The Readings Podcast

In this episode, another instalment of the Comics Question, where Bernard Caleo is in conversation with acclaimed graphic novelist and comic artist, Lee Lai. In Cannon, Lee Lai’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed and award-winning Stone Fruit, the full palette of a nervous breakdown is just a part of what is on offer. Lai’s sharp sense of humour and sensitive eye produce a story that explores...

In today’s episode, a conversation with Francesca Wade, author of Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, a biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells. 'Think of the Bible and Homer, think of Shakespeare and think of me,' wrote Gertrude Stein in 1936. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan: she remains one of the most confounding - and contested - writers of the twentieth ce...

In this episode, a conversation with Fiona Hardy, author of Old Games, a pacey, off-beat Aussie crime story about two best female friends and investigators unravelling the private lives of Melbourne's celebrity sportspeople. Enjoyed what you heard? Click here to purchase the book: https://www.readings.com.au/product/9781761638275/old-games--fiona-hardy--2026--9781761638275 Morally flexible best ma...

In this episode, a conversation with Alister Newstead, a music journalist, reporter and music editor with Triple J and Double J, and author of a new book in the 33 1/3 series on Tame Impala’s landmark album, Currents. The album is emblematic of a cultural shift in music production and consumption in the early days of streaming and a project that cemented its creator, Kevin Parker, as one of Austra...

In this episode, another instalment of The Comics Question, where Bernard Caleo discusses comics, graphic novels, and the place they inhabit within the broader books and publishing world. Today’s conversation is with cartoonist Georgina Chadderton, who, in her new book Oh Brother, examines the fun and difficult parts of growing up alongside her autistic brother, Rob. Although Georgina has been pub...

In this episode, a conversation with poet and writer, Hasib Hourani, author of rock flight. This is a book-length poem that, over seven chapters, follows a personal and historical narrative to compose an understated yet powerful allegory of Palestine’s occupation. Formally claustrophobic, the poem morphs into irony, declaring everything a box while refusing to exist within one. Enjoyed what you he...

In this episode, another instalment of the Readings Kids podcast, and an interview with the author Ruby Jean Cottle, writer of Black River, a mystical new YA series that blends fantasy, sci-fi and romance. Ruby Jean Cottle was interviewed by members of the Readings Teen Advisory Board, who posed questions throughout the conversation. Enjoyed what you heard? Click here to purchase the book: https:/...

In this episode, we’re delighted to begin 2026 with an interview with one of Readings’ favourite writers, a key member of Australia’s literary community and a frequent guest (in the interviewer seat) on the Readings Podcast itself, Kate Mildenhall. Her acclaimed books include Skylarking, The Mother Fault and The Hummingbird Effect, and joining these with publication late last year is The Hiding Pl...

In this episode, a conversation with Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection, an audacious and original novel-in-stories, following a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos. Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the thorniest problems of modern life: sex, relationships, identity and the internet....

In this episode, a conversation with author Laura Bates, author of The New Age of Sexism. AI is here, bringing a seismic shift in the way our society operates. Might this mean a future reimagined on equitable terms for women and marginalised groups everywhere? Not unless we fight for it. At present, power remains largely in the hands of a few rich, white men. New AI-driven technologies, with misog...

In this episode, a conversation with author Sarah Housley, author of the new book, Designing Hope. When did we stop dreaming of a better future? What happened to the science fiction golden age of the 1950s, when futurism flourished as a discipline and drove innovation? As a society, we either struggle to imagine something good for the times to come, or we fail to picture any future at all. Our wor...

In this episode, a conversation with poet Ender Başkan, author of a new book, Two Hundred Million Musketeers. In this work, Başkan explores the complexities of parenthood and family life, and anxieties about the future his children will grow up in. It maps the shifting trains of thought when one’s attention is drawn in many different directions – between child-rearing and house-keeping, domestic c...

This is a very special instalment of the podcast, as we have not one, not two nor three, but four interviews with four award winners – the 2025 winners of the four categories of The Reading Prize. First presented in 2014, The Readings Prize supports new and outstanding Australian voices across three separate categories of fiction: Children’s, Young Adult and New Australian Fiction. The Readings Pr...

