Literati Glitterati

Although the podcast format of Literati Glitterati has now wrapped, this show continues to be broadcast on Triple R. You can now listen to new episodes on Triple R’s FM On Demand service at rrr.org.au/explore/programs/literati-glitterati . Thanks for listening!

Julie Ostro discusses her new cookbook Good Cooking Everyday, and novelist Michelle De Kretser delves into her new book Theory and Practice.

The monthly Literati Glitterati Salon returns for its final instalment for 2024 to discuss autobiographical novel Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg about life, language, and family in Italy from the 1920s to the 50s. Mel Fulton speaks to writer and editor Hilary McPhee, collection manager and multidisciplinary artist Marita Dyson, and writer Raeden Richardson on how Ginzburg uses words to create...

Alina Grabowski dials in to talk all about her latest book, Women and Children First , set in a fictional town in Massachusetts. It’s a burnt-out coastal town where the residents are confronted by the death of a young woman at a house party, and the novel is told through the voices of women in the community as they work through their grief and try to get to the bottom of what happened. Poet Andy J...

Mel's first guest is Emily Maguire, discussing her recently-released book Rapture . In the second half of the show, Mel explores Australian Gospel: A Family Saga with author Lech Blain.

Special guest host Jess Zanoni fills in for Mel this week. Jess is joined by Jessica Friedmann author of Twenty-Two Impressions: notes from the Major Arcana to peek behind the curtain of the history and culture surrounding Tarot. Plus Joe Rubbo, Managing Director of Readings, stops by the studio to talk about 'A Day in Carlton' - a brand new literary festival being put on by the book retailer.

Mel Fulton speaks with internet darling Lucinda “Froomes” Price about her debut novel All I Ever Wanted Was To Be Hot . Froomes is known for outrageous comedic bits, celebrity obsessions and as a beacon for early naughties nostalgia. All I Ever Wanted Was To Be Hot is a memoir/manifesto that dives deep into her psyche, an honest and vulnerable account of Froomes' experiences with restrictive eatin...

Mel chats with Katerina Gibson on her new book 'The Temperature', a collection of short stories about climate change in contemporary Australia. Then, Samah Sabawi discusses her novel 'Cactus Pear For My Beloved', a family story from Gaza.

In collaboration with the Emerging Writers' Festival, Mel chats with three authors, William Huang, Katy Chan, and Elizabeth Bourke, and premieres three unique audio pieces exploring ideas from AI, memory and creativity and being terminally online for the Digital Surrealisms event.

The monthly Literati Glitterati Salon returns to discuss 'Enter Ghost' by Isabella Hammad, a novel about a Palestinian production of Hamlet. Mel Fulton speaks to novalist Nevo Zisin, illustrator Sofia Sabbagh, and editor Tess Cullity on how the book portrays the power of Palestinian theatre, and the complexity of a book released just months before last October when Palestine was changed drasticall...

Mel speaks to the author of 'Woo Woo', a feminist thriller about making art, online performance, and voyeurism.

Mel chats with Evie Wyld on her new book The Echoes , a love story from the perspective of a ghost.

The monthly Lit Glit salon returns with A Manual For Cleaning Women , a pulverising selection of short stories from the previously unsung queen of story, Lucia Berlin. Berlin wrote in binges, brilliantly, throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s until her death in 2004. Ten years later, with the release of this book, she became a New York Times Bestseller and the kind of writer that Mel says "I’d start a f...

On this weeks episode of Literati Glitterati, Irish author Caoilinn Hughes is on to talk about her new book, The Alternatives . Caoilinn says there’s a little bit of her in all her characters, but in this conversation she talks about the way she employed her friends expertise to form complex and fully fleshy characters. The novel (written without drafts if you can believe it) is about adult siblin...

Mel speaks with Ella Mitas on her new cookbook Ela! Ela! and Leah Jing McIntosh, curator/writer and founder of Liminal Magazine, for an overview of inagural Liminal festival at The Wheeler Centre.

Brrr! It’s cold out there… come cuddle up and get cosy with Mel Fulton and debut author, Sophie Matthiesson. Sophie’s novel, Together We Fall Apart, is a stunning debut telling the story of Clare, who has a complex family life - with both her born into family and her created one - and must toe the line to find the best outcome for all the people she loves… This conversation may bring up uncomforta...

The Literati Glitterati Salon returns for edition #2. Mel Fulton is joined by novelists and legends Peggy Frew and Ella Baxter to discuss Miranda July’s sparkling new novel, All Fours . Together they break down the novel and chat through their thoughts and feelings, and answer and respond to listener thoughts on the text line. ---- NEXT MONTH'S BOOK: A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin The...

This week, Mel Fulton is joined by RRR broadcaster and Author, Sam Elkin as they discuss his new book "Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga" and his journey from Lesbian to Transgender Lawyer in the aftermath of the 2017 Marrige equality postal survey. The two delve deep into the honest nature of the book and touch on the complexities of identity.

This week Mel Fulton is virtually joined by Sydney-born author, Lauren Aimee Curtis. Her new novel, Strangers At The Port is longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2024, and is a tale of two sisters and an archdukes navigating their time on an Italian island best known for it's production if sweet wines... In this chat Lauren describes the somewhat torturous task of writing as her charac...

Dominic Gordon, author of Excitable Boy: Essays on Risk, joins Mel to talk about his collection of non-fiction stories, memories, and feelings from his young life and coming of age in Melbourne's inner city suburbs. He speaks on his use of writing as catharsis and release, of working through confusion and anger, and making sense of the choas in what we can see mirrored in those around us, stranger...

Literati Glitterati launches its monthly book club with a special live edition in the Triple R Performance Space. We unpack the inaugural book of the month: Dorothy Porter’s iconic lesbian crime thriller, The Monkey’s Mask . Celebrating thirty years since its 1994 release, this modern Australian classic is gritty, sensual and pioneering in form, told in short verses that hit like your favourite so...

This week, Mel is joined in the studio by Cher Tan. Cher Tan  is an essayist, critic and editor living and working on unceded Wurundjeri land. She has lived in Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide and Singapore, where she was born and raised. Cher's debut collection of essays, Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging , contains 11 pieces of relatable, tangible and thoughtful writing. Mel and Cher talk about the diss...

In this episode, Mel speaks to Kaveh Akbar , an Iranian-American poet and scholar, on his new book, Martyr! The book is a semi-autobigraphical tale, in which the main character Cyrus Shams shares some parallels to Kaveh's own life. It is the story of a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, who is guided by martyrs - in the forms of artists, poets, and kings. Cyrus goes on a remarkable s...

Join Mel this week by best-selling American Author, and master of nonfiction, Leslie Jamieson, to deep dive into her life, what inspires her book writing and characters in relation to her own lived experiences. Listen along to snippets of conversation from her recent book Splinters, a memoire following the aftermath of divorce and awakening of motherhood.

This week, Mel Fulton is joined in the studio by multi-faceted novelist, Miranda Darling . Miranda is in to discuss her fifth novel, Thunderhead . In the book, the main (and almost only) character, Winona Dalloway (a nod to Woolf's Mrs Dalloway ) goes about a normal day in her life, although the reader can't help but feel impending doom... Mel asks Miranda about how she created a direct line to th...