Biographers in Conversation

By GabriellaArts Books

Biographers in Conversation episodes

August 21, 2024Laurie Gwen Shapiro: The Stowaway. A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Laurie Gwen Shapiro chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica, the true story of Billy Gawronski, a New York teenager who stowed away on a ship bound for Antarctica in 1928.
Laurie Gwen Shapiro shares with us her inspiration for writing The Stowaway.
Laurie reveals in vivid detail, Billy Gawronski’s determination, after three failed attempts, to travel on the first American expedition to Antarctica since 1840.
She also explains why she opened The Stowaway with Billy’s plunge into the icy Hudson River in the wee small hours.
Laurie tells us how she portrayed the historical context of Billy’s expedition at a pivotal moment in history.
She also outlines her research strategy, including an incredible surprise that profoundly shaped the story.
As a writing teacher, Laurie articulates, in extraordinary depth, tips and tricks for crafting a captivating life story.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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39 min
August 14, 2024Melanie Nolan: The ADB’s Story
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Melanie Nolan about her book, The ADB’s Story, the history of the Australian Dictionary of Biography she co-edited with Christine Fernon. Melanie is the general editor of ADB, which is widely recognised as an Australian cultural institution and national treasure. She is also Director of Australia’s National Centre of Biography.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Melanie Nolan introduces us to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, a vibrant and versatile digital tool that enables us to understand our nation’s past and to think hard about the present moment and our future as an inclusive nation that celebrates diversity.
Melanie reveals why she felt compelled to write The ADB’s Story and why it was vital to create it while the ADB team was imagining the next phase of the dictionary’s future.
Melanie explains why ADB is considered internationally as innovative compared with similar publications in other countries.
Melanie shares her vision for the dictionary, which is to showcase the multisensory experiences of Australians at different stages of their life through photographs, audio and video recordings.
She also reveals ADB’s ambitions to reimagine itself over future decades by tracing networks and connections between biographical subjects and how these revelations will enable each of us to better understand our past, present and future.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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33 min
August 07, 2024Melinda M. Ponder. Katharine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Melinda Ponder shares with Gabriella her choices while writing the biography of the 19th century American poet, writer, teacher and social activist, Katherine Lee Bates.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Melinda Ponder chose the title From Sea to Shining Sea
How Melinda represented the historical and cultural context of Katherine Lee Bates’s life, which was 19th century America after the end of the civil war.
Melinda describes the literary devices she employed to create a captivating narrative
Melinda also reveals how she balanced Katherine Lee Bates’s personal story with her activism and accomplishments as a poet and teacher.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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38 min
July 31, 2024Judith Brett: The Enigmatic Mr Deakin
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Judith Brett, the acclaimed political historian, chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. This biography of Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second Prime Minister, won the 2018 National Biography Award.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Judith Brett shares with us why she titled her biography The Enigmatic Mr Deakin.
Judith explains why she opened The Enigmatic Mr Deakin with a comparison between the notorious outlaw Ned Kelly and our second Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin.
Judith describes her painstaking research strategy and its complexities.
She reveals how she achieved a unique synthesis of Deakin’s public life with his beliefs, doubts, private struggles and spiritual wrestling.
Judith also reveals how she balanced technical details of politics and parliament to craft an engaging narrative for readers who might not have a political background.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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25 min
July 24, 2024Joshua Kendall: The Man Who Made Lists. Love, Death, Madness and the Creation of Roget’s Thesaurus.
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joshua Kendall chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing The Man Who Made Lists, his biography of Peter Mark Roget, the eighteenth-century polymath who created the legendary Roget’s Thesaurus.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Joshua felt compelled to write The Man Who Made Lists.
The meaning behind the book’s title.
Why Joshua decided to open the biography with a tragic scene involving Peter Roget.
How Joshua crafted a deeply nuanced portrait of Roget’s that conveys his complicated personality, relationships and behaviour.
How Joshua navigated the complexities of portraying mental illness.
Why Joshua began each chapter with an exhaustive list of synonyms.
Joshua’s research strategy given Roget lived two centuries ago.
How Joshua corroborated the fragmentary evidence he discovered in the archives.
How Joshua reconstructed scenes from Roget’s life that overflow with accurate historical details of famous people, events and settings.
The literary devices Joshua borrowed from novelists to create a captivating narrative.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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44 min
July 17, 2024Ryan Cropp: Donald Horne. A Life in the Lucky Country
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ryan Cropp shares with Gabriella the multiplicity of choices he made while writing Donald Horne. A Life in the Lucky Country, the biography of Donald Horne, a prominent and outspoken Australian journalist, writer, public intellectual and social critic.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Ryan Cropp felt compelled to write a biography of Donald Horne.
The meaning behind the second part of the book’s title: A Life in the Lucky Country.
Why Ryan opens the biography with a close up view of Horne sitting on a Sydney bus looking out the window while he was being filmed for a current affairs program.
