Australian Writers' Centre Podcast

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Caroline Overington is an award-winning journalist, magazine editor and author. She has twice been awarded a Walkley Award for investigative journalism – in 2004 for for her investigation into the author Norma Khouri (along with Malcolm Knox) and in 2006 for her coverage of the Australian Wheat Board Scandal – and is currently the associate editor of the iconic magazine, Australian Women’s Weekly. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

A prodigious children’s book writer with well over 100 titles across a variety of genres to her credit, Jackie French is best known for her 1999 novel Hitler’s Daughter, which was awarded the 2000 CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers. Another of her books, To the Moon and Back (co-written with Bryan Sullivan, illustrated by Gus Gordon, 2004) won the Children’s Book of the Year Award: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books in 2005 and a number of her other works have been either awarded or shortlisted as part of the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Award honours. She is also an avid gardener and conserver of endangered fruit species on her property out near Braidwood in NSW, as well as the author of a number of ground breaking books on theories and practices for pest and weed ecology. We interviewed her at the Sydney Writers’ Festival where we asked her about her amazing publishing career and what we can expect from her in the future. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

Born in Italy in 1959, Diego Marani is a man of many talents. A highly regarded translator, he is the creator of “Europanto”, a mock “international auxiliary language” (a language invented for use by people who don’t share a common mother tongue), in which he has published short stories, articles and video clips. Diego is best known for New Finnish Grammar (2000), a novel which explores the role language plays in the creation of identity. His latest book The Last of the Vostyachs.   Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

Deborah Levy  began her creative career as a playwright in 1981 when she left the Darlington College of Arts to write plays including Pax, Call Blue Jane, Shiny Nylon and Heresies: Eva and Moses, which was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987. Her latest book, Swimming Home, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2011.   Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

Arnold Zable is an award-winning Australian writer, novelist, storyteller, and human rights advocate. He combines a prodigious creative output with extensive human rights advocacy work. He is the author of a broad range of work including theatrical pieces, essays and books, his most recent release, Violin Lessons, published in 2011. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

Acclaimed for the “fearless honesty of her work”, Krissy Kneen has worked across a number of different writing genres. The author of the just-released novel Steeplechase (March 2013), she has also written a collection of erotica Swallow the Sound (2007), a memoir Affection: A Memoir of Love, Sex & Intimacy (2009), which was shortlisted for the 2010 ABIA Biography of the Year, and Triptych, An Erotic Adventure: 3 Stories in 1(2011). Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

Michael Robotham is an Australian crime fiction writer. His latest book is Watching You, a terrifying thriller featuring clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin. who has appeared in many of Michael's previous books. Michael began his writing life as a journalist, then moved into ghost writing. As a ghost writer, he wrote 15 books, 12 of which became bestsellers. His first novel, Suspect, was published in 2004 and since then he has written and published a book a year.   Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

The winner of the inaugural Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2011, Hannah Kent spent a transformative year at the age of 18 in Sauðárkrókur, Iceland as part of the Rotary Exchange Program. During her time in the country, she came across the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed for murder in Iceland in 1830. Fascinated by the tale, she returned to Iceland many times, researching the story of the last months of Agnes’ life which became the basis of her first book Burial Rites. Currently completing her PhD at Flinders University in Adelaide, she is the co-founder and deputy editor of the Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings. We interviewed her at the Sydney Writers’ Festival about her unique life journey and how Iceland came to dominate the life of a girl from the Adelaide Hills.

Jane Gleeson-White is an Australian author and blogger. Her latest book is Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice shaped the modern world – and how their invention could make or break the planet, an exploration of the history of double-entry bookkeeping. She has also published two books about books – Classics in 2005 and Australian Classics in 2007. Jane also blogs at bookishgirl.com.au. We caught up with Jane at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and spoke to her about her latest book, her research, what she thinks makes a classic book and what drove her to write a book about accounting!

A co-founder and co-director of the annual Jaipur Literary Festival in India, William Dalrymple has an eye for history and an ability to make it come alive. The British historian, writer and curator’s latest book, The Return of a King, The Battle for Afghanistan (2012) is testament to his talent for artfully recounting tales from humanity’s collective past with Barnaby Rogerson of The Independent newspaper describing the book thus: “William Dalrymple is a master storyteller, who breathes such passion, vivacity and animation into the historical characters of the First Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-42 that at the end of this 567-page book you feel you have marched, fought, dined and plotted with them all …” In our interview with Dalrymple we asked him about where his love of history originated, how he makes the dry old pages of history spring to life, and his advice for aspiring writers. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre, at the 2013 Sydney Writers Festival. www.WritersCentre.com.au

Ashley Hay is a Brisbane author of both fiction and non-fiction books. Her latest novel is The Railwayman’s Wife, a story set in the NSW coastal town of Thirroul in the years following WWII.   Ashley’s first novel, The Body in the Clouds, was nominated for several awards when it was published in 2010, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.   She has also written four books of narrative non-fiction and her essays, short stories and journalism regularly appear in Australian journals and anthologies. She has had stories published in The Monthly magazine, The Bulletin, Best Australian Essays and Heat.

