Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to crime writer Ashley Kalagain Blunt. Ashley tells us about the reality of being a bestselling author whilst navigating chronic illness. And we hear an excerpt of Janelle McMillan's book 'Rafting – A Wheelchair Won't Stop Us!'

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Janelle McMillan OAM is an artist and author who has cerebral palsy. While she describes herself as non-verbal she has a lot to say. She is feisty, determined and smart. Her children's book 'Rafting – A Wheelchair Won't Stop Us!' is available free of charge to all Tasmanian schools and educational institutions.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the number one bestselling author of Dark Mode, which was shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year, the Ned Kelly Awards for Best Crime Fiction, and the Danger Award for Debut Fiction. She teaches writing workshops across Australia. Her latest thrillers are Cold Truth, which was also shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards, and Like, Follow, Die.

Links and resources:

• Rafting - A Wheelchair Won't Stop Us! by Janelle McMillian OAM

• Like, Follow, Die by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

• Cold Truth by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

• Dark Mode by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

• Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Instagram: @AKalagianBlunt

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo, artist website

• Rosie Putland

• Fiona Murphy

• Honor Marino

Cover art: Judy Kuo

Music credits: -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF -Daybreak — Justin Lee (Uppbeat) License: 9CWBO7AAYYCBXDLC

Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to authors Carly Findlay and Gayle Kennedy. Carly tells us about the process of making a book tour accessible. Gayle shares her experiences of being denied access and inclusion.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Carly Findlay OAM is an award-winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. Her first book, a memoir called Say Hello, was released in Australia in January 2019. She also edited Growing Up Disabled in Australia with Black Inc Books, released in February 2021. She received an Order of Australia Medal for her work in disability advocacy and writing in 2020. Carly works part time as Melbourne Fringe's Access and Disability Lead. She writes on disability and appearance diversity issues for news outlets including the CNN, ABC, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, and SBS. She was a finalist in Marie Claire's Women of the Year Awards in 2023, and named as one of Australia's most influential women in the 2014 Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. She has appeared on You Can't Ask That, The Project and The Cook Up, and has been a regular on various ABC radio programs. She has spoken at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Writers Festival, the University of Western England and Melbourne University to name a few. She organised the history-making Access to Fashion, a Melbourne Fashion Week event featuring disabled models. Carly has a Masters of Communication and Bachelor of eCommerce. Carly identifies as a proud disabled woman - she has Ichthyosis and has survived Ovarian and Endometrial Cancer. Her hobbies include travel, cooking, fashion and reading. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Gayle Kennedy is a member of the Wongaiibon Clan of NSW and was the Indigenous Issues editor and writer for Streetwise Comics from 1995-1998. In 2005 her poetry manuscript 'Koori Girl Goes Shoppin'' was shortlisted for the David Unaipon Award, and in 2006 she won the David Unaipon Award for Me, Antman & Fleabag, which was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier's Literary Award, a Deadly Award and was commended in the Kate Challis RAKA Award. Gayle has published eleven children's books as part of the Yarning Strong (OUP) series, and six of these were nominated for the 2011 Deadly Award for Achievement in Literature.

Links and resources:

• Growing Up Disabled in Australia, edited by Carly Findlay:

• Say Hello by Carly Findlay

• Books written by Gayle Kennedy

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo

• Rosie Putland

• Fiona Murphy

• Honor Marino

Cover art: Judy Kuo

Music credits: -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF

Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to journalist Matilda Boseley and author Olivia Muscat. Matilda tells us how audio books and text to speech technology have become tools for work, pleasure and survival. Olivia shares how she decides what creative projects to work on.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Matilda Boseley is an award-winning social media reporter and presenter for Guardian Australia. She has spearheaded the publication's popular TikTok channel where she writes and hosts their short-form news explainers. Her work on the platform has won her a Quill Award for Innovation in Journalism and was nominated for a Walkley Award for the same category. Named Walkley Awards' 2019 Student Journalist of the Year, Matilda has also worked as a reporter and assistant chief of staff at 7 News Melbourne and as a breaking news reporter for The Age newspaper. She regularly reports on issues affecting young people, women and mental health and her first book, The Year I Met My Brain, documents her experiences and discoveries after being diagnosed with ADHD at 23 and investigates the hidden prevalence and costs of ADHD among adults. Now, she's written The ADHD Brain Buddy: a treasure trove of practical tips, activities and scientific insights to help you make it through the hard days, utilise the great ones and reflect on the impact ADHD has had throughout your life. All in the pursuit of making your world easier to navigate – and way more fun.

