Compulsive Reader Talks

Does being vegan mean having to miss out on burgers, jalapeno peppers and deep-fried banana fritters? No way, according to Melbourne writer and vegan recipe developer Zacchary Bird. In this episode that aired for the Newcastle Writers Festival's Stories to You series, Zacchary spills the tea on his first book Vegan Junk Food.

Paul Rabinowitz talks to Tinfoil Crowns author Erin Jones about his novella The Clay Urn. They talk about the inspiration for his story, on working with a real situation--the Arab/Isreali conflict--in a fictional context, his evocative setting, his own experiences in the Isreali army, the complexity of war and the impact of that on young people, on seeing both sides of any conflict, key themes and takeaways from The Clay Urn, and much more.  Find out more about Paul Rabinowitz at his website here: https://www.paulrabinowitz.com Find out more about Erin Jones at her website: http://www.betterpeaches.com/erin-jones

The author of Black Rabbit and co-owner of Sappho Books reads from and talks about his latest novel and its quirky characters, about the impact of 2020, about themes and his writing style, the inherent beauty of writing for oneself, the value of small publishers, his work-in-progress, the book he's reading and loving (Janet Frame's An Autobiography), and lots more.   Angus' website: https://www.angusgaunt.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angus.gaunt Sappho Books: https://www.sapphobooks.com.au/

Denise O'Hagan reads from and talks about her new poetry book The Beating Heart.  We cover such things as how the book came about, the relationship between memoir, poetry, and meaning making, on the use of sensual stimulus and poetry is everywhere, on time, and the way our pasts are ever present, on the 'heart' of and in the book, on editing for The Blue Nib, and lots more.  Connect with Denise O'Hagan at her website here: https://denise-ohagan.com and on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DeniseOHagan3 Visit The Blue Nib: https://thebluenib.com

Author, mentor, writing teacher and speaker Lee Kofman reads from about talks about her memoir Imperfect.  In this brief but far-reaching conversation, we talk about some of Lee's key themes such as body surface and how it shapes us, the power of creative nonfiction, combining memoir and research and the connection for her, how she chose the people who were profiled in the book, the anthology she edited, Split, and lots more.  Find out more about Lee at her website: https://leekofman.com.au/

Nicola Redhouse reads from her book Unlike the Heart and talks about the way her research grew from her own postnatal anxiety to something much bigger, about the relevance of the literary perspective on scientific inquiry, her readership, the genetic links that drive us, on the way in which her book helped her family, her works in progress and lots more. Find out more about Nicola at her website: https://www.nicolaredhouse.com/

Maria Tumarkin reads from her award-winning book Axiomatic and talks about language and accents,  the many different representations of time in Axiomatic: horizontal, vertical, chronological, cyclical, and 'real' and how she represents these multiple temporalities, about her characters and their complexities, about memory and the limitations of narrative, on axioms and the way they are true and not true, on productivity and caretaking, and much more.  You can find out more about Maria's work at her website: http://www.mariatumarkin.com The video version of this conversation can be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVuhP6yyuwE

Sophie Hardcastle and I talked about her latest and much lauded novel Below Deck. We talked about many things including her Provost scholarship at Oxford, on being an artist-in-resident with Chimu Adventures in Antarctica, the big themes of Below Deck, including ecology, respect, compassion, and the interconnectedness of all things, the link between visual art and written art, the current pandemic, and much more. Full Video version here: https://youtu.be/hriSKhTfR90 Find out more about Sophie's writing, art, and her screenplay work at her website: https://www.sophiehardcastle.com/

Following the cancelled Newcastle Writers Festival, Gillian Swain and I decided to launch her new poetry book, My skin its own sky,  online.  The launch was featured in this year's online Newcastle Writers Festival #NWFSTORIESTOYOU (see video link below). My skin its own sky was published in Dec 2019 by Flying Island Books, and is Gillian's second published work following Sang Up (Picaro Press, 2001). Gillian lives in East Maitland with her husband and their four children, where they run their successful coffee roasting business, River Roast Video version of launch: https://youtu.be/Z0ZxKQj2dkg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gillian.swain.75 River Roast Coffee: https://riverroast.com

As the Newcastle Writers Festival had to be cancelled this year due to Coronavirus, we did a virtual launch for Morgan Bell's  poetry chapbook Idiomatic, for the people.  The session, which we conducted with Zoom, was a lot of fun and after my launch Morgan read and spoke about several of the poems in the collection, as well as how the book came together. The full video version can be found here: https://youtu.be/1G3kbb2wCfU.  You can buy copies of Idiomatic, for the people from the Girls on Key Poetry Portal (https://www.girlsonkey.com/poetryportalshop/Poetry-book-Idiomatic-For-The-People-Morgan-Bell-p140419435) or Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Idiomatic-people-chapbook-Morgan-Bell/dp/024445776X)

