Imagining The Past

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.  

Anna Ciddor discusses with Greg Johnston her novel Moonboy, shortlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize 2025 – CYA category.  

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.  

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.  

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.   

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.  

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. 

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 Waterloo, in Sydney’s Rocks district. She was also interviewed by James Dunbar about some of the stories behind the story. 

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.  

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 Parramatta in November 2025.  www.westwords.com.au/product/swallow/

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, followed by Wendy’s response and reading from the novel. 

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 the Devonport Library about the novel’s recreation of the final days of colonial surveyor, artist and amateur botanist Henry Hellyer.  https://www.evercreecheditions.com/shop

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 Susie Kelly at the Goondiwindi Library.  

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 through Ventura Press, Jane Curry was the session's convener. 

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. 

 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.  

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.  

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.  

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. 

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 long-listed for the 2024 ARA Hist Novel Prize adult category and highly commended.  Imagining the Past is commercial-free. HNSA is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit that can only continue to produce the podcasts with your support.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our secure website. All contributions, great or small, are greatly appreciated.

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 CYA novel, Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky, was shortlisted for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize.Imagining the Past is commercial-free. HNSA is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit that can only continue to produce the podcasts with your support.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our secure website. All contributions, great or small, are greatly appreciated.

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 Bricard was long-listed for the 2024 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Imagining the Past is commercial-free. HNSA is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit that can only continue to produce the podcasts with your support.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our secure website.   All contributions, great or small, are greatly appreciated.

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 and more will be explored by Ally Burnham with authors Gina Cole, Jennifer Mills and Kate Mildenhall. Imagining the Past is commercial-free. HNSA is a volunteer run, not-for-profit that can only continue to produce the podcasts with your support.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our secure website. All contributions, great or small, are greatly appreciated.

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.  What led them to historical fiction? And what strengths or weaknesses do their 'day jobs' afford them as authors. Imagining the Past is commercial-free. HNSA is a volunteer run, not-for-profit that can only continue to produce the podcasts with your support.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our secure website. All contributions, great or small, are greatly appreciated.

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 they use to tease out their mysteries, and the challenges encountered when portraying time periods within living memory. Imagining the Past is commercial-free. HNSA is a volunteer run, not-for-profit that can only continue to produce the podcasts with your support.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our secure website. All contributions, great and small, are greatly appreciated.

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 comedy, tragedy, passion and betrayal; economic depression, the Black Death and the horrors of World War One waiting in the wings.Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.  

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 creations took on a life of their own once delivered to readers.Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.  

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 Storrs in discussing the complexities of bringing alternative perspectives to previously Euro-centric stories, and the research challenges experienced in delving deeper into such histories.Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.  

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.  

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 discusses her second novel, The Sun Walks Down, which was shortlisted for the 2023 Walter Scott Historical Fiction Prize, and long-listed for the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize. Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.  

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 wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.  

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.  

Gail Jones chats with Greg Johnston about her complex novel, Salonika Burning, which won the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize—Adult Category. 

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. 

Lauren Chater chats with Greg Johnston about all things beautiful, including the research and writing of her new novel, The Beauties. 

Melissa Lucashenko discusses with Greg Johnston the research and writing of her novel, Edenglassie. 

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.  

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.  

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.  

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

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.  

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. 

Monty Soutar is an historian and author writing a trilogy— Kāwai—which tells the history of New Zealand through nine successive generations of a Maori family. With Greg Johnston, he discusses the particular features and challenges of this writing.  

In this discussion, Robyn Cadwallader tells of her writing process, the research of Medieval England, and the making of myths.  

Brian Falkner discusses his YA series, Kapito Joe—Blitzkrieg, Spycraft and Wolf’s Lair with Greg Johnston, exploring the slings and arrows of the research, planning and writing of the series.  

Geraldine Brooks discusses her latest novel, Horse, with Greg Johnston, delving into many of the technical decisions taken to write this complex novel.  

Kate Murdoch chats with Karen Brooks, Melissa Ashley and Lauren Chater of Midwives, Storytellers and Witches: Wise Women in History

The Inside Story: A Novel’s Journey through a Publishing House. Nadine Davidoff discusses with Mandy Brett, Jamila Khodja and Kate Lloyd

Paula Morris discussed with Julie Janson and Cassandra Pybus, the idea that History is written by the victors. But when such accounts are challenged, who then gets to define history in the context of a shared past?  

Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society, joins international bestselling authors, Ben Kane and Colin Falconer to discuss how these authors approach writing epic novels, and the challenges encountered in finding new angles to depict stories within well traversed eras of history.