Final Draft - Great Conversations

Usually I’m bringing you the best new Australian fiction to brighten your day, help bolster your beach reads and update you on the important stories. But stories are everywhere in our culture. Over on Final Draft through November I’m doing a special series on the ways storytelling works in our daily lives. I’m taking new books and speaking to their authors; journalists, historians and commentators...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Karen Manton discussing her debut novel The Curlew's Eye Today on the show... Greta and Joel have a good life travelling with their boys, they go where the work is and enjoy the adventure of the road. As they return to the land where...

Kay Kerr is a former journalist and newspaper editor from Brisbane. Her debut novel is the widely acclaimed Please Don’t Hug Me. Social Queue introduces us to Zoe. Zoe has Autism and that means her everyday can be tough. Social spaces aren’t designed for her and this forces her to navigate a world of noise, bustle and crowds that leaves her exhausted. Worse, people just expect her to be ok with th...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Maxine Beneba Clarke discussing her new poetry collection How Decent Folk Behave Today on the show... Maxine Beneba Clarke is an author of short fiction, non fiction and poetry. She won the Victorian Premier’s literary award for poet...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Maxine Beneba Clarke discussing her new poetry collection How Decent Folk Behave Today on the show... Maxine Beneba Clarke is an author of short fiction, non fiction and poetry. She won the Victorian Premier’s literary award for poet...

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an author of short fiction, non fiction and poetry. She won the Victorian Premier’s literary award for poetry in 2017 for her collection Carrying the World, Her short story collection Foreign Soil, masterfully captures voices from marginalised communities, winning the ABIA for Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2015 and the 2015 Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction. Maxine Ben...

Larrikins occupy a revered space in Australian culture. Variously knockabout blokes, outlaws or rebels, larrikins can seemingly get away with anything and do it with a smile. A larrikin is the sort of bloke who'd steal the wool off your sheep and then ask you to knit him a jumper he'd quickly pull over your eyes. Lech Blaine is the author of the new Quarterly Essay 'Top Blokes - The Larrikin Myth,...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Sarah Bailey discussing her new thriller The Housemate Today on the show... In 2005 Oli Groves’ life is a hot mess. She’s comfortably bouncing between partying and life as a junior reporter. So it is one morning when she stumbles int...

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Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features James Roxburgh discussing his debut novel The Banksia House Breakout Today on the show... Since the death of her husband Ray, Michael has felt his mother Ruth is struggling to manage. He’s arranged a room for her at Banksia House and...

Today I’ve got an exciting True Crime fiction that hits all the highs, is clever and suspenseful and has a lot to say about our world whilst harkening us back to the 90’s. Ruth McIver's I Shot the Devil Ruth McIver is a Dublin born, Melbourne based writer. She won the 2018 Richell Prize for an emerging writer and the product of that win is her new novel I Shot the Devil. I suppose you’d say I like...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Tobias Madden discussing his debut novel Anything But Fine Today on the show... One moment. That’s all it takes to topple Luca’s dream of joining the Australian Ballet School. One misstep and Luca is propelled from Arabesques to Netf...

Today I have brought in what I think more than a few of us need… a north coast road trip for the mind featuring lovable heroes and easy to hate villains. I can’t promise life will always be this straightforward, but indulge with me in the world of The Banksia House Breakout and enjoy a few days in the sun. The Banksia House Breakout is the debut novel for James Roxburgh. James is an audiologist sp...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Catherine Jinks discussing her new novel The Attack Today on the show... Robyn lives a quiet life on her heritage protected island. It’s once a month she has to deal with the noise of teenagers arriving for a boot camp aimed to help...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Catherine Jinks discussing her incredibly prolific career Today on the show... Catherine Jinks is a writer of immense range. Her work has won gongs as diverse as the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Australian Book Council Award,...

* Warning! Heavy Spoilers!! If you haven't already read I Shot the Devil approach with caution In this bonus episode Ruth explores her rules around cats and dangerous plotlines. There's some interesting discussion around what readers expect from male and female characters in a thriller and also way more discussion of Axl Rose than I think anyone was expecting!

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Ruth McIver discussing her new novel I Shot the Devil Today on the show... Reporter Erin Sloane returns to her home town of Southport. Her Dad’s sick and though they haven’t always had the best relationship, he’s her only family. Thi...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Max Easton discussing his new novel The Magpie Wing Today on the show... Walt, Helen and Duncan are growing up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney. Walt and Duncan are paired on the footy field. Duncan serves as Walt’s protector, while...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Max Easton discussing his new novel The Magpie Wing Today on the show... Walt, Helen and Duncan are growing up in the Western Suburbs of Sydney. Walt and Duncan are paired on the footy field. Duncan serves as Walt’s protector, while...

Today I’ve got a book that’s pure Sydney. Max Easton is a writer, musician and podcaster from Western Sydney. His debut novel The Magpie Wing comes out this week and I’m just going to keep saying it; this is a sucky time to be an artist creating because it is so hard to get your art out there. The Magpie Wing is a sprawling narrative taking in the geography and the history or Sydney and its subcul...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Mette Jakobsen discussing her new novel The Wingmaker Today on the show... As the novel begins Vega arrives at the dilapidated Seafarers Hotel. Isolated, surrounded by farms and ocean, the hotel promises to be the perfect location to...

This week on Final Draft I had the great pleasure and privilege of speaking with Tony Birch. Tony is an author, an activist, an academic, a poet and essayist. Tony’s 2019 novel The White Girl about a grandmother striving to protect her granddaughter from the racist policy of removing children from their families, is still widely discussed. Tony and I were speaking because he has two new books out....

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode features Tony Birch discussing his latest a collection of poetry entitled Whisper Songs, and a short story collection Dark as Last Night. Today on the show... The works in Whisper Songs & Dark as Last Night explore themes both personal and un...

There is a long tradition in times of adversity that we read mysteries to divert ourselves from the challenges of our daily lives. Back in the interwar period of the 1920’s & 30’s Agatha Christie became a legend. Taking readers into little towns and intercontinental trains to solve a variety of cunning murders. It’s a more complicated world, so maybe we need a darker, more nuanced voice. JP Pomare...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world. Today's episode is part two of a panel discussion on the new collection from Sweatshop Racism - Stories on Fear, Hate and Bigotry. In part two of our discussion Shirley, Tyree and Amani explore public and personal responses to racism. We looking at the proce...