Fully Lit

In an engaging, though-provoking and moving conversation, Winnie Dunn, Julie Janson and Siang Lu - all shortlisted for the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award - discuss their nominated works, the ideas that shaped them, and the questions they raise about Australian life, literature and identity today, with writer and broadcaster Sunil Badami.   The Miles Franklin Literary Award is Austral...

Anita Heiss, Wiradjuri woman, author and editor at large at Bundyi , a First Nations imprint at Simon & Schuster, shares her insights into the Australian publishing industry with Alice Grundy, managing editor at Australia Institute Press. They take a close look at the way First Nations writing has affected and been affected by the prevailing practices in the industry, from author-editor relati...

Writer, editor and producer Charle Malycon (Penguin Random House and Overland literary journal) and co-founder and director of Amplify bookstore, Jing Xuan Teo, join Alice Grundy to dissect the current state of the industry. What goes on behind the scenes? What is the work of publishing today and who is doing it? Our guests share their personal experiences in publishing and bookselling, taking the...

How can poetry act upon the world? Hear John Kinsella hold up a bulldozer with a poem, and take a tour through his life as a reader, poet and activist as he and Lisa Gorton delve into the people and poets who influenced him. They discuss the challenges and responsibilities of being a poet, reflecting on the growing threats to our ecosystems and long-postponed colonial reckonings. In this context,...

Award-winning poets Bella Li and Ellen Van Neerven join fellow poet Lisa Gorton for a discussion on poetry, responsibility and poetry’s place in Australian public life. With readings from each poet's work, along with other poems from Australia and beyond, our panelists explore the balance between poetry as a private practice and its public impact, attending to the ways in which poetry can unsettle...

If you're enjoying this podcast, here's a podcast we think you'll like too! The Secret Life of Books is made by Sophie Gee, an academic and a writer, and Jonty Claypole, broadcaster and producer. Sophie and Jonty tell the story behind the story of the literary classics that everyone wants to read, feels they should read or has already read and loved. They reveal the secret histories, hidden player...

Who gets to critique First Nations literature — and how should it be taught? Novelist Melanie Saward and critic Ben Etherington join writer and academic Graham Akhurst to dive into the complex world of reading, teaching, and evaluating First Nations writing. From the classroom to the review page, they explore the responsibilities that come with critiquing Indigenous stories — and what’s at stake w...

What does it really take to read and review First Nations writing with integrity? Wiradjuri poet and critic Jeanine Leane joins Graham Akhurst for a powerful conversation that turns the spotlight on the critics themselves. With sharp insight and deep cultural knowledge, Jeanine unpacks the idea of “cultural rigour” — and why it’s essential for anyone engaging with Black writing in Australia. Wheth...

What is the Australian novel today? Is it even a novel? And what remains of the idea of a national literature once we eschew nationalistic clichés of Aussieness? Writers Mykaela Saunders and Yumna Kassab join Lynda Ng to tackle these questions. With readings from Australian fiction that reveals a literature deeply engaged with the world and with writing beyond our shores. Dr Mykaela Saunders Dr My...

What makes a novel uniquely Australian? How do our stories stack up on the world stage? Writer, critic and former diplomat Nick Jose joins Lynda Ng—Oz Lit scholar and literary critic—for a deep dive into the Australian novel and its shifting place in global literature. Through powerful readings from literary giants like Patrick White, Peter Carey, Alexis Wright, and Christina Stead, we ask: How ha...

What is Australian literature today? How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? And where is it headed?  Welcome, or welcome back, to the Sydney Review of Books podcast - now known as  Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing , presented by Anna Funder. Over eight episodes, you'll hear from John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Leane, Anita Heiss and...

On this episode Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton, the co-founders of Blackfulla Bookclub , talk about the online community they’ve built around First Nations storytelling and discuss their experiences of reading Fire Front, an anthology of poetry and essays curated by Alison Whittaker. It’s about seeing, and hearing, and reading the world through powerful First Nations perspectives. Liste...

In this episode, graphic novelist Pat Grant explains what happened during the seven years it took him to make his second book, The Grot . We’ll also hear about the challenge of getting hard copies of your own book in the midst of a global pandemic. - - - - Pat’s website is patgrantart.com where you can order a copy of The Grot . You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @patgrantart &n...

This episode of the SRB podcast is an audio essay: ‘Climbing the Hill’ by Eileen Chong. We are fascinated by the ways the places we live shape the poems, books and essays we write. When poet Eileen Chong was invited take up this theme she wrote an essay with roots in three places:  Singapore, where she was born, Sydney, where she now lives, and Scotland, the country her husband is...

‘It’s not a document that anyone can see or get hold of, rather, it’s the way I’ve broken things down to guide me and my anxiety along. The extroverts are a loud, 25-strong Lebanese clan – all of us living in three houses side-by-side on the same street in Punchbowl, south western Sydney, roaming freely onto each other’s properties, with detached fences and no c...

In recent years there’s been a trend of writers publicly giving away prize money to charity or sharing it with other shortlisted writers. But when novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, she was working in a call centre. The $80,000 prize would have utterly changed her life and bought her literally years of time to write.  We&rsqu...

Welcome to the Sydney Review of Books podcast, a show about Australian books and writers. Each week we publish criticism and essays by Australia’s best writers on our website ­– and now we’ve got a podcast to match. It’s about what writers do to make books, essays and poems – and what they do to make a living. We’re bringing you five episodes featuring some...