The Garret: Writing & Publishing – Details, episodes & analysis

Waanyi writer Alexis Wright is the only author to win the Stella Prize twice - the first time for Tracker and the second time for Praiseworthy. 

Alexis is also the author of the prize-winning novels Carpentaria and The Swan Book, as well as Take Power, an oral history of the Central Land Council; and Grog War, a study of alcohol abuse in the Northern Territory.

Alexis was previously the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne, and she is the inaugural winner of the Creative Australia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.

This interview was recorded live for Vision Australia in March 2024, after Praiseworthy was longlisted for The Stella Prize.  

About The Garret

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Sam Elkin's debut memoir is Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga.

Sam’s essays have been published in the Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books and Kill Your Darlings.

He co-edited Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia .

He hosts the 3rrr radio show Queer View Mirror and is a Tilde Film Festival board member. 

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christos Tsiolkas is one of Australia's most accomplished writers. His latest novel, In-Between, is an exploration of class, family and love in middle age.

Christos is the author of eight novels, including Loaded (which was made into the feature film Head-On) and the international bestseller The Slap (which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among many other honours). His work of historical fiction, Damascus, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. 

In 2021 Christos won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. He has appeared on The Garret before. Listen to Christos discuss his previous novel, Damascus, here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kirli Saunders is a proud Gunai Woman, award-winning author and multidisciplinary artist. Her books include Bindi, Kindred and Returning. Her play, Going Home, is in development, as is her first novel, Yaraman. In 2022 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts.

You can read the transcript of this interview here. Kirli has a lso spoken on The Garret before about her verse novel Bindi.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Flanagan is a Tasmania writer. Question 7, his latest work, was published in 2023 and will no doubt become that rare thing - a commercial bestseller that attracts critical acclaim.

His novels Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould’s Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist, Wanting and The Narrow Road to the Deep North have received numerous honours and are published in 42 countries. He won the Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2014.

Richard has been interviewed on The Garret before, and you can listen to his thoughts on his previous novel, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams, here.

Thanks to The Wheeler Centre an RMIT Capitol

This recording took place on 9 November 2023 at RMIT Capitol for The Wheeler Centre. Thanks go to the phenomenal team at The Wheeler Centre for sharing this audio with us.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beejay Silcox is a writer and literary critic. She is the Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers Festival, and in 2023-2-24 the Chair of Judges of The Stella Prize.

Her literary criticism and cultural commentary regularly appears in national arts publications, and is increasingly finding an international audience, including in the Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian and The New York Times. 

Read the transcript for this interview here. 

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race and the poetry collections Carrying the World and How Decent Folk Behave. Her children's picture books include the CBCA Honour book The Patchwork Bike and the illustrated poem When We Say Black Lives Matter, which was longlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal.

Her latest poetry collection is It's the Sound of the Thing, which was nominated for The Guardian's Best Australian Children's Books of 2023 and shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2024.

In 2023 she was Poet in Residence at The University of Melbourne.

Read the transcript for this interview here. 

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills.

Her debut novel was the wildly successful The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020), which was based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives and became an international bestseller. The Bookbinder of Jericho (2023) is her second work of historical fiction, and exists in the same world as The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Read the transcript for this interview here. 

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Debra Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja writer and educator. Her 2023 memoir We Come With This Place - a book she never intended to publish - won the ALS Gold Medal and four NSW Premier's Awards, and was also listed for many other prizes.

An educator, she has worked in teaching and learning for many years – a gift given through the hard work of her parents. She continues to experience the privilege of living with country and with family. Debra completed her PhD in Narrative Theory and Semiotics at Deakin University in 2021.

Read the transcript for this interview here. 

About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lucy Treloar is a novelist. Her debut, Salt Creek, won the Dobbie Literary Award among others and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the UK's Walter Scott Prize. Wolfe Island, her second novel, won the Barbara Jefferis Award and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's and NSW literary awards.

Lucy's essays and short fiction have appeared in publications including Meanjin, The Age, Overland and Best Australian Stories.

You can read the transcript of this interview here.

About The Garret

Follow The Garret: Writing and Publishing and our host Astrid Edwards on Instagram.

Explore our back catalogue (and transcripts) at thegarretpodcast.com.

Support the show: https://linktr.ee/garretpodcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.