Byron WF Digital | Byron Writers Festival

Fiona Murphy kept her deafness a secret for over twenty-five years. After an accident to her hand, she discovered that sign language could change her life, and that Deaf culture could be part of her identity. In this podcast she talks with Caroline Baum about her memoir The Shape of Sound, and her journey from a position of shame to one of pride as she navigated the world of d/Deafness and disability.

Blending memoir with observations on the healthcare industry, The Shape of Sound is a story about the corrosive power of secrets, stigma and shame, and how deaf experiences and disability are shaped by economics, social policy, medicine and societal expectations.

Transcript available here.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Purchase the Book

The Shape of Sound is available to purchase online via The Book Room Collective.

Listen Now

About the authors

Fiona Murphy

Fiona Murphy is a Deaf poet and essayist. Her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Overland, Griffith Review and the Big Issue, among other publications. Her memoir is The Shape of Sound.

Caroline Baum

Journalist Caroline Baum is the author of Only: A Singular Memoir, and presents Life Sentences, a podcast about contemporary biography. She is also ambassador for the Older Women’s Network (OWN) in NSW.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2021

The exchange of stories and ideas sustains us in challenging times. Now more than ever we are relying on your support to help us continue celebrating Australian stories and literature, enhancing the skills of local writers, and nurturing the next generation of readers and writers. As a not-for-profit organisation run with a small team of staff and volunteers, contributions of any size go a long way in enriching the creative culture of our community. Amounts over $2 are tax deductible. Thank you.

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

https://byronwritersfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NSW-Government.png

< Back

anika

DONATE

Tristan Bancks, longtime Byron Writers Festival supporter and Room to Read ambassador, chairs a discussion with Sisonke Msimang, Jennie Orchard and Alice Pung about their contributions to the anthology The Gifts of Reading, including the books they all love to give.

The Gifts of Reading is an anthology of essays about the joys of reading and of giving books, from some of the world’s most beloved writers, inspired by Robert Macfarlane, curated by Jennie Orchard, and published on the 20th anniversary of the global literacy non-profit Room to Read.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Purchase the Book

The Gifts of Reading is available to purchase online via The Book Room Collective.

Listen Now

About the authors

Tristan Bancks

Tristan Bancks is a children’s and teens author. His books include Two Wolves, The Fall, Detention, Tom Weekly and Nit Boy. His latest book is Ginger Meggs.

Sisonke Msimang

Sisonke Msimang is a South African writer living in Perth. She is the author of a memoir, Always Another Country, and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela.

Jennie Orchard

Jennie Orchard has worked in publishing and the non-profit sector. Her latest book The Gifts of Reading celebrates the 20th anniversary of global literacy non-profit, Room to Read.

Alice Pung

Alice Pung is an Australian writer whose award-winning books include Unpolished Gem, Laurinda and Her Father’s Daughter. Her latest book is One Hundred Days.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2021

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

Sophie Hardcastle talks with Emily Brugman about her novel Below Deck. They discuss writing techniques and processes, as well as the characters and themes of the book, including sexual violence, trauma, nature and renewal.

Below Deck is a heartbreakingly poetic and haunting story about the vagaries of consent, about who has the space to speak and who is believed.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Purchase the Book

Below Deck is available to purchase online via The Book Room Collective.

Listen Now

About the authors

Sophie Hardcastle

Sophie Hardcastle is an author, artist, screenwriter and former Provost’s Scholar at the University of Oxford. Below Deck is their latest book.

Emily Brugman

Emily Brugman is a writer from the New South Wales south coast. She currently lives in Mullumbimby and works at Byron Writers Festival. Her novel, The Islands, was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award, and will be published by Allen & Unwin in 2022.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2021

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

Described as a spiky, sharp, intriguingly dark and tender book, full of pathos, fury and wit, Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss has received wide critical acclaim. In this podcast, Sarah Kanowski from Radio National’s Conversations talks with Meg about her unforgettable characters, the interplay between humour and suffering, and about her gentle rendering of mental illness.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Listen Now

About the authors

Meg Mason

Meg Mason began her career at the Financial Times and The Times of London. Her work has since appeared in The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for Sunday STYLE, The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts and a monthly column for GQ and been a regular contributor to Vogue, ELLE and marie claire.

