Backstory

This week, Mel Cranenburgh talks all things crime writing with Christian White whose debut thriller, The Nowhere Child, is a "combustible tale of trauma, cult, conspiracy and memory".

Mel is then joined by Jacqui Horwood, the chief judge wrangler of the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards, which will be presented on Saturday 11 August at Swinburne University.Since 2001, the Davitts have played a pivotal role in getting women's crime writing published and better recognised and Mel and Jacqui discuss the amazing work being done by female writers in the crime genre.

Get literary on Backstory this week as Jenny Ackland swings by to chat about her new book Little Gods: a novel about the loss of innocence and the mess of family, and Festival Director Rosemary Sorenson drops by to talk about the 2018 Bendigo Writers Festival Program.

On this episode of Backstory, Mel Cranenburgh speaks to writer and cultural historian, Maria Tumarkin about her extraordinary new book, Axiomatic, described by Robert Dessaix as "a brilliant kaleidoscope of arresting observations on suffering and innocence in modern times". She's then joined by Backstory's podcast producer, Lisa Gye, to talk about their shared experience of coming from mixed race families in the context the ongoing white washing of Australian history.

On this edition of Backstory, host Mel Cranenburgh talks to Young Adult fiction writer, Clare Strahan, author of The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge as well as the program director of Melbourne Rare Book Week, Professor Chris Browne.

In this episode, Mel Cranenburgh is joined on the line by author Intan Paramaditha whose short story collection Apple and Knife was recently translated from Indonesian so that English language readers can now enjoy her eerie, gothic tales which infused with a decidedly feminist edge.

Mel also chats to Willy Lit Fest Director, Lorraine Callow and beloved kids' book author, Andy Griffiths who tell us what to expect from the western suburbs literary festival that's celebrating its 15th year.

In this episode of Backstory, Mel Cranenburgh talks to Gideon Haigh about his latest book A Scandal in Bohemia: The Life and Death of Mollie Dean and Lachlan Carter, CEO and co-founder of 100 Story building, a centre for young writers based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray.

In this episode of Backstory, Melissa Cranenburgh talks to publisher Phillipa McGuinness about her recently released book The Year Everything Changed: 2001, a deeply personal but simultaneously political narrative about a year when McGuiness' world was transformed by both intimate, private events as well as national and global happenings. Melissa is then joined by Christos Tsiolkas to talk about his surprising and provocative essay on Australian novelist, Patrick White, a new edition to Black Inc's series, Writers on Writers.

In this episode, host Mel Cranenburgh chats to Sophie Black, Head of Publications at the Wheeler Centre, about their new funding initiative for aspiring writers. The Next Chapter is an unprecedented new way of supporting writers and Sophie explains all the ins and outs of the scheme. Mel then talks to S.A. Jones, author of The Fortress, an absorbing, confronting and moving novel which asks questions about consent, power, love and fulfilment.