Australian Writers' Centre interview with Claire Scobie, author of "The Pagoda Tree".   Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

Australian Writers' Centre interviews Karen Turner, author of "Torn". Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

Jessica Shirvington is the author of the popular Embrace series for young adults. This five-book series follows the life of Violet Eden, a young woman who, on turning 17, discovers she's Grigori – part angel and part human. The first book in the series, Embrace, was picked up by author agent Selwa Anthony in 2010 – not long after Jessica completed two creative writing courses at the Australian Writers' Centre. Since she scored an agent and a three-book deal with Hachette Australia, Jessica has published five books – four in the Embrace series (with a fifth on the way) and a stand-alone novel, Between the Lives. In just four years Jessica has gained a huge following, with her books being published in the US, the UK and Germany. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

Emma Hopkin fell in love with books as a young child, a love affair which has shown no signs of abating in the intervening years.Currently the Managing Director of Bloomsbury Children's and Educational Publishing at Bloomsbury Publishing, she has channeled this enduring love of literature into a successful career that has seen her occupy a number of management roles at various international publishing houses, specifically overseeing children's literature.She was in Australia recently from the UK to meet with the Bloomsbury team here, and promote the launch of their new digital imprint Spark, and so we took the opportunity to sit down with her to ask her when she first realised how powerful books could be, what led her into the publishing industry in the first place, and where she sees the rapidly changing business of selling books going. www.WritersCentre.com.au

A journalist of 35 years standing, who has worked for a number of publications, Helen Trinca is currently the Managing Editor of The Australian.A well-regarded author of a number of non-fiction books, she has previously co-authored Waterfront: The Battle That Changed Australia (2000) with Anne Davies, which has been made into a telemovie, Bastard Boys, and Better Than Sex: How A Whole Generation Got Hooked On Work (2004) with Catherine Fox. Her latest book, Madeleine, is a biography of little known expatriate author, Madeleine St. John, who was the first Australian nominated for the Mann Booker Prize.We sat down to talk to her about the art of writing memoirs and why she chose Madeleine St John as the object of her newest book. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

Trevor Young is a PR and social media communications consultant, speaker and coach who helps companies and individuals to increase the intensity of connection they have with the people who matter most to the success of their business, cause or issue. He writes one of Australia's leading marketing blogs - PRWarrior.com - and is the author of the new book: microDOMINATION: How to leverage social media and content marketing to build a mini-business empire around your personal brand. Interview by Valerie Khoo, national director of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

Maureen McCarthy is a Melbourne-based author whose most recent book is The Convent, a fictional novel about the lives for four generations of women who are all inextricably linked to The Abbotsford Convent, a real place in Collingwood Melbourne. Interview by Valerie Khoo, national director of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

David Vann’s books are daring, emotionally fraught narratives that have struck a chord with readers the world over. His books have been internationally best-selling, multi-award winning and translated in 18 languages. His fiction books include Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island and his new release Dirt. He has also written two non-fiction books, and written for a host of publications including the Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, McSweeney’s and The Guardian. Australian Writers' Centrewww.WritersCentre.com.au

Nicolas Rothwell is an award-winning Australian author and journalist. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was a foreign correspondent for The Australian newspaper and continues to write for the paper from his home in the Northern Territory. In 2006 he was awarded a Walkley Award for his coverage on Indigenous Affairs. He has written six books and his latest is Belomor.   Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com

After 15 years working as a paramedic in Sydney, Katherine Howell decided it was high time she pursued her love of writing full time. Her debut novel, Frantic, won the 2008 Davitt Award for best crime fiction, and was followed by The Darkest Hour, Cold Justice (which won the 2011 Davitt Award making Katherine the only author to have won it twice), Violent Exposure and Silent Fear. Her latest novel, Web of Deceit, sees the return of the very popular police detective Ella Marconi. Interview by Andrew Gillman, office manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au

The Rosie Project by debut author, Graeme Simsion, is destined to be one of the literary hits of 2013. Developed initially as a film script, Graeme turned his idea into a novel during a novel writing course at Melbourne University in 2012. That manuscript went on to be shortlisted, and win, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. It was then picked up by Text Publishing and the rights have now been sold to more than 30 countries. Interview by Danielle Williams, course manager of Australian Writers' Centre. www.WritersCentre.com.au www.valeriekhoo.com