PODCAST · arts
Imagining The Past
by Imagining The Past
The Imagining the Past podcast series is brought to you by the Historical Novel Society Australasia. We feature authors appearing at our biennial conferences or have been recognised in our $150,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Our HNSA hosts, Greg Johnston and Kelly Gardiner, discuss researching, writing and publishing historical fiction with acclaimed writers of the genre in its many forms from crime to fantasy to literary fiction, set in eras stretching from ancient times to the Swinging Sixties, and for readers of all ages. Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on our writing programs and the ARA Historical Novel Prize. #writing #history #historicalfiction #fiction #books #podcast <stro
Episodes
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S12 Ep15: Imagining the Past—2026—Malcolm Knox
At the sparkling new bookshop in Sydney’s Summer Hill, Rose Read, Malcom Knox launched the sequel to The First Friend, imaginatively titled The Second Child. He was in conversation with Shankari Chandran and Sid Chandran
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S12 Ep13: Imagining the Past—2026—Emily Maguire
Emily Maguire’s Rapture won the inaugural ARA History Novel Prize Reader’s Choice Award in 2025. Emily chats with Greg Johnston about writing and researching this breakthrough novel.
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S12 Ep14: Imagining the Past—2026—Karen Brooks
In September, Karen Brooks launched her new novel, The Extraordinary Florence Stoker, at the Peacock Theatre in the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart. She was joined by her publisher, Jo Mackay.
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S12 Ep12: Imagining the Past—2026—Elisabeth Storrs
Elisabeth Storrs chats to Greg Johnston about her new novel, Fables and Lies, set in Germany during the Third Reich, and her A Tale of Ancient Rome Series.
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S12 Ep11: Imagining the Past—2026—Bernice Barry
Bernice Barry was recently interviewed by William Yeoman at the City of Perth Library about her new novel, The Names of a Hare.
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S12 Ep10: Imagining the Past—2026—Judith Rossell
Judith Rossell, multi-award-winning author and illustrator, chats with Greg Johnston about her novel, The Midwatch, which was shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize CYA Category 2025.
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S12 Ep9: Imagining the Past—2026—Mirandi Riwoe
In July 2026, Mirandi Riwoe launched her new novel, A Short History of Longans, with author Emily Maguire at Newtown’s Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
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S12 Ep8: Imagining the Past—2026—Kate Forsyth
On July 6th, 2026, Kate Forsyth launched her new novel, The Changeling, at The Fox Hole bar in Sydney’s Rocks area.
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S12 Ep7: Imagining the Past—2026—Malcolm Knox
Malcolm Knox, winner of three Walkley Awards and a Human Rights Award, chats with Greg Johnston about his novel, The First Friend, shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025 Adult Category.
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S12 Ep6: Imagining the Past—2026—Anna Ciddor
Anna Ciddor discusses with Greg Johnston her novel Moonboy, shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025 – CYA category.
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S12 Ep5: Imagining the Past—2026—Leonie Norrington
Leonie Norrington chats with Greg Johnston about her novel, A Piece of Red Cloth, and the intricacies of writing in conjunction with Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Djawa Burarrwanga, and Djawundil Maymuru.
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S12 Ep4: Imagining the Past—2026—Dave Warner
Dave Warner chats with Will Yeoman about his novel, Sound Mind Dead Body, at the City of Perth Library. Not only does Dave speak, he sings, accompanied by Will on guitar and Nicole Warner on backup vocals, a first for Imagining the Past.
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S12 Ep3: Imagining the Past—2026—Lauren Keegan
Lauren Keegan chats with Greg Johnston about her first published novel, All the Bees in the Hollows, long-listed for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025.
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S12 Ep2: Imagining the Past—2026—Mary-Lou Stephens
In April 2026, Mary Lou Stephens launched her fourth novel, The Hobart Hotel, in the place the novel is set – Hobart’s glamorous Wrest Point Hotel Casino. Join Mary-Lou and author Karen Brooks in the Stardust room for a sparkling and twirling conversation.
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S12 Ep1: Imagining the Past—2026—Debra Oswald
Debra Oswald’s One Hundred Years of Betty was longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025. She chats with Greg Johnston about her long career writing for film, television, stage, radio, fiction and children's fiction.
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S11 Ep7: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26—Sue WIlliams
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. This podcast is truly a mesclun. In Feb 2026, Sue Williams launched her fourth novel, The Duke’s Secret, at the rowdy and aptly relevant pub, the Hero of...
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S11 Ep6: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26—Shelley Dark
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. In early December 2025, Shelley Dark launched her second novel, Son of Hydra, with book coach Hayley Saunders at the Noosa Library.
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S11 Ep5: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. Alexandria Burnham’s debut novel, Swallow, through Westwords Publication, was launched by Lauren Chater at the HNSA History Unbound Festival dinner, held in...