Her first novel You Be Mother (HarperCollins) was published in 2017. Her second, Sorrow and Bliss (HarperCollins) was first published in Australia in 2020, and the US and UK in 2021. The actress Emilia Fox narrated the audiobook. Now a bestseller in Australia, it has now sold in more than 20 countries and will be published in 16 languages. It has been longlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction book of the year, chosen as the GOOP book club read in March 2021, and been optioned for screen by the US studio, New Regency, producer of Oscar-winning films including Little Women, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman.

She lives in Sydney, with her husband and two daughters. sea.

Sarah Kanowski

Sarah Kanowski Sarah co-presents Conversations on ABC Radio and podcast. She previously presented Books and Arts on ABC RN and joined the ABC as a producer on Late Night Live.

Sarah won a Commonwealth Scholarship to study English at the University of Oxford, where she wrote a thesis on the Mosley family. She then spent a year in South America before settling back in Australia. In Hobart she edited the literary magazine Island, until sun and family beckoned her back to Brisbane where she now lives with her husband, three children, and three chooks.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2021

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

Join celebrated Australian storyteller Jock Serong and acclaimed writer Mirandi Riwoe for a lively discussion about Jock’s new novel The Burning Island, recorded live at Lennox Head Cultural Centre, in collaboration with Lennox Arts Board (LAB).

Irresistible prose, unforgettable characters and magnificent, epic storytelling: The Burning Island delivers everything readers have come to expect from Jock Serong. It may be his most moving, compelling novel yet.

Listen Now

About the authors

Jock Serong

Jock Serong was once a criminal lawyer. He’s since been the editor of Great Ocean Quarterly, and a regular writer in the surfing media and more generally in publications such as The Monthly, The Guardian, the SMH and the Australian Financial Review. His first novel, Quota, appeared in 2014, and since then his work has been awarded the Colin Roderick Prize, the Staunch Prize and an ACWA Ned Kelly. His current book, The Burning Island, is the second novel of a trilogy about the early history of Bass Strait’s Furneaux Islands. He’s in the late stages of a Creative Writing PhD based around his first historical novel, Preservation. More than anything, he likes to write about the sea.

Mirandi Riwoe

Mirandi Riwoe is the author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain, which won the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction and the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize. Her novella The Fish Girl won Seizure’s Viva la Novella V and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her work has appeared in Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Review and Best Summer Stories. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT).

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2020

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

Yuwaalaraay writer and founding member of Indigenous folk duo Stiff Gins, Nardi Simpson talks with Bundjalung writer, editor and Byron Writers Festival board member Grace Lucas-Pennington about her debut novel Song of the Crocodile.

Full of music, Yuwaalaraay language and exquisite description, Song of the Crocodile is a lament to choice and change, and the unyielding land that sustains us all, if only we could listen to it. This debut novel is a captivating Australian saga from the winner of the 2018 black&write! fellowship.

At the close of the conversation Nardi performs her original track ‘Song of the Crocodile’ on ukulele.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Listen Now

About the authors

Nardi Simpson

Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay writer, musician, composer and educator from North West NSW freshwater plains. A founding member of Indigenous folk duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has been performing nationally and internationally for 20 years. Her debut novel, Song of the Crocodile was a 2018 winner of a black&write! writing fellowship.

Grace Lucas-Pennington

Grace is an Aboriginal (Bundjalung) editor specialising in fiction and poetry. Grace also works in the Australian publishing industry as a creative consultant, peer assessor, guest lecturer, and industry advisor.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2020

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

In this conversation, recorded live as part of Byron Writers Festival’s out-of-season program, author and academic Jenny Hocking joins celebrated journalist Kerry O’Brien to discuss her revealing new book The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam. In this ground breaking account, Hocking discloses the obstruction, intrigue and duplicity she faced during her 10-year campaign to expose the truth behind the dismissal.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Listen Now

About the authors

Jenny Hocking

Jenny Hocking is emeritus professor at Monash University, Distinguished Whitlam Fellow at the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University, and Gough Whitlam’s award-winning biographer. Her appeal against the decision of the Federal Court in the Palace letters case was upheld by the High Court on 29 May 2020.

Kerry O’Brien

Kerry O’Brien is an Australian journalist and author. Over 25 years he anchored the iconic ABC current affairs programs – Lateline, 7.30 and Four Corners. His memoir is Kerry O’Brien: A Memoir.

