The Exophonic Writer Podcast
by Zoe Gomez Cass
Hi, I'm Zoe! 🙋♀️ I'm a Visual Linguist and Exophonic Writer based in Melbourne, Australia. Join me each episode while I podcast my quest to understand how exophony is changing the world. Exophony (or the art of creative writing in a non-native language) is an old practice that's getting more and more prominence in recent years. Some questions that keep me awake at night (which fuel this podcast) are: ✨Why do writers choose to write in a non-native language over their mother tongue? How does this choice impact their work? ✨Is the world welcoming the works of exophonic writers? Or are they treated as less good than native authors? ✨Are exophonic writers embracing our own imperfect styles or are we trying to appear as close to native as possible? ✨ What will normalising exophonic practices mean for global readers and literature? If that sounds like what you need to h
Episodes
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30 - AI in Literary Translation: the priming effect - A chat with Chantal Wright (part 2 and season 2 FINALE!)
Send us Fan Mail And just like that... we reached episode 30 and the SEASON 2 FINALE! Yay us. In this second part of my interview with Chantal Wright we talk about THE THING. You know what thing... the thing that the whole world is talking about: Artificial Intelligence, especially when…
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29 - The challenges of translating exophonic writing - A chat with Chantal Wright (Part 1)
Send us Fan Mail Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up after such a loooong time. Perhaps you'll forgive my long silence since I come bearing gifts. I have the most amazing end of season 2 that I could have wished for: a conversation with legendary Literary Translator Chantal Wright. If…
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28 - Exophonic Storytelling for Brands and Transcreation - A chat with Mages Ruiz Diaz
Send us Fan Mail Hello friends and welcome to the last episode of the Exophonic writer Podcast of 2025. I have great company! Join me on my chat with Mages Ruiz Diaz from Acts of Imagination, as we discuss how we both brought our Argentinian cultural backgrounds to our work here in Australia.…
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27 - Cultural Literacy and Exophonic Writing - with Dr Gabriel García Ochoa
Send us Fan Mail Hi exophonic friends, We are here again with yet another amazing guest! Dr Gabriel García Ochoa is a Mexican-born academic and writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He teaches at Monash University, where his work explores cultural literacy, world literature, and translation. He…
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26 - Hand out a sample of your work (my novel "Tango Masala" read aloud)
Send us Fan Mail Hello Exophonics, As promised, here are the first few chapters (poems) of my debut novel Tango Masala. I tried my best and I hope you like it (but much respect for voice actors!)I read the first 46 pages, and the following poems: Comfort Zone Hamster Palace The Millers Liam Micro...
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25 - Early and surprising lessons from self-publishing my book
Send us Fan Mail Hi, exophonics! ✨ Let me share with you all that I'm learning as a newly self-published exophonic author. We'll talk about: why your friends may not read your book stocking your book in real-life bookstores and libraries where is a good place to promote your indie-publish book....
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24 - Recognising what you're doing right as a writer - a chat with book coach Karmen Spiljak
Send us Fan Mail Whether to reach a wider audience, or to detach yourself from saying hard things, or because your native language has a very complex writing system. Whatever the reason that brings you to write in a non-native language... this is a story that only you can tell, so write it! In...
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23 - "Lite House" a special platform for Exophonic Writers - with Danae Spyrou
Send us Fan Mail Once upon a time... when I was researching for exophonic resources (right before launching the very first episode of this podcast) I came across a website that was boasting exophonic poetry and short stories. I was surprised because honestly there wasn't much for and about...
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22 - Season 2 teaser: amazing guests, be a supporter of the show and exophonic MERCH! 🤩
Send us Fan Mail Hiiiii 🙃 The Exophonic Writer Podcast is back, baby! 💪 😎 And we have a great season ahead... In this season, we'll talk about early lessons of a self-published author, a website that's especially looking to publish exophonic writers, a book coach who works with exophonic...