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S11 Ep4: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. Wendy J. Dunn launched her new novel, Shades of Yellow, on November 15th, 2025, at Eltham Library in Melbourne. Dr Anne Casey gave an enthusiastic invocation,...
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S11 Ep3: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. Konrad Muller’s debut novel, My Heart at Evening, is published by a new imprint, Evercreech Editions. In November 2025, Konrad chatted with Rodney Croome at…
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S11 Ep2: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. Nicole Alexander travelled a long and winding road to promote her new novel, The Limestone Road. In September, she spoke with Goondiwindi Shire Councillor…
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S11 Ep1: Imagining the Past—Summer Mesclun Season—2025/26
Imagining the Past Summer Season is here. Enjoy catching up with book launch discussions featuring your favourite authors and new voices. Death at Booroomba is Alison Booth’s ninth novel, a deeply evocative historical whodunnit. It was launched at Gleebooks in Sydney in September 2025. Published...
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S10 Ep8: Imagining the Past—2025—Jane Harrison
Greg Johnston chats with Jane Harrison about her novel, The Visitors, and its long and winding road to being long-listed for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
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S10 Ep7: Imagining the Past—2025—Beverley McWilliams
Greg Johnston chats to Beverley McWilliams about her second CYA novel, Spies in the Sky, which flew into first place in the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize – CYA category.
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S10 Ep6: Imagining the Past—2025—Mary-Lou Stephens
Greg Johnston chats to Mary-Lou Stephens about her tryptic of Tasmanian novels, all centred around various foods, The Last of the Apple Blossom, The Chocolate Factory, and The Jam Maker.
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S10 Ep5: Imagining the Past—2025—David Shield
Greg Johnston chats with David Shield. His manuscript, Blind Dragon, won the 2024 Elizabeth Jane Corbet Mentorship Contest. The young adult novel is set in 17C Japan, rich in details and the drama of the period.
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S10 Ep4: Imagining the Past—2025—Stephen Daisley
Greg Johnston chats to Stephen Daisley. Originally from New Zealand’s North Island, his first novel, Traitor, won the 2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction. Coming Rain won the Ockham Prize in 2015. A Better Place was long-listed for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
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S10 Ep3: Imagining the Past—2025—Catherine Mckinnon
Host Greg Johnston chats with Catherine McKinnon. Her 2017 novel, Storyland, was shortlisted for five literary awards, including, in 2018, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Barbara Jefferis Award and the Voss Literary Prize. Her second novel, the complex and textured To Sing of War, was...
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S10 Ep2: Imaging the Past—2025—Rebecca Lim
Greg Johnston chats with Rebecca Lim, an award-winning Australian writer, illustrator, editor and author of over twenty books. Her work has been shortlisted for many awards, including the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and the Queensland Literary Awards. Her...
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S10 Ep1: Imagining the Past—2025—Natasha Lester
Greg Johnston chats with Natasha Lester, a New York Times bestselling author. Her novels The Paris Seamstress, The French Photographer, The Paris Secret and The Riviera House, have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world. The Disappearance of Astrid...
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S9 Ep9: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Ally Burnham in conversation with Kate Mildenhall, Gina Cole, and Jennifer Mills
Does time run in a straight line? Is history needed to give context to a futuristic novel? Can traditional cultures be highlighted through melding speculative and historical fiction together? What limits should be placed on a genre when encompassing past, present and future? All these questions…
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S9 Ep8: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Cecilia Rice in conversation with Leah Kaminsky, Sue Williams, and Alison Booth
How does an author's profession (outside their role as a novelist) inform their books? Cecilia Rice will explore with Leah Kaminsky (a doctor), Alison Booth (an economist and academic) and Sue Williams (a journalist) whether switching ‘right and left’ brains impacts their research and writing.…
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S9 Ep7: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Diane Murray in conversation with Alexandra Joel, Belinda Alexander, and Christine Wells
Fine art, luxury jewellery, espionage, royal scandal and danger. Alexandra Joel, Christine Wells and Belinda Alexandra are expert in interweaving the intrigue of past lives into novels set in cities such as Paris, New York and Cairo. Diane Murray asks what inspired their stories, what methods…
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S9 Ep6: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Kim Kelly in conversation with Judy Nunn.
Author Kim Kelly interviews Judy Nunn on her love for historical fiction which have encompassed stories across diverse eras from colonial periods, WW2, the Cold War to more modern times. Her most recent novel, Showtime, features a showdown between rival entrepreneurs in 1880s Melbourne with…
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S9 Ep5: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Greg Johnston in conversation with Kelly Rimmer, Victoria Purman and Nicole Alexander.
Kelly Rimmer, Victoria Purman and Nicole Alexander have conjured various characters across their many books. Greg Johnston examines their inspiration for key characters, the methods used to fully develop them, whether unexpected plot twists arose when placing them in predicaments, and if their...
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S9 Ep4: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Elisabeth Storrs in conversation with Mirandi Riwoe and Devika Ponnambalam.
