Booksmart

Khadija Gbla is an absolute force to be reckoned with - and we've been closely following her work for a long time. If she's not on your radar already - Khadija is a leading human rights activist and writer, amongst many other things. She was born in Sierra Leone, spent her youth in Gambia, and, as a teenager, moved to Australia. She is a leading voice and campaigner on Female Genital Mut...

It goes without saying that due to misrepresentations of Autism in media and popular culture, many Autistic people miss out on seeing themselves, their unique experiences and their triumphs, platformed or seen .  In the new anthology Someone Like Me , award-winning author Fiona Wright reflects on her experience of anorexia – with the unique perspective of an autism diagnosis in her mid-thirties, a...

Acclaimed wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta has been mugged by whales, touched by a baby whale and covered in whale snot (just casually - as you do).  Pirotta’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge of whales shine through in her book Humpback Highway as she explores a variety of timely topics – from why whale snot and poo are important for us and the ocean to the life cycle of whales, the challenges hum...

Hello, friends - we're back with a really special episode! Soaliha Iqbal got to sit down with Samah Sabawi to discuss Samah's book  Cactus Pear For My Beloved. It's a really moving conversation. Samah shares the story of her parents, and many like them, who were born while their parents were being forced to leave their homelands. Cactus Pear For My Beloved is a narrative memoir of h...

TW: Discussion of violence against women We are only 41 weeks into the year — which means we have surpassed the much-quoted statistic of one woman being killed every week in Australia. By the time this podcast is edited and published, it’s probable that another woman will have been killed by an intimate partner. Around the world, a woman is killed every 11 minutes. It was with this heavy heart tha...

Introducing a **very** different episode this week, just to shake things up here at Booksmart. Because honestly, why not? This week, Tash sits down with the iconic Dr Jen Gunter for an equally iconic conversation. Dr Gunter is also known as "Tik Tok and Twitter's Resident Gynecologist", having used the platform to debunk myths about women's health, amassing a huge following in...

We're excited to bring you a really special episode this week. Our Editorial & Partnerships Lead Alicia got to sit down with the wonderful Alyssa Huynh for a chat about her new (debut!) book Safe Space. ICYMI: In 2020, Alyssa began sharing her thoughts on racism and connection to cultural identity through her Instagram account @ alyssahuynhwritings and quickly gained a following for her c...

“I had to relearn how to live after nearly dying. It felt like a rite of passage no-one else had ever experienced, a journey there was no map for, and for so long afterwards, I was lost to myself.  This book is for anyone who is interested in knowing more about life. And maybe a little about death, too. " Queensland-based writer Carly-Jay Metcalfe was born with cystic fibrosis, survived a dou...

If Dr Mykaela Saunders isn't on your radar, then we are changing that today. Mykaela is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, researcher, editor and teacher. Her incredible speculative fiction collection Always Will Be (casually) won the David Unaipon Award and has taken the literary world by storm. In this new thought-provoking collection, Mykaela poses the question: what might country, communi...

Shankari Chandran was once told that her stories weren't 'Australian enough.' She later went on to win the prestigious Miles Franklin Award - an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". Here at Missing Perspectives, we are huge fans of Shankari - it's actually  the second time...

Everyone. We know we say that every episode of Booksmart is special, but this one is PARTICULARLY so (we promise). And it's poetry too, so even better. This week, Hannah Diviney got to sit down with proud Wiradjuri poet Jeanine Leane to discuss her new work of poetry titled Gawimarra: Gathering. We don't want to spoil the collection, or this discussion, but here's the poetry in a nu...

Breaking our (small yet needed) hiatus from Booksmart and coming back with an absolute BANGER: the one and only Lisa Taddeo! Our EIC Hannah was lucky enough to sit down with Lisa to chat about her incredible writing, career, and bestselling novel  Three Women.   The book has been adapted into a TV show for Stan - and we got to hear all about it. This is an episode not to be missed (although honest...

CW: Discussion of sexual assault It's been described as the game-changing book about sex and consent that every woman - and man - should read. In 2021, Chanel Contos posted on Instagram asking people to share their stories of sexual assault during their schooling years. This post unexpectedly went viral, and almost 7000 people sent in testimonies describing behaviour that constitutes rape. Vi...

Is there a better way to kick off this year then chatting with the author of one of the most buzziest books of 2023?! Madeleine Gray is an arts writer, book critic, a PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Manchester (what can't she do!?) and the author of The Green Dot . The book has been described witty, profound and painfully relatable debut novel exploring solitude, desi...

Sara M Saleh is a writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants.  Her poetry is not only an inherently political act, but a deeply personal one. We could not think of a better person to join Hannah for the final episode of Booksmart of 2023. With her first full-length poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat, Sara introduces u...

In the (highly) unlikely chance that Hannah Ferguson isn't on your radar, then we want to change that ASAP. Hannah  is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cheek Media Co, an independent Australian news commentary platform providing informed, progressive opinions on subjects that sit at the intersection of feminist, social and political issues. Cheek aims to make difficult topics accessible and entertai...

This week, Alicia Vrajlal from Missing Perspectives sits down with journalist Elfy Scott to discuss Elfy's book The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About. Elfy grew up in a household where her mother’s schizophrenia was rarely, if ever, spoken about. They navigated this silence outside the family home too; for many years, this complex mental health condition was treated as an open secret. Over t...

We know we say this about every episode of Booksmart...but this is a really special episode. This week, social worker and former Wayside Aboriginal Cultural Centre Manager Cassandra Ashcroft interviews Amani Haydar about her incredible book, The Mother Wound.   Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five month...

Welcome to a very special episode of Booksmart! This week, we invited athlete and equal pay advocate Lucy Small to interview Chloe Dalton about her new book Girls Don't Play Sport . Girls Don't Play Sport is a fierce manifesto for supporting female athletes at all levels, exploring how we got to this point, and where we need to go next to embrace the untapped potential of women's sp...

For this week's Booksmart chat, Phoebe got to sit down with the brilliant Shankari Chandran to discuss her latest book Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (that casually won the Miles Franklin Literary Award....!). Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is a moving book about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to storytelling and how our stories shape who we are. A note t...

Introducing our first ever episode of Booksmart : a podcast for people who see books and storytelling as the keys to unlocking the world around us. It’s a first step into the Big Stuff (social issues) that define, confuse and fascinate us. We thought it was fitting to kick off with our very own Editor-in-Chief Hannah Diviney - and unpack her new memoir I'll Let Myself In .  Hannah's memo...