Olivia Muscat is a totally blind writer, performer, and disability arts activist. She uses her love of colour, whimsy, and music to tell stories that make people want to examine their attitudes to disabled people and to difference in general. She is the author of My Name Is Jemima, which was selected as a New York Public Library book of the year for 2025. Also in 2025 she premiered her autobiographical play Is Anyone Even Watching? as part of Melbourne Fringe, where she won the Change Maker award and the Outstanding Newcomer award. Her novel for younger readers Annie and Maeve are Definitely Not Friends is set for release by Fremantle Press in autumn 2026.

Links and resources:

• Olivia Muscat, Instagram: @wordsbyoliviamuscat

• Olivia Muscat, Newsletter

• Olivia Muscat, Threads: @wordsbyoliviamuscat

• Olivia Muscat

• My Name Is Jemima: A Tale of a Guide Dog Superstar by Olivia Muscat:

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo
• Rosie Putland
• Fiona Murphy
• Honor Marino

Cover art: Judy Kuo

Music credits: -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF

Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to Kay Kerr and Beau Windon. Kay tells us about her experience of using authenticity readers during the book writing process. Beau shares his trick for instantly creating trust and connection when teaching writing workshops.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Kay Kerr is an autistic journalist and author living on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. She has published three books—Young Adult novels Please Don't Hug Me and Social Queue, and non-fiction Love & Autism. Her fourth book, and first adult fiction, Might Cry Later, will be out in the new year.

Beau Windon is a neurodivergent author of Wiradjuri heritage based in Naarm. Unable to settle on just one genre of writing, he wields them all with wreckless abandon. His writing has won awards and been published widely. He's also currently doing his PhD in the Aesthetic Form of Neurodivergent Literary Memoir — which is quite the twist since he failed English in High School. If Beau could be any animal, he would be a chocolate egg – the kind with a toy hidden inside.

Links and resources:

• Kay Kerr

• Kay Kerr, Instagram

• Might Cry Later by Kay Kerr

• Beau Windon

• Beau Windon, Instagram: @whoisbeauwindon

• Beau Windon, Substack

• Beau Windon, LinkedIn

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo

• Rosie Putland

• Fiona Murphy

• Honor Marino

Cover art: Judy Kuo

Music credits: -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF

Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to author Kylie Maslen and poet Esther Ottaway. Esther tells us about working with 23 disabled writers to create the poetry anthology, Raging Grace. Kylie shares what it is like to write and edit a book on a tight deadline.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Kylie Maslen is a writer and critic living on Country stolen from the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains. Kylie's first book – SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS: LIVING WITH INVISIBLE ILLNESS – was shortlisted for the 2021 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in non-fiction, named in Guardian Australia's '20 best Australian books of 2020', named a Saturday Paper's 'Best new talent of 2020', included in bookseller Readings' 'Most talked about books of 2020' and declared 'a Millennial masterpiece' by Columbia University's Intima Journal of Narrative Medicine. Kylie's cultural criticism, social commentary and critical essays have appeared in the Guardian, Meanjin, InDaily, Adelaide Review, Crikey, Money Magazine, The Shot, Kill Your Darlings and Junkee, among other outlets. Kylie was an inaugural member of the External Strategic Advisory Board for Flinders University's Caring Future Institute and are the disability advocate on Splinter Journal's founding Advisory Committee.

Esther Ottaway is the author of She Doesn't Seem Autistic and a landmark anthology of Australian disability writing, Raging Grace: Australian writers speak out on disability (co-edited with Andy Jackson and Kerri Shying), and two other poetry volumes. She is the winner of the $25,000 Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry and People's Choice in the Tasmanian Literary Awards, and has won or been shortlisted for many international and Australian prizes. Esther convenes the Women's Poetry Oasis workshop series. She is AuDHD and has invisible physical disabilities.