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21 - SEASON FINALE: I've self-published my first novel and I'll tell you everything I've learnt
Send us Fan Mail Hi, exophonics. I know... it's been a minute. But I have a really good excuse. I've been working on the publishing process of my first novel: TANGO MASALA!!! Tango Masala is a psychological coming-of-age drama written in verse, about Bianca, a language teacher living in Buenos...
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20 - Mapping your Writing Journey to Beat Imposter Syndrome
Send us Fan Mail Hello, Exophonics! In this episode I'll share with you a map of the milestones of my (still very young) trajectory in this writerly life. My aim is to inspire you to do the same with your own journey and, like that, beat IMPOSTER SYNDROME, once and for all!...Or at least try. 😉...
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19 - Identity (or Are the Literary Voices of Exophonic Writers Compromised by Cultural Expectations?)
Send us Fan Mail Welcome, exophonic friends! It's almost impossible to talk about exophony without talking about Identity, since it's such a fundamental pillar for this practice. Matters of Identity emerge during the phase of choosing to become an exophonic writer as well as during the phase…
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18 - Exophonic Chats: Write about your culture in a language that they will understand, but how to be authentic? With Cher Chidzey
Send us Fan Mail Hop, hop, hop 🐰 Look at what the Easter bunny brought...a brand new episode of the Exophonic Writer Podcast! In this episode I talk with Cher Chidzey who's an author from Singapore living in Australia. Cher wants to bring aspects from her culture to English speaking societies…
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17 - Exophonic Chats: Telugu and a Rich Literary Tradition with Madhuri Karra
Send us Fan Mail Hello exophonics and exophonic lovers! In this new episode of The Exophonic Writer Podcast I bring you a new exophonic guest. Meet... Madhuri Karra, who's from Vizag in India and came to Australia in 2013. She writes fantasy novels in English and was highly influenced by the...
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16 - Help! I'm writing a novel in 3 languages
Send us Fan Mail Hello friends, welcome. Omg, this novel of mine is a real challenging linguistic something! 🙀 It l includes English, Hindi and two varieties of Spanish. Oh, and it's also... written in verse! And there are plenty of calligrams. (Watch this awesome video about calligrams:...
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15- Exophonic Chats: How First Language Identity is a Fundamental Part to Bring into Theatre Play with Fabio Motta
Send us Fan Mail Hello friends, please join me in my conversation with our first guest to the podcast. (Woohoo!) His name is Fabio Motta and he's an award-winning, Italian-born Australian actor and educator who kindly joined us to chat about the importance of bringing our first language selves to...
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14 - MINISODE: ✨ 2024 Teaser ✨
Send us Fan Mail Hi, friends! In this mini teaser episode, I'll tell you what I have planned for this year (spoiler alert: plenty of awesome stuff). You can expect some episodes about: ✨ Writing a novel in 3 languages ✨ A chat about Identity when being an exophonic writer ✨A chat about…
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13 - Bonus series: 📜Poetry 📜
Send us Fan Mail If you only think poetry is rhyming short texts about love or heartbreak... well, you may be missing out! Listen to today's episode to find out some cool sides of poetry. ✨ SHOW NOTES 📜What is poetry?...
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12 - Bonus series: 🛸 Sci-fi 🛸
Send us Fan Mail Here are some titles and resources explored in this episode, enjoy! ✨ What is Science Fiction Writing? https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-science-fiction-writing-definition-and-characteristics-of-science-fiction-literature 8 Sci-fi sub-genres: Fantasy fiction....
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11 - Bonus series: 🪄 Magical/Playful Fiction 🪄
Send us Fan Mail Welcome and I hope you enjoy the topic of today: fiction that is playful and magical and interactive and fun. 🌈✨ As I mention in the episode, this is not a category that already exists in libraries and bookstores, but a rather personal mix of my own. These are the books and...
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10 - Minisode: A NaNoWriMo chat
Send us Fan Mail This is a tiny one, just to chat a bit about our favourite November writing challenge: Nanowrimo! Nano website: https://nanowrimo.org/dashboard Redy, Set, Novel! - writer's workbook https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12590721-ready-set-novel?ac=1&from_search=true Author Sarah...
