Unearthing Stories: Flipping Funghi and Licking Rocks with Romy Ash and Verity Borthwick

Amidst shape-shifting landscapes, we enter a realm of staggering beauty, harsh isolation and danger simmering just beneath the surface…Our conversation today unearths the stories of two female scientists navigating the tectonics of their own inner turmoil; excavating the past as well as facing the erosion of a future forever altered by the climate crisis. Stories that urge us to look deeper and listen closely as lives both human and non-human emerge, erupt and unfold against the ever-expanding timescale of the Earth. This episode traverses climate and earth science, mycology, food and agriculture, exploitative industries such as mining and fish-farming, and more.SWN's Bianca Millroy is joined by Romy Ash and Verity Borthwick talking about their latest works of fiction, both of which combine the fascinating science of geology with deeply human narratives of grief, hope and longing.Romy Ash is a critically acclaimed, award-winning novelist. Her first novel Floundering was shortlisted for The Miles Franklin Award, The Prime Minister's Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, amongst others. Her children's picture book As Bright as a Rainbow was published in 2024. Her essays and journalism have been published in The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, Meanjin, The Griffith Review and others.Verity Borthwick is an award-winning novelist and geologist. She has been published in The Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Island, The Furphy Anthology, Aurealis, Science Write Now and more. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She started writing fiction by night, while working on her PhD in structural geology by day—looking at one crystal of salt for four years. She has worked in various remote locations around Australia as an exploration geologist, which was the inspiration for her novel Hollow Air. When she is not writing, Verity works as a freelance editor and takes care of her two sons.As always, a full list of works discussed, links and resources are available in the Show Notes on the SWN website under ‘Listen’.Enjoyed this episode? Share the SWN love!If you liked this episode, leave us a review and share it far and wide. Science Write Now is dedicated to accessibility, connectivity, inspiration and collaboration across disciplines. Our content is free to access and we want to keep it that way, so if you’re keen to be part of this growing community of creative writing inspired by science, hit subscribe!We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more conversations inspired by science and creativity to come!We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.