Links and resources:

• Esther Ottaway

• Esther Ottaway, Instagram

• Raging Grace: Australian Writers Speak Out On Disability, Edited by Andy Jackson, Esther Ottaway and Kerri Shying

• Kylie Maslen

• Kylie Maslen, Patreon

• Kylie Maslen, instagram

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo

• Rosie Putland

• Fiona Murphy

• Honor Marino

Cover art: Judy Kuo

Music credits: -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF

Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk to author Micheline Lee and poet Andy Jackson. Micheline tells us why she didn't disclose her disability during the promotion of her first book. Andy shares the story about a night at a Brunswick pub that completely changed his writing career.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Andy Jackson is a poet, essayist, and lecturer in creative writing at the University of Melbourne. His latest poetry collection Human Looking won the ALS Gold Medal and the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry. Andy's poems are included in the anthologies Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets (Bloodaxe, UK, 2025) and Every Place on the Map is Disabled (Northwestern University Press, USA, 2026). He is a co-editor of Raging Grace: Australian Writers Speak Out on Disability (Puncher & Wattman 2024), and he writes and rests on Dja Dja Wurrung country.

Micheline Lee's novel, The Healing Party, was shortlisted for several awards including the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. Born in Malaysia, she migrated to Australia when she was eight. Micheline has lived with a motor neurone disability from birth. She is also a former human rights lawyer and painter. Her Quarterly Essay is called Lifeboat: Disability, Humanity and the NDIS.

Links and resources:

• Raging Grace: Australian Writers Speak Out On Disability, Edited by Andy Jackson, Esther Ottaway and Kerri Shying

• Andy Jackson

• Micheline Lee's books

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo

• Rosie Putland, Modality Co

• Fiona Murphy

• Honor Marino

Cover art: Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

Music credits: -Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF

Crip Culture is hosted by Rosie Putland and Fiona Murphy, our producer is Honor Marino. In this episode we talk about how we made an accessible podcast and the story behind our name. Our guests are Laura Pettenuzzo and Dr Scott Avery. Laura shares what crip time looks for a freelance writer. Dr Scott talks about when he unexpectedly discovered that he had written a book. We ask both of them about representation and whether the publishing industry is accessible.

Transcript

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania. Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast

Guest bios:

Laura Pettenuzzo is a disabled writer, speaker, authenticity reader and accessible communications professional. Her writing has appeared in places such as Griffith Review, Meanjin, Archer Magazine, Women's Agenda, ABC Lifestyle and The Age. She runs a business called All for Access, which supports individuals and organisations with plain language and Easy Read. Laura is also a co-editor and contributor to Crip Stories, an anthology of disabled writing to be published by NewSouth in 2026. You can usually find her trying to read or drink a cup of tea while being distracted by her cat.

Dr Scott Avery is a professor of Indigenous disability health and wellbeing in the School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney. He is an Aboriginal man descendant from the Worimi people and is profoundly deaf. Dr Scott is a recognised educator, researcher and policy adviser on Indigenous cultural approaches for the inclusion of people with disability. He has extensive experience in conducting community-based research and policy in Indigenous and disability organisations, and is the 'Professor in Residence' at the First Peoples Disability Network, an Indigenous Disabled Peoples Organisation. His publication 'Culture is Inclusion: A narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability' has influenced national policy across Closing the Gap, Australia's Disability Strategy, and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. He has been appointed as an expert advisor to numerous Government bodies, and has advocated on Indigenous and disability rights at the United Nations. He was appointed by the Australian Government as an Ambassador for the International Day of People with Disability in 2023.

Links and resources:

• No Place Like Home by Laura Pettenuzzo

• Nothing about us Without us by Laura Pettenuzzo,

• Laura Pettenuzzo, LinkedIn

• Laura Pettenuzzo, Instagram: @thisgirl_writes

• Culture is Inclusion: A narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability by Scott Avery

• Cover art by Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

• Judy Kuo, artist website

• Rosie Putland, Modality Co

• Fiona Murphy

• Honor Marino, audio producer

Cover art: Judy Kuo, Instagram: @judyk__

Music credits:

-Moments Like These — Simon Folwar (Uppbeat) License: BEB32FWJ6WULT877 -My Tiny Love — Soundroll (Uppbeat) License: VPFSMMM3K2C71ONF

Crip Culture is a disability-led podcast, hosted by award-winning writer Fiona Murphy and disability advocate/influencer Rosie Putland. Crip Culture shines a light on disability arts from publishing, film, TV, visual arts and beyond.

Season one explores the publishing industry: What is it like being a disabled author or editor? Is the industry welcoming? Or are there still barriers?

This podcast is proudly supported by Arts Tasmania and Print Radio Tasmania.

Follow us on Instagram @CripCulturePodcast