The Kill Your Darlings Podcast

Critic Raelee Lancaster joins Rebecca to discuss the final title in the series, Ellen van Neerven's extraordinary debut book. A collection of interlinking stories that dissolve boundaries and binaries with its depictions of blak queer lives, Heat and Light encourages readers to question their sense of belonging and identity, and has carved out lasting space in the queer literary canon.

Critic Nigel Featherstone joins Rebecca to discuss the iconic gay memoir, Holding the Man. It is the love story of Tim and John, who first met as teenagers at their all-boys Catholic school in Melbourne, and whose lives are torn apart by the AIDS crisis. First published in 1994, the book continues to have a profound impact on countless readers. 

Critic Dzenana Vucic joins Rebecca to discuss The Well, which won Elizabeth Jolley the Miles Franklin Award in 1986, and established her reputation as one of Australia's most celebrated writers. When ageing spinster Hester brings home orphaned teenager Kathy to her remote farm in WA, she develops powerful, obsessive and possessive feelings. One night they accidentally hit and kill a man on the roa...

Critic Sam Twyford-Moore joins Rebecca to discuss Fairyland. This book is perhaps the most old-fashioned on the list, exploring not only queer awakening but also other social issues. It was Locke Elliott’s final book, where he openly and publicly discussed his queer identity and the loneliness he experienced. The story is primarily set in Sydney from the late 1920s to the 1950s, after which the pr...

Critic and memoirist Sam Elkin joins Rebecca to discuss Danielle Laidley’s unflinching autobiography, Don’t Look Away. A powerful account of a compartmentalised life, this book follows Laidley as she reckons with her gender identity over many decades inside the deeply masculine and heteronormative institution of the AFL.  Read Sam Elkin's essay, "This Secret Valley", here . Get the best of KYD by...

Bestselling novelist and literary critic Madeleine Gray joins Rebecca to discuss Beverley Farmer’s Alone, a lyrical, tender, sad exploration of a young woman’s heartbreak, hopelessness and obsession provoked by the ending of a passionate relationship and rejection by her female lover due to the social stigma of 1950s Melbourne.   Read Madeleine Gray's essay, Lesbians and Palimpsests here. Get the...

New series from Kill Your Darlings, Australia’s leading independent literary organisation! Australian literature has a queer history. Join author and KYD publishing director Rebecca Starford as she chats with literary critics about the books that have a profound impact on our understanding of LGBTQIA+ experiences, gender and sexuality in Australia. From classic texts to hidden gems, they revisit t...

Editor’s note: This episode contains discussion of death and grief practices. Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For June that debut is The Eulogy by Jackie Bailey (Hardie Grant) , an autofiction novel about family, death and grief that was shortlisted for the 2018 KYD Unpublished Manuscript Award . Our theme son...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For May that debut is How To Be Between by Bastian Fox Phelan (Giramondo) , a memoir about female facial hair, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and negotiating identity for those visibly between gender binaries. Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’. Sound production...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For April that debut is Hovering by Rhett Davis (Hachette) , a powerful and kaleidoscopic story about three people struggling to find connection in a chaotic and impermanent world. Rhett discussed the novel with our First Book Club host Ellen Cregan at a live event at Bargoonga...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For February that debut is Son of Sin by Omar Sakr (Affirm Press), a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet’s eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human. Our theme so...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For February that debut is The Cost of Labour by Natalie Kon-yu, out now from Affirm Press. Natalie was nine weeks pregnant when the trembling began. Two weeks later she checked herself into a mental health unit. Rather than a woman with a health concern, the doctors saw Natalie...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For November that debut is Permafrost by SJ Norman, out now from UQP. This brilliant collection of short fiction explores the shifting spaces of desire, loss and longing. Inverting and queering the gothic and romantic traditions, each story represents a different take on the con...

Welcome to the second episode of our new interview series, Pub Talk, where we chat to some of Australia’s most experienced and influential publishers, editors and agents. During these conversations you’ll receive insiders’ information about the industry, as well as advice from experts on the many pathways to publication for new writers. We’re thrilled to have Leah Jing McIntosh as our guest this m...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For October that debut is The Psychic Tests by Gary Nunn, out now from Pantera Press. In The Psychic Tests award-winning journalist Gary Nunn investigates psychics, mediums and astrologers to understand their uncanny, under-investigated and unregulated power. Gary tries out some...

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings  First Book Club . For September that debut is Small Joys of Real Life by Allee Richards, out now from Hachette. The night Eva shared a smile with Pat, something started. Two weeks later, lying together in her bed, Pat said, ‘You can’t live your life saying you’ll get around to doing something y...