Mirandi Riwoe's The Sunbirds tests the identities and loyalties between Dutch and Indonesians in colonial Java on the eve of the Japanese invasion. Devika Ponnambalam's I Am Not Your Eve is an imagining of the life of Teha’amana, Paul Gaugin's Tahitian 'child-bride'. Both authors join Elisabeth...
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S9 Ep3: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Claudia Chan Shaw in conversation with Christopher Cheng, Daryl Lim and Siang Lu
View from the East—Christopher Cheng, Daryl Lim and Siang Lu discuss with Claudia Chan Shaw their novels, Asian histories, and the challenges of being an Asian writer within the current publishing industry. Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.
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S9 Ep2: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Stephen Romei in conversation with Fiona McFarlane & Jock Serong
Writer and critic Stephen Romei is in conversation with Jock Serong and Fiona McFarlane. Jock discusses part three of his Furneaux trilogy, The Settlement, which was short listed for the 2023 ARA Historica Novel Price. Part two of the trilogy, The Burning Island, won the ARA Prize in 2021. Fiona...
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S9 Ep1: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025— Kate Evans IN CONVERSATION with Anna Funder
In our Summer/Autumn season, we present selected sessions from our 2023 HNSA Conference. Enjoy RN's The Bookshelf host, Kate Evans, in conversation with Guest of Honour, Anna Funder, about the challenges of writing a blend of fiction and non-fiction in 'Wifedom', a book about George Orwell's…
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S8 Ep8: Imagining the Past—2024—Alison D. Stegert
Alison D Stegert discusses with Greg Johnston her YA novel, Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies. She also discusses her win of HNSA’s inaugural 2020 Elizabeth Jane Corbett Mentorship and its great consequences.
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S8 Ep7: Imagining the Past—2024—Gail Jones
Gail Jones chats with Greg Johnston about her complex novel, Salonika Burning, which won the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize—Adult Category.
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S8 Ep6: Imagining the Past—2024—Suzanne Leal
Suzanne Leal chats with Greg Johnston about her 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize, CYA shortlisted novel, Running with Ivan, some of the differences between writing CYA and Adult fiction, and her interesting methods of research.
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S8 Ep5: Imagining the Past—2024— Lauren Chater
Lauren Chater chats with Greg Johnston about all things beautiful, including the research and writing of her new novel, The Beauties.
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S8 Ep4: Imagining the Past—2024—Melissa Lucashenko
Melissa Lucashenko discusses with Greg Johnston the research and writing of her novel, Edenglassie.
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S8 Ep3: Imagining the Past—2024—Robbie Arnott
Robbie Arnott discusses with Greg Johnston the many intricacies of writing the novel Limberlost, based on his family folklore and longlisted for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize—Adult Category.
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S8 Ep2: Imagining the Past—2024—Fiona Kelly McGregor
Fiona Kelly McGregor discusses with Kelly Gardiner the many intricacies of writing her novel, Iris, shortlisted for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize—Adult Category.
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S8 Ep1: Imagining the Past—2024— Amelia Mellor
Amelia Mellor discusses with Greg Johnston the intricacies of writing CYA Historical Fiction, and her novel, The Bookseller’s Apprentice, winner of the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize—CYA Category.
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S7 Ep7: Imagining the Past—2023—Thomas Keneally
Thomas Keneally discusses his long literary career with Greg Johnston, and his novel, Corporal Hitler’s Pistol, which won the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize—Adult Category
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S7 Ep6: Imagining the Past—2023—Claire Saxby
Claire Saxby discusses with Greg Johnston the intricacies of writing CYA Historical Fiction, and her novel, The Wearing of the Green, shortlisted for the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize—CYA Category.
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S7 Ep5: Imagining the Past—2023—Robyn Mundy
In this warm discussion, Robyn Mundy takes us to chilly Svalbard in the Norwegian archipelago to discuss her 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize, short-listed, Cold Coast.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Imagining the Past podcast series is brought to you by the Historical Novel Society Australasia. We feature authors appearing at our biennial conferences or have been recognised in our $150,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
Our HNSA hosts, Greg Johnston and Kelly Gardiner, discuss researching, writing and publishing historical fiction with acclaimed writers of the genre in its many forms from crime to fantasy to literary fiction, set in eras stretching from ancient times to the Swinging Sixties, and for readers of all ages.
Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on our writing programs and the ARA Historical Novel Prize. #writing #history #historicalfiction #fiction #books #podcast
<stro
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Imagining The Past
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Imagining The Past currently has 101 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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The Imagining the Past podcast series is brought to you by the Historical Novel Society Australasia. We feature authors appearing at our biennial conferences or have been recognised in our $150,000 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Our HNSA hosts, Greg Johnston and Kelly Gardiner, discuss researching,...
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Imagining The Past publishes regularly with 101 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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