Final Draft - Great Conversations

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...

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 Linda Jaivin discussing her new book The Shortest History of China Linda Jaivin is an internat...

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. On today's show Felix Shannon taking over the microphone joined by Michael Burge discussing his new novel Tank Water...

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 Michelle de Kretser discussing her new novel Scary Monsters Lili is teaching in southern Franc...

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 Michelle Kalus and Ali Berg discussing their new novel Fancy Meeting You Here Evie Berry worri...

For the final book club of the year Andrew sat down after listening to Xmas music to reflect on the way we tell Xmas stories. Whether you celebrate the holiday or just need a break after the year that was, Xmas stories celebrate our survival and our coming together. However you are spending the holiday, we wish you happy reading and and a safe denouement to the year! Final Draft is produced and pr...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Omar Musa discussing Killernova Today on the show... Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian author, poet and hip hop artist. His debut novel Here Come the Dogs was longlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin award. Omar is celebrated for his...

We are absolutely at the book end of the year. And I don’t mean that simply as a kind of fun book pun (although it did inadvertently turn out that way). No I meant that this is the time of the year when you finally have the time to do a little reading, our best of lists are coming out (does anyone want a book club best of btw?) and we are buying and reading Xmas stories. Now ghosts and tiny tims a...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today on the show we feature part two of Jennifer Down discussing her new novel Bodies of Light Today on the show... Holly has a simple, but happy life. It’s uncomplicated for a reason and Holly would prefer it stay that way. When a message out of the blue d...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Jennifer Down discussing her new novel Bodies of Light Today on the show... Holly has a simple, but happy life. It’s uncomplicated for a reason and Holly would prefer it stay that way. When a message out of the blue drags Holly into...

Jennifer Down is the award winning author of Our Magic Hour and Pulse Points. Jennifer is one of my favourite Australian authors and so there was quite a bit of anticipation around her new novel Bodies of Light. Suffice to say it’s a complex and moving story. This is the sort of book that takes you on a journey and really, if it’s not too much of a cliche to say, you wonder if you’re the same at t...

Dr Denise Chapman is a counternarrative storyteller, digital media-creator, and spoken word artist who lectures in children’s literature and early literacy at Monash University. Here on Final Draft each week I speak with Australian writers and we explore the ways their stories reflect, explode or are just in conversation with our everyday world. A central thesis is that stories play an integral ro...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Inga Simpson discussing her new novel The Last Woman in the World Today on the show... Rachel leads a reclusive life on the land. She has an art studio where she blows exquisite collectors pieces. Her daily needs are delivered to her...

Today I’ve brought you in a novel that completely surprised me. There’s just something about the concept and the realisation... I ultimately came to view the narrative as… well maybe I won’t tell you too much just yet, suffice to say it skirted through so many ideas and narrative twists that the true nature of Inga Simpson’s The Last Woman in the World really crept up on me Inga Simpson's first no...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features part two of the conversation with Mark Smith discussing his new novel If Not Us and just a warning there are some spoilers for the plot of If Not Us coming up Today on the show... The beautiful coastal town of Shelbourne is full of c...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Mark Smith discussing his new novel If Not Us Today on the show... The beautiful coastal town of Shelbourne is full of contradictions. For seventeen year old Hesse it’s the only home he knows. Hesse lives for the waves that break off...

Mark Smith is the award winning author of the Winter Trilogy of novels. In these books Mark established himself as a writer of exciting and insightful young adult fiction. The collection spans a post apocalyptic Australian coastline. Finn must continue surviving after the breakdown of society following a devastating virus… and ok, this isn’t a discussion about The Road to Winter and it’s follow up...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Kay Kerr discussing her new novel Social Queue Today on the show... Zoe life is looking up. High school’s over and she’s landed her dream job, interning at online media company Bubble. Getting here took work though. High school left...