Biographers in Conversation

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Christie Lowrance chats with Gabriella about her strategy for writing Nature’s Ambassador: The Legacy of Thornton W. Burgess, the children’s author and naturalist. Christie’s book is the first complete biography of Thornton W. Burgess, the preeminent 20th century naturalist, wildlife advocate, children’s author and pioneer in environmental education...

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Laurie Gwen Shapiro chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica, the true story of Billy Gawronski, a New York teenager who stowed away on a ship bound for Antarctica in 1928. Laurie Gwen Shapiro shares with us her inspira...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Melanie Nolan about her book, The ADB’s Story, the history of the Australian Dictionary of Biography she co-edited with Christine Fernon. Melanie is the general editor of ADB, which is widely recognised as an Australian cultural institution and national treasure. She is also Director of Australia’s National Centre of Biography. H...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Melinda Ponder shares with Gabriella her choices while writing the biography of the 19th century American poet, writer, teacher and social activist, Katherine Lee Bates. Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  Why Melinda Ponder chose the title From Sea to Shining Sea How Melinda represented the historical and cultural context of Katherine Lee...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Judith Brett, the acclaimed political historian, chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. This biography of Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second Prime Minister, won the 2018 National Biography Award.  Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  Judith Brett shares with us why she titled her biography The E...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joshua Kendall chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing The Man Who Made Lists, his biography of Peter Mark Roget, the eighteenth-century polymath who created the legendary Roget’s Thesaurus.  Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  Why Joshua felt compelled to write The Man Who Made Lists.  The meaning behind the book’s tit...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ryan Cropp shares with Gabriella the multiplicity of choices he made while writing Donald Horne. A Life in the Lucky Country, the biography of Donald Horne, a prominent and outspoken Australian journalist, writer, public intellectual and social critic. Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  Why Ryan Cropp felt compelled to write a biography of...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Marcia Biederman shares with Gabriella the choices she made while writing The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill, Abortion, Death and Concealment in Victorian New England. Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: Why Marcia Biederman felt compelled to write The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill The book’s relevance today, more than a century after the e...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Cathy Perkins chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Shelf Life of Zora Cross, her biography of Zora Cross, a prolific writer who caused a literary sensation in 1917 with her provocative series of erotic sonnets that celebrated sexual passion. The Shelf Life of Zora Cross was shortlisted in the 2020 NSW Premier’s History Aw...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with veteran biographer Carl Rollyson about his two-volume biography of William Faulkner, a giant of 20th century literature who won the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes: The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead and The Life of William Faulkner: This Alarming Paradox. Carl also published William Faulkner Day by Day, which provide...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Sarah George, who wrote GAMU: The Dreamtime Stories, Life and Feelings of Big Bill Neidjie. Known as Kakadu Man, Aboriginal elder Big Bill was instrumental in the establishment of the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park and he was deeply committed to preserving his land, culture and mother tongue.  Here’s what you’ll disco...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ann-Marie Priest chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing her award-winning biography My Tongue Is My Own. A Life of Gwen Harwood, the first biography of Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s most distinctive poets. My Tongue Is My Own follows Gwen from her childhood in 1920s Brisbane, to her final years in Hobart in the 1990s.  Here’...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the historian Mark McKenna chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing An Eye for Eternity, the biography of Australia’s legendary historian, Manning Clark. Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: The meaning behind the book’s title: An Eye for Eternity. How Mark McKenna navigated Manning Clark’s painstakingly curated archive of...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Nancy Hurrell, an acclaimed harpist and harp historian, chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while crafting The Egan Irish Harps: Tradition, Patrons and Players. Nancy also plays Carolin’s Concerto on her 1820 Egan Irish Harp. Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: Why Nancy opened the book with a dramatic scene in 1813 involving the...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Brett Mason chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing Wizards of Oz: How Oliphant and Florey helped win the war and shape the modern world.  Wizards of Oz is an account of a friendship between two Adelaide men, the physicist Mark Oliphant and medical researcher Howard Florey and how their scientific discoveries profoundly impacted...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joel Stephen Birnie chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while crafting My People’s Songs: How an Indigenous Family Survived Colonial Tasmania, his historical biography of his earliest known ancestral grandmother and her two surviving daughters. These three extraordinary matriarchs fought for the Indigenous communities they founded in Tasma...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Nadia Wheatley chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing the biography of Charmian Clift, one of Australia’s most charismatic writers whose books were often decades ahead of their time.  Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: Nadia Wheatley’s reluctance to write Charmian Clift’s biography and the vigorous arm twisting that u...

In this episode, Gabriella continues her conversation with Kenneth Miller about his  group biography Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep. As we learned in the previous episode, a century ago, sleep was widely considered a state of nothingness and a wasteful habit we could learn to overcome. Thanks to the four scientists Kenneth introduced us to in epi...

In this first of two episodes with Kenneth Miller, Gabriella asks about the choices he made while writing Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep, the compelling biography of the quartet of researchers who revolutionised our understanding of why we sleep and how we can sleep better. Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: Why Kenneth suddenly became...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Matthew Lamb chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing Strange Paths, the biography of Frank Moorhouse, a celebrated Australian novelist, screenwriter and journalist.  Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:  Why Matthew chose to write Frank Moorhouse’s biography in two volumes. Why Matthew refers to Strange Paths as a cultura...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Bernadette Brennan about her choices while crafting A Writing Life. Helen Garner and her Work, a literary portrait of one of Australia’s most vital and revered authors.  Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: Why Bernadette Brennan felt compelled to write A Writing Life.  Why Bernadette chose to craft A Writing Life as a li...

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Peter FitzSimons chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing The Opera House, the gripping biography of Sydney Opera House, one of the world’s most iconic buildings.   Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode: Peter FitzSimons’s inspiration for writing the biography of Sydney Opera House. Why Peter opened The Opera House with the...

Welcome to Biographers in Conversation, a podcast about the many choices biographers make while researching, writing, and publishing life stories. If you like the sound of Biographers in Conversation, please subscribe, share the podcast with your family and friends, and leave a review. Stay tuned for the launch of Biographers in Conversation on the 3 April 2024. https://biographersinconversation.c...