Auscast Literature Channel

Welcome to week two of Zine Month! Today Amy, Justina, and Payton are joined by friends of the pod Gemma Neall and Shona Edwards. These wonderful guests are zine experts AND classicists — just about the coolest cross-section of interests a person could possibly have. So in this episode we make a journey from ancient poetry to Shakespeare and then all the way to Ronald Reagan, Spockanalia, an...

New month, new us! This July we’ll be drawing, writing, cutting, pasting, photocopying, folding and talking all things zines and zine-making. To kick off the month, we dove into Justina’s personal zine collection to find the answers to all our burning zine questions. What is a zine? Where do you find them and how do you make them? How do you archive something so varied and ephemeral? A...

As we wrap up queer sci-fi month (😔🫶🏼) we get together to chat about our incredible book club pick, IDA by Alison Evans. This book follows Ida, who believes that she can time travel and uses her ability to amend errors in her life. From avoiding car crashes to rewinding conversational hiccups, who wouldn't want to travel through time? But when Ida's doppelganger sits down beside her at the trai...

In this episode of Around the School Table (xuno.com.au/podcasts), host Steve Davis is joined by Paul Matthews, Author and Education Consultant at Paul Matthews.ai (paulmatthews.ai), to explore how educators can embrace artificial intelligence without losing the human qualities that make teaching meaningful. Drawing on his background in humanities, leadership, and classroom teaching, Paul Matthews...

This episode Amy, Justina & Abby are joined by Alison Evans, author of our June BOTM Ida , as well as a whole host of other queer YA and middle grade speculative fiction, sci-fi and fantasy. Join us as we discuss all things reading and writing queer spec fic, imagining hopeful futures in YA, zine making for horse girls (gender neutral) – plus some (mostly) spoiler-free Ida chats ahead of...

In this episode of Around the School Table , produced by Xuno , host Steve Davis is joined by  Dr. Gina Biancarosa , Ann Swindells Chair in Education, Professor in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences, and Director of the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon (uoregon.edu), to explore the origins, purpose, and growing impact of DIBELS (Dynamic Indica...

A serial  killer is on the loose in Melbourne in Sarah Bailey’s ‘Click’. Three women, a journalist, a cop and a politician are on the case.  The approaching pandemic is a dark hovering presence in this gripping story which also shows how modern technology has become a force for good and for evil. +   Literary academic Kylie Cardell lays takes us through the life an...

For the second week of Pride Month we're tackling fanfiction, all the way back to the Kirk/Spock community that started it all. There's something for everyone this episode: the history and fundamentals of fanfic, the community and passion of the craft, the social implactions of ladies reading slash, and even how AI could effect the way we approach fanfic (clue: we don't like it!). Harry tells us a...

Hi Gay, Happy Pride Month! Today we're kicking off the month of June with a festive introduction to Queer Sci-Fi. There are some big Sci-Fi heads in Amy &, so get ready for a journey through all of our favourite books, authors, and films in the beloved genre. We consider if and why Sci-Fi is on the rise lately (it's existential doom again, isn't it?) and discuss the inclusion and exclusion of...

We’re sad to say goodbye to dragon month, but happy to send it off with a book club chat about Moniquill Blackgoose’s incredible first installment of the Nampeshiweisit series, To Shape a Dragon's Breath . This book follows the journey of Anequs, who bonds with a dragon hatchling and becomes the first Nampeshiweisit of her people in generations. However, the laws of the Anglish colonis...

Award-winning poet Michael Farrell’s latest book is a foray into storytelling through the medium of the short story. In “The Victoria Principle” his playful fictions, some autobiographical, deal with everything from  the concept of ornithophobia to a nude writers’ retreat in Nova Scotia. His stories reflect and warp the absurdities of modern life.   Guest: Michael...

Join us for our hilarious interview with USA Today, Indie, and Sunday Times bestselling author Rebecca Thorne. Rebecca talks us through her life-long love of dragons, retrospective worldbuilding, the phenomenon of cozy fantasy, and the joy of writing established lesbian couples. We had an absolute blast talking to Rebecca, so we know you'll enjoy this interview: described by participants as "cozy,...

