The Fremantle Press Podcast

In this special Love to Read Local edition of the Fremantle Press podcast, novelist, journalist and Fogarty Literary Award shortlister, Emma Young, interviews her writing mentor Laurie Steed as well as her writing mentor’s mentor, Susan Midalia. Sound complicated? It’s not, it’s awesome.   The podcast highlights the supportive network of Western Australian writers who, while working on their own c...

Our Business of Being a Writer seminar, which involved 300 new and emerging authors gathering in a room without air conditioning, feels like two lifetimes ago. Craig Silvey dubbed it the ‘sauna of knowledge’ and, in this mid-pandemic world, the idea of running another feels frankly illicit. We can, however, bring you the broadcast version online. This panel with Craig Silvey and Alan Carter delved...

Jon Doust's debut book for adults, Boy on a Wire , was Publisher Georgia Richter's first editorial job for Fremantle Press. In this episode, Georgia and Jon talk to host Rebecca Higgie about the crucial elements of the editor–author relationship, the foremost being trust, another being laughter. They celebrate the release of the third book in Jon's trilogy One Boy’s Journey to Man: a novel called...

In this episode we're chatting to Maddie in the Middle author Julia Lawrinson about the complexities of female friendships. We ask her whether it's ever ok to do the wrong thing for the right reason and we listen as Julia (who holds a PhD) completely bombs-out in her pop quiz (#EpicFail). Bestselling young adult author AJ Betts (Zac & Mia, Hive, Rogue) leaves a voicemail for all you aspiring w...

Bron Bateman says she makes sense of the world through writing. She is an observer of her own life, absorbing every experience with all senses so she can articulate it in poetry. She’s also the ideal interviewee. She wants to answer every question put to her, no matter how difficult, because, she says, it’s only by doing this that we can truly reach each other as writers and as humans. In this pod...

Madelaine Dickie’s gripping new novel Red Can Origami explores the tensions between a Japanese uranium mining company and a Native Title group in regional Western Australia. In this episode of the Fremantle Press podcast, she explains how the Kimberley people and landscape inspired the story, why she chose to write it in the second person and the origin of the semi-dangerous game Swagmo.   Music:...

In this packed episode HM Waugh and Rebecca Higgie discuss The Lost Stone of SkyCity. Waugh shares her top tips on world building and takes us through how NaNoWriMo helped her get her manuscript down on paper. She discusses her latest read, the 'pants wettingly' hilarious Toffle Towers by Tim Harris and James Foley and shows off just how much she knows about goats. In our new phone a friend segmen...

David Whish-Wilson says seeing the rise of populism and nationalist right-wing movements around the world made him want to reflect on Australia's long history of nationalist movements. 'I hadn't seen anyone else writing about Perth's late-80s Neo-Nazi scene ... I've spoken to many Asian Australians over the years and they often talk about that as a particularly unpleasant time to be a Western Aust...

Fogarty Literary Award winner Rebecca Higgie joins Holden Sheppard at the mic for this month’s episode of the Fremantle Press podcast. Holden talks about his gritty debut YA novel Invisible Boys , which won the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. He explains how men play a part in shaping the concept of masculinity, touches on the importance of addressing mental health issues in young people...

Out of Time by Steve Hawke is a powerful, sometimes confronting novel and an exploration of aging and what a diagnosis, or a feared or impending diagnosis, can lead to in both the life of the sufferer and also their family and friends. In this podcast Holden Sheppard talks to the author about the many issues a diagnosis of Alzheimer's raises including a person's right to decide their own demise.

From the death of old growth trees at Beeliar Wetlands to securing the seeds of potential trees at Kings Park, Nandi Chinna’s work holds both anticipatory grief and hope for future. In this episode of the Fremantle Press Podcast, she speaks to Holden Sheppard about her very special brand of peripatetic creativity which has led to the launch of her latest poetry collection, The Future Keepers.   Na...