Ryan’s exhaustive research strategy and how he narrowed the biographical scope to ensure he didn’t write a tome.
How Ryan incorporated information from Horne’s three autobiographies into the narrative, yet avoided serving as Horne’s ventriloquist given that memoirists are unreliable narrators of their own life.
How Ryan made Myfanwy, Horne’s wife and literary partner, a central character
How Ryan represented Myfanwy’s point of view given that the wives of prominent men are often invisible in the biographies of their husbands.
How Ryan achieved a fine balance between portraying Horne’s public, private and interior lives.
The literary devices Ryan employed to craft an enthralling narrative.
Ryan’s beliefs about the role of a biographer.
https://biographersinconversation.com
Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
Instagram: Biographersinconversation
38 min
July 10, 2024Marcia Biederman: The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill, Abortion, Death and Concealment in Victorian New England
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Marcia Biederman shares with Gabriella the choices she made while writing The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill, Abortion, Death and Concealment in Victorian New England.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Marcia Biederman felt compelled to write The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill
The book’s relevance today, more than a century after the events occurred.
Why Marcia opens the book with a gruesome finding.
Why she portrays the abortionist Nancy Guilford as an antihero rather than as a villain, heroine or victim.
The meaning underpinning the book’s themes, especially hypocritical attitudes to abortion that continue today in some countries.
Marcia’s narrative strategy.
How Marcia crafted a gripping, propulsive narrative that makes The Disquieting Death of Emma Gill read like a true crime novel rather than a biography.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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34 min
July 03, 2024Cathy Perkins: The Shelf Life of Zora Cross
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Cathy Perkins chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing The Shelf Life of Zora Cross, her biography of Zora Cross, a prolific writer who caused a literary sensation in 1917 with her provocative series of erotic sonnets that celebrated sexual passion. The Shelf Life of Zora Cross was shortlisted in the 2020 NSW Premier’s History Awards and highly commended in the 2021 National Biography Awards. This second edition of the acclaimed biography includes a foreword by Bernadette Brennan, winner of the National Biography Award in 2022.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
You’ll meet Zora Cross.
The meaning of the book’s title: The Shelf Life of Zora Cross.
Why Cathy opens the book with a scene of a young girl sitting and writing on her family’s verandah.
Why Cathy includes excerpts from Zora’s constant stream of stories published in the ‘Children’s Corner’ of the Australian Town and Country Journal.
Why Cathy quotes from so many of Zora’s 340 lengthy letters to the Sydney publisher George Robertson.
Why Cathy shapes the narrative with a series of self-contained chapters, each of them centered on Zora’s relationship with a literary luminary.
The novelistic devices Cathy employed to craft lyrical narrative.
The extent to which Cathy believes she captures the truth of her subject
Cathy’s thoughts on the role of a biographer.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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44 min
June 26, 2024Carl Rollyson: The Life of William Faulkner
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with veteran biographer Carl Rollyson about his two-volume biography of William Faulkner, a giant of 20th century literature who won the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes: The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead and The Life of William Faulkner: This Alarming Paradox. Carl also published William Faulkner Day by Day, which provides a unique insight into the minute of Faulkner’s daily life and relationships.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
The meaning of The Past Is Never Dead and This Alarming Paradox.
Why Carl chose to end The Past Is Never Dead in 1934.
How Carl oriented Faulkner within the historical, social and cultural context of his time.
How Carl crafted a portrait of the whole human being by balancing Faulkner’s public, professional and personal lives with literary criticism.
How Carl reconciled the contradictory aspects of Faulkner’s behaviour.
Why Carl crafted William Faulkner Day by Day and why he wrote the narrative in present tense.
Why Carl argues that Faulkner deserves to be reread as a literary figure and a still-relevant force, especially in relation to issues of race, sexuality and equality.
Carl’s views on the role of a biographer.
https://biographersinconversation.com
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Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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49 min
June 19, 2024Sarah George: GAMU: The Dreamtime Stories, Life and Feelings of Big Bill Neidjie
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Sarah George, who wrote GAMU: The Dreamtime Stories, Life and Feelings of Big Bill Neidjie. Known as Kakadu Man, Aboriginal elder Big Bill was instrumental in the establishment of the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park and he was deeply committed to preserving his land, culture and mother tongue.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
You’ll meet Indigenous elder Big Bill Neidjie
The role of Dreamtime stories in Aboriginal spirituality and culture
Why Big Bill wanted Dreamtime stories recorded and shared for future generations of Indigenous people.
Why it is crucial for non-Indigenous people to understand the cultural and spiritual significance of Dreamtime stories.
The meaning of the Indigenous word GAMU and why Big Bill chose this title for his book.
Why Sarah structured GAMU around 240 photographically illustrated pages of Big Bill’s Dreamtime stories, personal history, and his thoughts and feelings regarding problems faced by Aboriginal communities.
https://biographersinconversation.com
Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
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24 min

About Biographers in Conversation

From the publisher's feed

Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the myriad of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories. In every episode, she explores…