaced. Ch'anzu arrives hoping for a new start only to find that when everyone is looking for renewal the past often follows them close behind. Sernegotti is a breakneck novel that seems fueled by Ch'anzu's sense of loss and displacement. The ruptures in hir life are underscored by Ch'anzu's sense that hir identity is a live topic and perhaps an unspoken discussion amongst the people around hir. In taking the leap and transposing hir chic Melbourne life for a rural African/Australian village we can feel Ch'anzu almost bargaining for a place to belong. In reality Ch'anzu is trading one feeling of being an outsider for another. Within the borders of Serengotti the residents struggle to make sense of histories barely contained by their present calm. The weight of the violence and displacement that has brought them to Serengotti lives beneath the surface of the town waiting to erupt. I was transfixed by Serengotti from the start. Within these pages we have lyrical, gorgeous prose telling a tale that is simultaneously strange and highly relatable. Ch'anzu's search for belonging may take hir further than most but it is a journey we all feel. This is also a novel of mystery that weaves disparate voices together to bubble up the histories of the characters. Serengotti is a surprisingly brisk read, or at least I found I flew through it. The novel is constantly hinting at more and layering characters and identities in a way that give it substance beyond its less than three hundred pages. Finally Serengotti gave me that frisson of excitement and unease that you get when you see something familiar in a new way. From its unique look at rural noir, through the strange dynamics of half-met characters this book had me wondering if I really understood what I thought I was reading.     ----- Serengotti is a tremendous contemporary Australian novel that defies what many may think of as contemporary Australian writing. Read it for the pure entertainment of it and then stay for the thought provoking ideas. At the time of writing Serngotti has been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Award's Fiction Prize

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. A.W. Hammond is the author of The Paris Collaborator and today we are seeing a return of his hero Auguste Duchene in The Berlin Traitor. As Allied forces declare victory in Europe a sense of peace slowly reemerges on the streets of Paris. Parisians seek to welcome the calm but only for those considered blameless. Auguste Duchene is in hiding. The men who would brand him a conspirator would not stop to hear his side of the story and so Duchene must eke out a living any way he can.  But would he go so far as to re-enlist?    That's the proposal of the powers that be who seek Duchene's help in hunting a war criminal through the bombed out streets of Berlin… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter Instagram Facebook

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. All Summer Long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today we look back to Randolf Stow's classic Tourmaline Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter Instagram Facebook

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. All Summer Long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today we look back to Kate Jennings' classic Moral Hazard Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter Instagram Facebook

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. All Summer Long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today we are taking a look at Amy Whitting's classic I for Isobel Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. All summer long discover incredible writers in the Australian Classics Book Club. This week we feature Robin Klein's Came Back to Show You I could Fly Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. All summer long we are exploring great works in the Australian Classics Book Club. Today on the show we look at Boyd Oxlade's darkly comic Death in Brunswick. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser. Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you're reading! Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/