In this episode of the Fremantle Press podcast poet Caitlin Maling chats to Holden Sheppard about her new collection Fish Song – which celebrates the beautiful coastline of Western Australia and the people and creatures that live on it. Caitlin says writing poetry is a fundamentally positive act that can help you come to terms with the precarious nature of an eroding coastline and an eroding way o...

  Michael Burrows is an author and poet from Perth. Here, he reads from his first novel, Where the Line Breaks, which was inspired by an Anzac Day experience in Gallipoli, the search for Australian war poetry and his love for Western Australia. It's in the running to win the Fogarty Literary Award. Copyright Michael Burrows.

With the 2019 Fogarty Literary Award announcement looming, we thought it’d be a good idea to bring in one of our shortlisted authors, Emma Young, for a chat about her manuscript The Last Bookshop. In the podcast, Emma talks to Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller about the inspiration behind her story and in particular the character of Kate who owns the last bookshop in Perth. She di...

The shortlist has been announced for the 2019 Fogarty Literary Award and Western Australian author Rebecca Higgie is on the list. In this podcast she chats to Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller about her manuscript The History of Mischief and what it took to create the story. This includes but is not limited to the concept of how we handle grief, mischief as a magical thing, the ex...

The only Freo resident to make the Fogarty Literary Award, Mel Hall, came in to talk to Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller about her manuscript The Shapes. In this podcast, Mel discusses the successive events that happened to her to inspire her novel, and how a therapeutic swim in the pool sparked the idea for a fictional healing modality. She also reads an excerpt from The Shapes,...

Young adult novelist Nanci Nott talks to Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller about being longlisted for the 2019 Fogarty Literary Award. This episode of the Fremantle Press podcast is mastered and edited by Aidan d’Adhemar.

Belinda Hermawan sits down with Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller to talk about her collection of short stories S to Z, which is longlisted for the Fogarty Literary Award for writers aged 18 to 35. This episode of the Fremantle Press podcast is mastered and edited by Aidan d’Adhemar.

In this special edition of the Fremantle Press podcast, marketing and communications manager Claire Miller talks to crime writer Alex Dook about his manuscript 'No Answer', which has been longlisted for the 2019 Fogarty Literary Award.   Mastered and edited by: Aidan d’Adhemar

In this episode, Holden Sheppard speaks to crime writer Dave Warner about his new book River of Salt and Dave spills the beans on his fool-proof method of how to know ‘whodunnit’.   Dave’s superpower is his ability to juggle many projects at once. Dave first came to prominence with his band Dave Warner from the Suburbs and his song writing is just one part of his creative practice. He is an award-...

We know you all love to write, but writing a book isn’t the only way you can follow your passion. In our latest podcast, recorded live at the Business of Being a Writer event at Perth Festival Writers Week, Fremantle Press CEO Jane Fraser was joined by award-winning screen director Alison James, Black Swan State Theatre Company Literary Director Polly Low and Red Room Poetry Director Tamryn Bennet...

Here, Anne-Louise talks about why Nora’s paintings of WWII are some of the most significant in Australian art history, how contentious her Archibald win was, and the enduring but competitive relationship she had with her landscape-painter father Hans Heysen. Anne-Louise is also a creative writing teacher at the University of Western Australia and Holden has made sure to get her writing advice for...

Get insider tips on how to build your author profile. Fremantle Press Marketing and Communications Manager Claire Miller is joined by Hancock Creative social media mentor Lisa Shearon, Small Press Network General Manager Tim Coronel and award-winning children's book creator James Foley. In this panel they talk about how writers can prepare for media interviews, how to develop an author brand and a...

A must-listen episode of the Fremantle Press Podcast for all authors: whether just starting out, emerging or established. Recorded live at The Business of Being a Writer event at Perth Festival Writers Week, Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter gets insider tips on applying for grants, funding residencies and entering awards from a panel of experts. Her guests are award-winning authors Gail J...

  Set in the Gold Rush era, The Coves pulls no punches depicting those brutal times with uncompromising accuracy. Jessica Gately chats to David Whish-Wilson about his inspiration for the book and together the pair delve into what was, until recently, a suppressed footnote in history.