Better Words

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

Lauren Draper is a Melbourne-based writer and marketing professional. She is a graduate of RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing program and now works in children’s publishing—she loves nothing more than a story infused with magic, hijinks and a touch of nostalgia. The Museum of Broken Things, her debut novel, was acquired after it was shortlisted for the 2020 Text Prize. Her work has also been...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kimberley Allsopp has had her work appear in Kidspot, The Sunday Telegraph and WHIMN (now Body & Soul) and she co-hosts the rom-com podcast, Meet Cute, which allows her to justify some of her otherwise questionable life choices. Kimberley has worked in bookselling and publishing since 2008. Today we're discussing her debut novel, Love & Other Puzzles. Our interview begins at  00:13:50...

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

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

In this bonus episode, Michelle and Caitlin share some of their favourite non-fiction reads from 2021 just in time for #NonFictionNovember. Before we get into our recommendations, here are some of the books we've discussed and featured on the podcast in 2021... Trivial  Grievances by Bridie Jabour ( listen ) The First Time I Thought I Was Dying by Sarah Walker ( listen ) Every Lie I've Ever Told b...

Sara Foster was born and raised in England but now lives in Perth with her husband and young daughters. She has previously worked as an editor in-house at HarperCollins UK and then freelance and has worked on many popular titles. She loves dystopian fiction so much that she’s studying the genre for a PhD at Curtin University. So it will come as no surprise that today we are discussing her somewhat...

Alexis Nedd is a Senior Entertainment Reporter at Mashable where she writes about TV, movies and video games with a sci-fi and fantasy focus. Her writing has appeared across numerous online publications. Today we are pleased to be chatting about her brilliant debut young adult novel, Don’t Hate the Player.  Our interview starts at 13 minutes.  Michelle recommends The Appeal by Janice Hallett Told...

Sarah Walker is a writer, artist and photographer. She makes work about anxiety, control and intimacy in text, video and immersive installation across Australia and internationally. She is a Walkley-nominated essayist and critic, and co-hosted the podcast Contact Mic. Today we are discussing her beautiful book, The First Time I Thought I Was Dying.  Our interview begins at 20 minutes. Please note...

Danielle Binks was one of the very first people to join us on Better Words, but we’ll be honest the sound quality is pretty bad so don’t try to listen! Anyway, our guest has supported the show from the very beginning and is one of the biggest champions of Australian literature for young adults and children. She is a literary agent and editor - the person who helped several of our previous guests s...

Eli Lee was born in Dorset and now lives in London. She writes fiction and non-fiction for a variety of anthologies, magazines and websites. She is the fiction editor and a contributor to the literary journal Minor Literatures and has also worked for Strange Horizons. Her debut novel, A Strange and Brilliant Light, has just been published. Our interview begins at 15 minutes.  Mini book club: Culti...

Tobias Madden has a special place in our hearts - a friend of the show and someone we are DYING to one day have a coffee with. Our guest grew up in Ballarat and worked for 10 years as a performer touring Australia and New Zealand with musicals including Mary Poppins, CATS, Singin' in the Rain , and Guys and Dolls . We first spoke to him for Better Words in 2019 when he edited and published Underdo...

Cecelia Ahern almost needs no introduction. She is the best selling novelist at 21 when her first book PS I Love You was published and later made into a hit film. Since then she has published 17 other books, sold more than 25 million copies of her books in more than 40 countries. Her highly acclaimed collection of stories, Roar, is being adapted for Apple TV and stars Nicole Kidman and several oth...

Sonia Velton grew up living between the Bahamas and the UK. She has worked as a solicitor at an international law firm and lived in the Middle East for eight years. She has since moved back to England where she lives with her three children. Her first novel, Blackberry and Wile Rose, was a historical fiction inspired by real characters and events. Her latest novel, The Image of Her, is something e...

Samera Kamaleddine is a Sydney-based journalist who spent the early part of her career writing about boys, annoying parents and friendship dramas in the teen magazines we grew up reading - Dolly and Girlfriend. She loves the beach and can be found there whenever she’s not writing (and sometimes when she is). Her debut novel for young adults, Half My Luck, has just been released after winning The M...

Bridie Jabour is the opinion editor of Guardian Australia. She has previously worked as a journalist for NewsCorp and Fairfax, where she has reported on social affairs, politics and regional issues. She has worked in the Canberra press gallery and was a reporter for Brisbane Times after starting her career at the Gold Coast Bulletin in Queensland. She writes commentary on feminism, inequality, and...

Rhiannon Wilde has been telling stories for as long as she can remember - inside her head but also as a journalist and high school English teacher in Brisbane. Her short story inspired by urban Brisbane, You Deserve Nothing, was longlisted for the Queensland Young Writer’s Award in 2014. But in this episode, we will be discussing her debut young adult novel, Henry Hamlet’s Heart. This beautiful st...

Jane Thynne was born in Venezuela and moved around the world with her parents and two brothers before settling in London. She is a journalist and writer who has published several historical fiction novels. Today, though, we are discussing her chilling new alternative history Widowland.  Our interview starts at 19 minutes.  Michelle recommends The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor An up...