In this guest episode, Daniel Flahie of the Die Healther podcast shares a recent interview with Dr Jim Reese on his new book Bone Chalk.   Jim talks about how he became a writer, his transition from narrative poetry to prose (and the inspiration for that), the relationship between his personal experience with crime, working in prisons (especially San Quentin) and some of the surprising facts he learned doing so, and on writing crime, on the value of education, the relationship between writing, exercise and mental health, some of the key themes in his book, what gets him up in the morning, his inspirations, his upcoming project, and lots more.  Jim Reese is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Great Plains Writing Tour at Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota. He has also worked for over a decade in the United States prison systems as an educator. Dr. Reese has published three books of poetry, and his most recent work Bone Chalk is his first work of published prose. He

Roslyn McFarland reads from and talks about her new novel All the Lives We've Lived, and discusses such things as her transition from English teacher and author of English HSC text books to fiction writer, the Salt Pan Creek setting of her book, the unique narrative structure and multiple stories within the narrative, her work in progress, and lots more.  Find more about Roslyn at: https://www.facebook.com/RoslynMcFarland.Writer/ Find All the Lives We've Live here: https://www.ginninderrapress.com.au/store.php?product/page/2018/Roslyn+McFarland+%2F+All+the+Lives+We%27ve+Lived

In this wide-reaching and warm conversation, novelist and poet Jessica Mehta talks with novelist and poet Nina Murray, who reads some of her poems and talks about her latest poetry book Alcestis in the Underworld, the writing year in review, book titles, their relationship with Shakespeare, the appeal of the list poem and variety packs, on poetic themes, poetic sequencing and the critical importance of editing, on making sense of data, patterns and needs and how that relates to the poetic process, wishes for the new year/decade, writerly relationships, and lots more. Nina Murray’s website: https://houndart.wordpress.com Jessica Mehta’s website: https://jessicamehta.com

Multi-talented polymath Jenny Blackford reads from her new middle-grade novel The Girl in the Mirror and talks about her attraction to different genres, how the book came about, her attraction to sci-fi (and why she chose to entangle her protagonists), the book’s lovely illustrations (especially those redbacks), on her different fan streams, her large garden, her work-in-progress (and the name of the cat who will be in the book), and lots more!   Find more of Jenny at her website: http://www.jennyblackford.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/dutiesofacat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennyblackford Macleans booksellers is carrying The Girl in the Mirror. You can find them online here: https://www.macleansbooks.com.au

The author of The Wolf Hour reads from and talks about her latest novel, its origins and her research, her characters, writing about Uganda, the micro world of her family and the macro world of global politics, on sibling tension and bonds, her work in progress, and lots more.   Find out more about Sarah and The Wolf Hour at https://sarahmyles.com.au/

Peter Valentine reads from and talks about his new book World Heritage Sites of Australia.  In this wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the book and how it came about, why he’s pleased it took the more popular and less academic form of a coffee table book, the critical importance of protecting and celebrating our most important ecological areas, his plans for a second part, the need for community engagement, and lots more.   You can find out more about World Heritage Sites of Australia at the National Library of Australia book site.  You can also read or listen to the excellent conversation held with former Greens leader and noted environmentalist Bob Brown at the Canberra Writers’ Festival in August 2019 here: https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/audio/fragile-inheritance-book-launch

Eliana Gray reads from and talks about their new poetry book Eager to Break.  In this candid interview we talk about such things as writing about, through, and after trauma, on finding new forms of language, on writing about the body, on blurring and allowing for multitudes in pronouns, on self-acceptance, love, and healing, on eggs, and lots more.   Eager to Break can be purchased here: https://www.girlsonkey.com/poetryportalshop/Eager-to-Break-Eliana-Gray-p127089532 Find them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foxfoxxfox/

Richard James Allen reads from and talks about his new poetry book, The Short Story of You and I, exploring topics such as his book's themes and unique dialectical structure, the relationship between the poems and the reader, writing about love, the delicate motion between the metaphysical and the concrete, the relationship between poetry and quantum physics, complexity, the links between his many creativity practices, the relationship between the constructed self and character, and lots more.  Find out more about Richard's many projects at: https://physicaltv.com.au/

Bram Presser drops by to read from The Book of Dirt and we chat about many things including the Holocaust, the origins of his novel, the research he’s done, on the interplay between fact and fiction, the motif of dirt and his many golems, Czech folklore, his works in progress, and lots more.  Find out more about Bram at: https://brampresser.com/the-book-of-dirt/ We ran out of time before I could ask Bram whether his Jewish punk rock band Yidcore would be getting back together, but it turns out that they are, at The Festival of Jewish Arts & Music on the 8th of Sept. Find out more here: https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2019/yidcore/

Anne Casey drops by to read from and talk about her debut poetry collection Where the Lost Things Go, including the poem that started it all (fifth most read item in The Irish Times “In memoriam II: The draper” which actually made both of us cry, some of the many themes in the book: loss, anger, compassion, the migrant's guilt, poetry as activism, transcendence, and lots more.  Find more about Anne at her website: http://www.anne-casey.com/