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9 - Bonus series: 🦇Gothic/ Horror🦇
Send us Fan Mail Happy Halloween and welcome to spooky episode 8! 👻🎃🧟 These are some of the things mentioned on the episode: 💀Zombie Teenagers on a Train https://www.instagram.com/p/CkXI3YRPOz9/?img_index=1 💀Edgar Allan Poe's lesser know story 'Berenice'...
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8 - Bonus series: 👽 BIZARRO FICTION 👽
Send us Fan Mail What´s Bizarro Fiction? Bizarro is like: Franz Kafka meets John Waters Dr. Seuss of the post-apocalypse Takashi Miike meets William S. Burroughs Alice in Wonderland for adults Japanese animation directed by David Lynch Read more at: https://www.bizarrocentral.com/about/ 👽...
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7 - MINISODE: Introducing a ✨BONUS✨ series on genre
Send us Fan Mail Hello! 👋 It's been a minute... This minisode is about 2 things mainly: -The podcast passing from being weekly to biweekly (sort of, consider subscribing if you don't want to miss any episode). -Introducing a BONUS series on genre. These especial episodes are going to be: Ep #7...
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6- My publishing process (or lack thereof)
Send us Fan Mail SHOW NOTES In this episode I share a bit of how my seeking publication looks like and also I share (as always) some pretty cool resources related to this. Future Me (write a letter to your future self!) https://www.futureme.org/ Hannah Lee Kidder (check her self-publishing course...
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5- My writing routine (or lack thereof)
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to episode 5, where I'll talk about my (messy) writing routine, plus the software (or lack thereof) that I use, my favourite places to write, and much more. This episode is packed with inspiration triggers and curated resources that you can find listed down below (they...
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4- Are you an exophonic reader? - Read more to write better! :)
Send us Fan Mail To write exophonically, first you need to read lots in the language you're seeking to write in. In this episode I talk about: -How I wasn't a reader growing up and became one only recently. -Changing schools mid-first grade and having to quickly adapt to cursive (when all I new…
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3- In the beginning... there was the Word - a podcast about loving, learning and making wor(l)ds up
Send us Fan Mail Words are god-like elements that establish the reality all around us. Join me in this episode to know about: When a word has 2 meaning but we only know 1 of them. The joy of making words up. There's no such thing as unreal words, only unpopular ones. Why linguists don't study...
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2- The Challenges of Exophonic Writing and What Helps Tackle Them
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to this episode about the challenges that we encounter when writing not in our first language. I mention the obstacles of... 1. Grammar and syntaxis 2. Imposter Syndrome 3. Lack of vocabulary 4. Falling into literal translation (especially of collocations and fix phrases)...
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1- What's Exophonic Writing? (the what, why and how of exophonic writing)
Send us Fan Mail This is my first ever episode, (yay!) and it's all about (you guessed it)... Exophonic Writing! I'll talk about what it is and why I choose to practise it instead of simply write in my native language (Spanish) More specifically, I'll mention 4 reasons why writing in English is...
About this show
Hi, I'm Zoe! 🙋♀️ I'm a Visual Linguist and Exophonic Writer based in Melbourne, Australia. Join me each episode while I podcast my quest to understand how exophony is changing the world.
Exophony (or the art of creative writing in a non-native language) is an old practice that's getting more and more prominence in recent years.
Some questions that keep me awake at night (which fuel this podcast) are:
✨Why do writers choose to write in a non-native language over their mother tongue? How does this choice impact their work?
✨Is the world welcoming the works of exophonic writers? Or are they treated as less good than native authors?
✨Are exophonic writers embracing our own imperfect styles or are we trying to appear as close to native as possible?
✨ What will normalising exophonic practices mean for global readers and literature?
If that sounds like what you need to h
Hosted by
Zoe Gomez Cass