See the full transcript

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2020

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Jock Serong speaks with Chris Hanley about his new book The Burning Island. They discuss creating in the time of Covid-19, while Jock walks us through some of his researching and writing habits. Delving into the book itself, Jock explains where the idea for the story originated and its relationship to his previous novel Preservation. They go on to discuss some of the numerous themes present in the novel, from seafaring to parent-child relationships and problems of addiction.

About the book

Eliza Grayling, born in Sydney when the colony itself was still an infant, has lived there all her thirty-two years. Too tall, too stern—too old, now—for marriage, she looks out for her reclusive father, Joshua, and wonders about his past. There is a shadow there: an old enmity.

When Joshua Grayling is offered the chance for a reckoning with his nemesis, Eliza is horrified. It involves a sea voyage with an uncertain, probably violent, outcome. Insanity for an elderly blind man, let alone a drunkard.

Unable to dissuade her father from his mad fixation, Eliza begins to understand she may be forced to go with him. Then she sees the vessel they will be sailing on. And in that instant, the voyage of the Moonbird becomes Eliza’s mission too.

Irresistible prose, unforgettable characters and magnificent, epic storytelling: The Burning Island delivers everything readers have come to expect from Jock Serong. It may be his most moving, compelling novel yet.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Listen Now

About the authors

Jock Serong

Chris Hanley

Chris Hanley OAM is the founder of Byron Writers festival and was Chair for 20 years until 2016. He is the Principle of Byron Bay First National.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2020

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Mirandi Riwoe speaks with Melanie Cheng about her experience of researching and writing about the Australian gold rush. They discuss Chinese-Australian history and its place within our broader colonial literature, and explore how stories like this one can help bring the once invisible and voiceless to the forefront of our imaginations.

About the book

Family circumstances force siblings Ying and Lai Yue to flee their home in China to seek their fortunes in Australia. Life on the gold fields is hard, and they soon abandon the diggings and head to nearby Maytown. Once there, Lai Yue gets a job as a carrier on an overland expedition, while Ying finds work in a local store and strikes up a friendship with Meriem, a young white woman with her own troubled past. When a serious crime is committed, suspicion falls on all those who are considered outsiders.

Evoking the rich, unfolding tapestry of Australian life in the late nineteenth century, Stone Sky Gold Mountain is a heartbreaking and universal story about the exiled and displaced, about those who encounter discrimination yet yearn for acceptance.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

Listen Now

About the authors

Mirandi Riwoe

Mirandi Riwoe’s novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction, 2020. Her novella The Fish Girl won Seizure’s Viva la Novella V and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction.

Melanie Cheng

Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner based in Melbourne. Her debut short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and her debut novel, Room for a Stranger, was longlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2020

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

DONATE

Nazeem Hussain is a grown man whose Mum won’t let him go to Sri Lanka. At least, not without her by his side. But he’s just had a kid, and he’s started thinking ahead to the questions his son might ask him one day, like ‘why are we brown?’ So Naz flies to Sri Lanka with the echoes of his Mum’s protests in his ears.

In his new Audible Original Podcast, Rogue Son, we follow comedian Nazeem Hussain as he journeys through his ancestral lands, considering what life would’ve been like had his parents not migrated to Australia. Naz tours Sri Lanka at a pivotal time for the country, politically and culturally. A new government is elected while Naz is in the air, so he lands in a strange atmosphere of confusion and change.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast Nazeem talks with friend and fellow comedian Matt Okine about the making of the podcast. They discuss race, identity and the experience of returning to your place of heritage as a first generation migrant.

Thanks to Delta Kay, Arakwal Bundjalung woman, for the Welcome to Country on this podcast.

To listen to the full podcast series of Rogue Son, head to audible.com.

Listen Now

About the authors

Nazeem Hussain

Nazeem Hussain is an Australian comedian, actor, television and radio presenter. He is best known as creator and star of both television comedy shows Legally Brown and Orange is the New Brown. His Netflix special Nazeem Hussain: Public Frenemy began streaming worldwide in 2019.

Matt Okine

The multi-talented comedian, actor and presenter Matt Okine is one of Australia’s favourite award-winning comedians. Being Black N Chicken, & Chips is his first novel.

VIEW FULL PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD

< Back to all podcasts

Join the conversation at #ByronWF2020

DONATE NOW

Thank you to our funding partners for making this program possible.

< Back

anika

Older Posts