In this episode of Around the School Table (xuno.com.au/podcasts), host Steve Davis is joined by David Loader OAM , Chair of the Institute of Education Reform (IER) (educationalreform.org.au), to explore one of the most urgent challenges facing Australian education: Student Disengagement. With research suggesting that between 30% and 50% of students are disengaged at school, David argues that atte...

This week, Justina & Payton have diligently done their homework on dragon mythology to share with us the history of dragons across time and culture. This includes their connections to colonialism, Christianity, creation, harvest, life, nature and more . . . and then Amy asks us what we would hoard if we were dragons (no books allowed!), and the conversation hatches into something else entirely...

It's dragon month, which means we're talking fire, scales, and flying. To kick off the month, we dive headfirst into all the dragon lore we know and try to figure out what we consider True Dragon Lore (hint: none, it's all valid). We talk about what we'd like to shoot from our mouths, whether our wings are our arms, and just how small a dragon can get before it's too small. Most importantly, we an...

It's our first After Dark of the season, and we're revisiting a childhood classic, Dragonheart, as a bridge between April's YA month and our upcoming theme for May: dragons! We reflect on the movie, discuss the lore behind the original script, lament at the lost potential for a romance between Dennis Quaid and Draco, and then deep dive into the fantasy films that we feel nostalgic for (they're jus...

Cath is entertained by Penny Tangey’s tale of murder, motherhood and caffeine as a group of unlikely sleuths solve a crime at the local library. + Michaela talks to Lisa Hannett about the fierce and fantastical women of Norse mythology who star in her riveting new book “Yet She Lives”. Guests: Penny Tangey, author of “What Rhymes with Murder?” and a number of books fo...

In this episode of  Around the School Table (xuno.com.au/podcasts), host Steve Davis is joined by Kerry Williams Director Teaching and Learning at SPELD SA Inc (speldsa.org.au), to unpack one of Australia’s most pressing education challenges. Together, they explore how literacy instruction has evolved and why evidence-based practice is now gaining traction across schools. Kerry shares h...

Eggshell is a young adult novella set in 2000s Adelaide that tells the story of Kira, a sarcastic, cynical teenager living in a council house with her Cantonese grandmother (Apoh) and her rebellious older cousin, Jake. As Kira navigates her experience of Year 12, the novella grapples with themes of identity, racism, romance, sexuality and adolescence. Join Amy, Payton & Abby as we deep dive in...

Join us in conversation with New York Times bestselling author, Amie Kaufman, as we continue Young Adult month! We discuss the novels that shaped Amie as a young adult herself, the YA genre as a literature of transformation, what it's like to write in conversation with teenagers, how to find the quiet moments when writing with pace, how Amie got a tour of NASA, and we take a peek into Amie's soon-...

Did you know that Rove McManus is an accomplished voice actor? You probably recognise Rove as one of Australia's most famous personalities. From his successful career as a standup comedian, long-running TV host, producer, children's author and overall cool guy, Rove has seen and done it all. Rach and Eddie learn about Rove's transition from cartoonist to voice actor, his love of animation, and get...

Can you remember what it was like to be a teenager? This week, author Olivia De Zilva joins us again to recall the feelings and stories that shaped us when we were young. As an ex-teenager and current writer for teens/young adults, Olivia has much wisdom to share about the whimsy and grittiness that characterise those formative years. Over the past few decades, what’s changed and what’...

Welcome to YA month! We're starting off the month talking about the fundamentals of the genre: what is it, why   is it, and is it even a real genre? We get into the politics of ratings for books, letting kids pick their own reads, the YA author's obligation to hopefulness, and we name more books than ever, maybe. This month we’re reading Eggshell by Olivia De Zilva. Grab your copy...

It's our first LIVE BOOK CLUB of 2026 !! Join the Amy & team (minus Payton, who was missed) to catch up on recent events before we dive into our BoTM, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson. Would you survive being locked in a night club by a serial killer? Would you be caught dead on a speed date? How do you feel about dual narrated audiobooks? All important questions that we answ...

Adelaide poet Miriel Lenore didn't take to poetry until  two thirds of her way through an adventurous life. She was over her many years a botanist, researcher, traveller, student, teacher, activist, feminist, mother and  grandmother. Miriel spent twenty years in Fiji, forty years in the Australian women's movement and the Adelaide writing scene, and ten years as a regular visitor to a Ng...