Booksmart

Sara M Saleh is a writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants.  Her poetry is not only an inherently political act, but a deeply personal one. We could not think of a better person to join Hannah for the final episode of Booksmart of 2023.

With her first full-length poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat, Sara introduces us to the lives of girls and women as they come into being amidst war, colonial and patriarchal violence, and exile and migration. This searing work interrogates and represents the complexity of Arab-Australian Muslim women’s identities as they negotiate an irresistible world full of music and family, grit and grief, love and loss.

This is an important episode, that is definitely worth a listen.

In the (highly) unlikely chance that Hannah Ferguson isn't on your radar, then we want to change that ASAP.

Hannah  is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cheek Media Co, an independent Australian news commentary platform providing informed, progressive opinions on subjects that sit at the intersection of feminist, social and political issues. Cheek aims to make difficult topics accessible and entertaining, and to model hard and important conversations, mobilising changemakers in our community (so basically, go and follow them NOW).

We're obsessed with Hannah's new book Bite Back - a book that will provoke you to think and spark important conversations around media, politics, and feminism. Hannah Diviney from Missing Perspectives sat down with Hannah to unpack the themes behind her new book - and it's an episode not to be missed.

This week, Alicia Vrajlal from Missing Perspectives sits down with journalist Elfy Scott to discuss Elfy's book The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About.

Elfy grew up in a household where her mother’s schizophrenia was rarely, if ever, spoken about. They navigated this silence outside the family home too; for many years, this complex mental health condition was treated as an open secret.

Over the past two decades, we have started talking more about common mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. But complex conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis have been left behind, as have many of the people who live with these conditions or who care for them.

Part memoir, part deep-dive investigation, The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About is filled with rage at how our nation’s public discourse, emergency services and healthcare systems continue to fail so many people. It is also a work of care, telling the little-heard stories of people who live with these conditions and work at the front lines of mental health. Above all, this timely, compelling book is informed by hope and courage, breaking down taboos and asking big questions about vulnerability, justice and duty of care.

We really hope to get a lot out of this episode.

We know we say this about every episode of Booksmart...but this is a really special episode.

This week, social worker and former Wayside Aboriginal Cultural Centre Manager Cassandra Ashcroft interviews Amani Haydar about her incredible book, The Mother Wound.  

Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder.

After her mother's death, Amani began reassessing everything she knew of her parents' relationship. They had been unhappy for so long - should she have known that it would end like this? A lawyer by profession, she also saw the holes in the justice system for addressing and combating emotional abuse and coercive control.

In this moving discussion, Cassandra and Amani talk about their own lived experience, the power of female resilience, and the role of motherhood in the home and in the world. This is truly a conversation not to be missed.

Welcome to a very special episode of Booksmart! This week, we invited athlete and equal pay advocate Lucy Small to interview Chloe Dalton about her new book Girls Don't Play Sport. Girls Don't Play Sport is a fierce manifesto for supporting female athletes at all levels, exploring how we got to this point, and where we need to go next to embrace the untapped potential of women's sport. Chloe is one of Australia's few triple sport elite athletes, and is also the Founder of the [female] athlete project - the fastest growing women's sport platform in the country (just casually).

We really hope you enjoy this chat - particularly in light of the Matildas absolutely killing it this week in the Olympic qualifiers! 

For this week's Booksmart chat, Phoebe got to sit down with the brilliant Shankari Chandran to discuss her latest book Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (that casually won the Miles Franklin Literary Award....!).

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is a moving book about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to storytelling and how our stories shape who we are.

A note to listeners: this episode was recorded ahead of the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. 

Introducing our first ever episode of Booksmart: a podcast for people who see books and storytelling as the keys to unlocking the world around us. It’s a first step into the Big Stuff (social issues) that define, confuse and fascinate us.

We thought it was fitting to kick off with our very own Editor-in-Chief Hannah Diviney - and unpack her new memoir I'll Let Myself In.  Hannah's memoir is a defiant coming of age story about a young woman coming to terms with all that she is, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Hannah sat down with Missing Perspectives team member Tash to talk about why she wrote the book, what it means to be a young woman with cerebral palsy, and finding her voice. 

We've curated our ultimate reading list at Booktopia - so be sure to check it out: https://www.booktopia.com.au/missing-perspectives/promo4122.html