Edits & Annotations

We're kicking off our second season in the company of the brilliant Steve MinOn, whose debut novel First Name Second Name spans four generations, ranging from the Queensland gold fields of the 1860s, to Brisbane and back up north again . . . with a walking corpse.

Steve joins Bethany to talk about the importance of building a community of writers, world building, identity, and, of course, names.

Sarah Burke is a PhD candidate at the Indigenous Education and Research Centre at James Cook University, Townsville. She was selected for the QPAC/Playlab Sparks program in 2023 and was awarded the 2020 Mabel Innes Prize for Lyric Verse. Her creative writing moves across forms and genres, exploring the gothic, ghost stories, fantasy and bush landscapes in poetry, prose and scripts. 

This episode is in partnership with the Emerging Writers Festival 2025. 

Please note: this episode contains discussion of cancer. 

Chelsea is a PhD student at James Cook University, Townsville. Her research explores the intersection of true crime, life writing and feminist poetry. She was awarded the P.F Rowland Memorial Prize in 2023 for producing the most outstanding BA Honours thesis in English. Her current project poses biographical poetry as a nuanced writing tool for the re-mediation and re-vision of dominant narratives surrounding women victims and perpetrators of crime.  

This episode is in partnership with the Emerging Writers Festival 2025. 

Please note: this episode references violent crimes.

Jade Reilly is an emerging writer from Toowoomba, Queensland. She is a criminologist working in social policy who uses her unique insights into criminal behaviour to write crime fiction that explores the dark side of human nature but with a touch of hope. Keep an eye out for her debut novel that explores intergenerational trauma and family secrets.  

This episode is in partnership with the Emerging Writers Festival 2025.  

Please note: this episode discusses domestic and family violence, PTSD, and childhood cancer. 

In this bonus episode, go behind the scenes and join Bethany, Mia and Tenille as they discuss their creative writing PhDs, writing in regional areas, and their favourite moments of producing season one of Edits & Annotations.

Kate Grenville has published 18 books over her 40-year career. Her novels include The Idea of Perfection, Lilian’s Story, Joan Makes History, The Secret River, and Restless Dolly Maunder, which was shortlisted for the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary award. In this episode, Kate talks to Bethany about historical perspectives, women's history, and the Doctorate of Creative Arts that became The Secret River.

In this episode, Tenille chats with essayist and critic Cher Tan about her book Peripathetic, what makes a great book review, the impact of the internet on writing and culture, and producing art in the era of late capitalism.

In this panel episode, Mia speaks with former CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Dr Paul Hardisty, and award-winning Icelandic writer, Andri Snær Magnason, on how to craft powerful environmental stories. How do we find language big enough to describe the magnitude of the climate crisis that lies before us? Reaching across two hemispheres, this episode explores the interconnected plights of glaciers and coral reefs through elegy, metaphor and personal narrative.

Boori Monty Pryor has had an extraordinary career as both a writer and musician, penning award-winning children's books and television shows and touring schools around Australia. In this episode, Boori speaks with Tenille about working across different mediums, the connection between music and writing, and the power of storytelling.

Alli Parker is the author of At the Foot of the Cherry Tree and Tania Blanchard is the author of six novels, The Girl from Munich, Suitcase of Dreams, Letters from Berlin, Daughter of Calabria/Echoes of War, A Woman of Courage, and An Undeniable Voice. Each of these books are inspired by family histories and play with the relationship between history and fiction. Bethany speaks to Alli and Tania in conversation about their approaches to novelising family stories, including the challenge of telling personal stories to a public audience.