Byron WF Digital | Byron Writers Festival

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.

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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).

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Kindred, Kirli Saunders’ debut poetry collection, is a pleasure to lose yourself in. Kirli has a keen eye for observation, humour and big themes that surround Love, Connection & Loss in an engaging style, complemented by evocative and poignant imagery. Kindred talks to identity, culture, community and the role of Earth as healer. It has the ability to grab hold of the personal in the universal and reflect this back to the reader.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Ellen van Neerven chats with Kirli Saunders about the moments that inspired Kindred, about her role in the Poetry in First Languages project, and about her own personal journey to reclaim language.

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

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About the authors

Kirli Saunders

2020 NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year and Gunai Woman Kirli Saunders is an award-winning children’s author, poet, teacher and artist. Her works include picture book The Incredible Freedom Machines and the poetry collection Kindred.

Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Throat is Ellen’s second highly anticipated poetry collection.

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‘It seems that every generation needs to be told why Black Lives Matter. Here we are again.’

The Thea Astley Address, named in honour of one of Australia’s most influential and distinctive novelists, has been presented annually at the Byron Writers Festival since 2005 – by some of Australia’s best writers and most interesting minds. This year, we add to the prestigious list Professor Marcia Langton, one of our country’s most important voices for Indigenous Australia. The 2020 Thea Astley Address, entitled Black Lives Matter, is supported by The Conversation and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.

In this powerful address, Marcia Langton explores how Black Lives Matter in Australia, through history, in the present and for our future. She takes us back to the death of Mulrunji, or Cameron Doomadgee, in custody on Palm Island in 2004, and the subsequent failure of the police and the criminal justice system to deliver justice for the deceased and his family. Langton tracks many similar cases, shining a light on the crisis in which we find ourselves as a nation, and demands the implementation of long-overdue recommendations from the 1987 – 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

You can find the full transcript published on The Conversation.

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

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About Professor Marcia Langton

Professor Marcia Langton AM PhD Macq U, BA (Hons) ANU, FASSA is one of Australia’s most important voices for Indigenous Australia. She first became an Indigenous rights activist as a student at the University of Queensland, before spending time in Papua New Guinea, Japan and North America learning about those countries’ peoples and cultures. On her return to Australia, Langton graduated in Anthropology at ANU. Since then, she has worked with the Central Land Council, the Cape York Land Council, and for the 1989 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

Professor Langton has received many accolades, including an Order of Australia. She has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at The University of Melbourne since February 2000. As an anthropologist and geographer, she has made a significant contribution to government and non-government policy as well as to Indigenous studies. She is regularly asked to comment on issues related to Indigenous rights and art. In 2016 she was honoured as a University of Melbourne Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor. The following year, Professor Langton was appointed as the first Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne. Professor Langton has written several books, both academic and popular, including her bestselling guide to indigenous Australia, Marcia Langton: Welcome to Country.

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This project is supported by our friends at the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund and The Conversation. Thanks also to our long-term funding partner, Create NSW.

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S. Shakthidharan’s award-winning play, Counting and Cracking, is a story about Australia as a land of refuge, about Sri Lanka’s efforts to remain united, and about reconciliation within families, across countries and generations. Shakthi’s latest play, The Jungle and The Sea, was due to open on the day of this interview, but has been put on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions.

In this Conversations from Byron podcast, Shakthi talks with Sunil Badami about what makes an Australian story. They discuss multiculturalism throughout our nation’s long history, and explore themes of family, identity and migration. Shakthi also tells us about his path to playwriting, his love of community arts practice, and the realities of making theatre in the time of Covid-19.

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

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About the authors

S. Shakthidharan

Shakthi is a western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director and producer of theatre and film, and composer of original music. His most recent play Counting and Cracking with Belvoir and Co-Curious received community, commercial and critical acclaim at the 2019 Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, garnered 7 Helpmann Awards, and won the 2020 Victorian Prize for Literature.

Sunil Badami

Sunil Badami is a writer and broadcaster, who’s written for most major Australian publications and appears regularly on ABC radio and TV

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Join some of Australia’s finest writers for a collection of unexpected tales: reflections on lives well lived and battles fought, pride, prejudice, love and humour. The LGBTQI+ community has been sharing stories for centuries, creating their own histories, disrupting and reinventing conventional ideas about narrative, family, love and community. There’s more to being queer than coming out and getting married.

Fast becoming an institution around the country, Queerstories is a national LGBTQI+ storytelling project curated by Maeve Marsden. Over the past 5 years, more than 250 people have shared their stories at live Queerstories events around the country, and many of these readings are now available on the award-winning Queerstories podcast.

This special Conversations from Byron podcast edition brings together a beautiful mix of light, warm, thought-provoking and heartbreaking tales from an exceptional line-up of Queer storytellers, including Ellen van Neerven, Sally Rugg, Michael Sun and Hayley Katzen.

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

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About the authors

Maeve Marsden

Maeve Marsden is a writer and theatremaker. She curates national storytelling project Queerstories and is a member of Belvoir Theatre’s Writers Lab for Early-Career Playwrights.

Hayley Katzen

Hayley Katzen’s essays have been published in Australian, American and Asian journals and anthologies including Australian Book Review, Griffith Review, Southerly, Fourth Genre and Kenyon Review. Untethered is her debut memoir.

Sally Rugg

Sally Rugg is an LGBTIQ rights activist, writer and public speaker. She is Executive Director at change.org. How Powerful We Are is her first book.

Michael Sun

Michael Sun is a freelance writer with bylines in The Guardian, The Monthly, Vice, ABC Arts, Overland, and more. He is also the incoming Culture Editor for Junkee, working with Netflix. In his spare time, he’s a freelance graphic designer and co-hosts the Saturday Lunch show on FBi Radio.

Ellen van Neerven

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