Publishing in China is booming, so what opportunities are there for Australian authors in the Chinese market? We go behind the scenes with the obituary writers of the New York Times with director of Obit, Vanessa Gould, and chat to British novelist Claire Fuller about her novel Swimming Lessons.

First, we meet the couple who share their Melbourne home and their taste in art with the public, then we slip between the street's of London's poor in the 1850s, and present day South London with novelist Michèle Roberts, and end with Yewande Omotoso's novel of post-Apartheid South Africa.

Books in NT, international arts and the Venice Biennale with Fiona Gruber, and across the USA singing Gospel

Author Nick Earls on ebooks, a new Australian music magazine Women in Pop, Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith on her favourite things for Top Shelf and poet Omar Sakr on his book These Wild Houses.

Join us for the best of Books and Arts this week.

Today, a conversation with French writer Laurent Binet about his new semiotic detective novel, The 7th Function of Language, we check into the Australian Writers Week in China with indigenous author and illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft, investigate queer indigenous art with Ngarigo man Peter Walpes Crowe, and find out about the glorious music from Bizet's opera, The Pearl Fisher with director of the forthcoming Queensland Opera production, Michael Gow and acclaimed soprano Emma Matthews.

Hear what makes the Ethiopian jazz so special with two icons of the genre, Mahmoud Ahmed and Ali Birra as they perform live in the studio; then meet Robert Newton, an Australian young adult fiction author whose latest novel was inspired by his work as a firefighter; and end with a reflection on the importance of the sneaker as a fashion object, status symbol and art piece.

Judith White has a critical look at public art galleries, arts in the Federal Budget, the impact of the Fairfax cuts on arts coverage and a play called Melbourne Talam about three Indians in Australia.

Eva Hornung's novel The Last Garden. Tablo, State Libraries and the future of publishing. Joy Rhoades' novel of land and war, The Woolgrower's Companion. Heard This and Thought of You - Jana Wendt.

We ask what it's like to be living outside one of the major cities and forging a writing career, and Wendy Whiteley, in conversation about her life with the artist Brett Whiteley, explored in Whiteley, a new documentary about his personal and creative life.