In this episode, a conversation with Bri Lee, the acclaimed and bestselling author of Eggshell Skull and The Work, and of a new novel, Seed. Mitchell is a brilliant biologist, committed to the environment and the growing global antinatalist movement. For one month each year he lives with his colleague Frances in a utopia of radical equality and scientific dedication in Antarctica. They are conclud...

In this episode, a conversation with Andrew Pippos, the author of Lucky’s, awarded the Readings Prize for Fiction, on his new, forthcoming book, The Transformations. In the fading glow of Australia's print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper: it's an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has ever felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a bookish sensibility and...

In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of Monica Raszewski's Crimson Light Polished Wood. Leonora, a British teacher, has relocated to Melbourne and falls in love with Margaret, a fellow female teacher who three years later dies of cancer. While still grieving for Margaret, Leonora meets and befriends Anna, the Polish woman who lives next door. As Leonora becomes increasingly involved...

In today’s episode, a conversation with a longtime Readings favourite, Toni Jordan, about her most recent book, Tenderfoot. The story is set in Brisbane, 1975: Andie Tanner's world is small but whole. Her mum is complicated, but she adores her dad and the kennel of racing greyhounds that live under their house. Andie is a serious girl with plans: finish school with her friends, then apprentice to...

In today’s episode, a conversation with respected journalist and acclaimed novelist Paul Daley, author of a new book, The Leap. The Leap is an outback town fuelled by fear, churning with corruption, prejudice and misogyny – and blighted by its inescapable history of frontier violence. Into this nightmarish morass falters traumatised British diplomat, Benedict Fotheringham-Gaskill. He’s on his firs...

In today’s episode, a conversation with Rhett Davis, author of a new novel, Arborescence. Bren works for an obscure company with colleagues he's never met, and who might not be real. His partner, Caelyn, is looking for something more but isn't sure what. The only thing she knows for certain is that humans are breaking the world and she's powerless to do anything about it.  Arborescence is a compel...

In today’s episode, a conversation with writer, podcaster and academic Amy Lovat, author of the new novel, Big Feelings, a neurotic, anti-romantic comedy for fans of Fleabag and High Fidelity. Our protagonist Sadie Thomas is obsessed with love stories, and whether hers stacks up – for the perfect love story is all Sadie has ever wanted. Her parents' story is what rom-com dreams are made of. But, s...

In this episode, a conversation with writer Samantha Byres, author of the new novel, Dead Ends. All-round chaos merchant Nell Jenkins has returned to her small hometown to fulfil family duties for the mother and brother she's barely seen since making her escape as a teen. But her homecoming isn't the triumph it should be. She has nothing to show for her time in Sydney but a string of failed relati...

In this episode, a conversation with Mikayla Bridge, author of the Young Adult Fantasy Novel, Of Flame and Fury. The book focuses on Phoenix racing: exciting, profitable, deadly. No one knows this better than Kel Varra and her crew, the Crimson Howlers. They live on the edge of survival. When a mysterious tech billionaire offers them a place at his training facility, it gives them hope but also fo...

In this episode, writer and broadcaster Steve Vizard in conversation with Michael Veitch about Vizard’s new book, Nation, Memory, Myth. Vizard brings an original perspective to the foundational myth of Gallipoli as a sacred bearer of Australian national values and identity. In this scrupulously researched close reading of the Gallipoli mythology, Vizard dissects the elements common to all national...

In this episode, a conversation with author Jennifer Mills, author of Salvage, a work of suspenseful, deeply human literary speculative fiction, in which two estranged sisters reconnect in the aftermath of ecological and social collapse. Jude's life has been about survival. She works on rebuilding - fixes roofs, trucks supplies, transports refugees. Tries to stay free from attachments and obligati...

In this episode, a conversation with screenwriter and actor Miranda Nation, author of New Skin, a powerful debut about first love and second chances from a stunning new voice in Australian fiction. Alex and Leah meet at medical school and form an immediate and intense connection. Over the course of four years, they are caught in the push-pull of passion and betrayal, longing and reunion. Neither c...