Final Draft - Great Conversations

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. Ben Walter is an award winning writer of stories, essays and poems. He is the fiction editor of Island magazine and...

Jane Rawson is the author of novels, essays and non-fiction. She won the Aurealis Awards for Science Fiction for her novel From the Wreck. A History of Dreams transports the reader to Adelaide in the late 1930’s. Margaret, Esther, Phyl and Audrey are finishing high school with dreams of what the future might hold. Margaret wants to attend university but her father forbids it as improper for a youn...

As I was casting around for which book we could discuss in this week’s book club I got to thinking about all the ways we organise our reading and think about our books (some more obvious than others) And the thing is, if you’re in the know then you know but for others it can be a mire of acronyms and loosely defined genres. A part of this discussion is inspired by a book I’m reading but haven’t qu...

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. Jennifer Shahade is a two-time US Women's Chess Champion Chess Queens tells Jennifer's own story alongside those of...

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. The Stella Prize is now in its tenth year, beginning when a group of women in Australian publishing banded together...

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. Emma Viskic is a musician and author. Her series staring Deaf PI Caleb Zelic has won Ned Kelly and Davitt awards and...

There is a wealth of great short story collections lately and one that really stands out is Andrew Roff’s The Teeth of a Slow Machine The Teeth of a Slow Machine is an extraordinary collection that invites both pure enjoyment alongside deeper existential exploration. The name gives you something of the flavour of what’s to come… Walking along an escarpment, guiding overindulged holiday makers a yo...

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. Her work has been featured in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin and the Sydney Morning Herald amongst. Yumna’s debut book is the critically acclaimed and much prize listed, The House of Youssef. The subject of today’s book club is Yumna’s debut novel Australiana. Australiana takes us to the north-eastern New South Wales region around Tamworth, an area Yumna...

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. Rhett Davis is a writer whose work has appeared in publications like The Big Issue and Meanjin. He won the 2020 Vict...

Festivals are back and it's time to get amongst it with like minded book lovers! With book stores featuring author events and Sydney Writers Festival about to drop its 2022 programming the time to read and mingle is now! Blak & Bright Festival was established in Naarm in 2016. Making a triumphant return in 2022, the festival now features a Sydney event! What – Blak & Bright Sydney Satellite event...

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. With International Women’s Day recently being marked on March 8 it was impossible to go past Eliza Reilly’s new book...

Eliza Reilly is an award winning writer, director, performer as well as a community radio legend over on FBi, presenting the long running Girls Gone Mild. Eliza’s debut book Sheila’s grew out of the web series of the same name Eliza produced and starred in alongside her sister Hannah. Sheila’s presents profiles of prominent women who have played important but often unheralded roles in shaping the...

Jane Harrison joins Andrew to talk about the importance of First Nations writing and the Blak & Bright Festival, coming to Sydney! Jane Harrison is a playwright, novelist and researcher descended from the Muruwari people. Jane is also the director of Blak & Bright a First Nations Literary Festival based in Naarm (Melbourne). Blak & Bright Festival is making a triumphat return in 2022, and the fest...

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. Maryrose Cuskelly is an award winning writer of fiction and nonfiction. i Maryrose joins Andrew in conversation to d...

Rhett Davis is a writer whose work has appeared in publications like The Big Issue and Meanjin. He won the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. His debut novel is Hovering As Hovering begins Alice Wren is mid-flight. At the insistence of an urgent email Alice has fled Berlin, returning to Australia and her hometown of Fraser. After seventeen years the city is not...

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. Claire G Coleman is a Noongar writer of fiction, essays, poetry and criticism. She is the author of Terra Nullius, T...

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. Today's show features Vanessa Len discussing her new book Only a Monster Joan was always told her family was differe...

Maryrose Cuskelly is an award winning writer or fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel is The Cane. The Cane transports the reader to the Northern Queensland canefields and back in time to the 1970’s. The town of Quala is reeling from the disappearance of sixteen year old Janet McClymont. In the weeks since Janet failed to arrive at her babysitting job the canefields have been repeatedly swept by...

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. The Furies takes us to Queensland in the nineties. Cynthia has watched her family fall apart and is left in a world...

Jessica Au is a writer based in Melbourne. Her debut novel is 2011’s Cargo. Her latest novel, Cold Enough for Snow is the inaugural winner of the Novel Prize, which will see it published worldwide and translated into fifteen languages. Cold Enough For Snow begins in transit; the narrator has arrived in Tokyo and awaits her mother’s arrival on a separate flight. They are on a train station travelli...

The Final Draft Great Conversations podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. Today though, we're branching out with a new conversation. Do you need more books in your life? The depth and variety of Australian publishing is such that there are always more books than we can ever cover on the show. Never fear though, because the strength of Australia's publishing is closely followed...

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. In Cold Enough For Snow we join a young woman and her mother on a holiday to Japan. Now living in different cities,...

Bri Lee is a lawyer and writer. Her books include the award winning Eggshell Skull and Beauty. Her latest is Who Gets to Be Smart. Who Gets to Be Smart begins in Oxford. Bri Lee is visiting a friend there on a Rhodes Scholarship. As she wanders the lanes and cobbles of Oxford’s campuses Lee thinks back to Virginia Woolf decrying the iniquity that sees Women scholars living in relative squalor comp...

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. Today's show features Katherine Collette discussing her new book The Competition The Competition centres around the...

Amy Remeikis is a political reporter working for Guardian Australia. She is also a regular panelist on Australian TV and perhaps many listeners met her in this capacity recently as she appeared on The Project. Remeikis was appearing to promote her new book On Reckoning and the segment quickly became a prime example of the concept of reckoning that Remeikis explores in her writing. On Reckoning is...