Two writers imagine how technology will shape our future: Jeanette Winterson talks about how AI will give new meaning to ghost stories and Australian writer Kate Mildenhall imagines an algorithm to save the world.

Jeanette Winterson on avatars and the afterlife, plus Kate Mildenhall

Your favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.

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Alexis Wright has won the 2024 Stella Prize, for her novel, Praiseworthy. The novel is an Aboriginal fable, about a fictional town, a haze cloud, a haze cloud, land rights, global warming, and donkeys. Judges described Praiseworthy as 'genre-bending' and 'canon-breaking'. 

Alexis Wright previously won the Stella in 2018 for her non-fiction collective memoir Tracker. She also won the Miles Franklin for her novel Carpentaria.

Pod extra — Alexis Wright wins a second Stella Prize

Author of The Tiger's Wife Téa Obreht reterns with Morningside, a dystopian fairy tale, and Stella Prize-shortlisted author Emily O'Grady on the rotten characters in her novel Feast.

Téa Obreht won The Women's Prize for Fiction — then called the Orange Prize — for her debut novel, The Tiger's Wife and at the time she was the youngest ever winner of the award. It was a family saga, about doctors, death and the Balkan wars. She followed it up with a Western called Inland. With her new novel, Morningside, Obreht has shifted gears again with a dystopian fairy tale set in a flooded future version of what feels a lot like Manhattan.

The Stella Prize will be announced this week; it's an annual prize for Australian women and non-binary writers. One of this year's shortlisted authors is Emily O'Grady for her novel, Feast. The book is about an unconventional family meeting in a run-down Scottish castle and was described by the Stella Prize judges as a 'perfect jewel of a novel'.

Téa Obreht and Emily O'Grady on Balkan fairytales, nepo babies and wild creatures

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie inspired riots in England and book burnings in India; death threats, murders and a fatwa; and ultimately, a devastating physical attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022.

Banned Books 02: The Satanic Verses and the fatwa

Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan explains why finishing his latest novel Caledonian Road was like "landing 65 planes on the tarmac"; plus a teaser for the first in our Banned Books series, starting in America.

Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan's (Faber and Faber) latest book Caledonian Road is a big one in length and Dickensian scope. It's an exploration of life in London — a world of intellectuals and elites, Russian oligarchs and human traffickers, rappers, DJs, wellness assistants and those who seek to shake up the whole rotten system.

Andrew O'Hagan's biggest novel yet

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas was inspired by the black lives matter movement and explores police brutality — so why is it being taken off library shelves in the US?

Banned Books is a new series that looks at what's driving book bans worldwide.  

The series begins in America where books about race and racism have become a lightning rod for censorship in public libraries and state schools

Guests: 

Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give (original 2017 interview)

Kasey Meehan, program director for Freedom to Read, PEN America

Tracie D Hall, former executive director of the American Library Association

Maxine Beneba Clarke, Australian memoirist, poet, children's book author. Her poem There's a Shelf in the Library is in her latest poetry collection It's the Sound of the Thing.

Jeanette Winterson on avatars and the afterlife, plus Kate Mildenhall

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