Final Draft - Great Conversations

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Yasmin Smith is an editor, writer and poet of South Sea Islander, Kabi Kabi, Northern Cheyenne and English heritage. Today Yasmin joins Andrew as the series editor of UQP’s First Nations Classics

The First Nations Classics series gathers prominent Indigenous voices who continuously, as they have always done, revive the literary landscape of this continent.

The First Nations Classics includes:

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

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Chloé Hayden is a speaker, actor, author, and disability rights activist. You might have caught her on the rebooted Heartbreak High where she plays Quinni.

Chloe was diagnosed as Autistic at age thirteen and all of her incredible and varied work aims to support, make visible and build understanding about Neurodiversity.

Different, Not Less is something of a clarion call to a Neurotypical word that Neurodiversity exists and that it is Different, Not Less. Chloe’s story is part biography, part manifesto, part warm hug for neurodiverse folk (who incidentally, make up about 12% of the population according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics).

Full disclosure here, In my day job I am a Speech Pathologist and supporting neurodiversity is a big and important part of what I try to do every day. For too long the work of understanding and making decisions for people on the Autism Spectrum has been left to Neurotypical people. I wanted to bring you all this book because it speaks so well to things that many of us don’t have in our daily experience, but that we need to understand to better make the world a place that is open for everyone.

Chloe’s book pulls back the veil on the ways that a neurotypical world too often gets it wrong when it comes to neurodiverse people. 

Taking the structure of Autobiography, Chloe explores her experiences from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. In these stories she talks about her confusion at not understanding why she didn’t fit in, her torment at the hands of people who wanted her to conform to a certain way of being and the harms she experienced trying to be someone she’s not.

Along the way she teaches the reader about what it means to be Autistic and (to come back to the title) why it is different not less.

Chloe bares her soul to help the reader understand sensory difference and how sensory processing underpins so much of our daily experiences. The book works to bring a relatable understanding of sensory processing and how extreme sensations can disrupt a person's daily experiences.

The story takes in what it means to feel apart, or outside the everyday of peers and family. Chloe explores her own pain to help people understand both what it means to be Autistic, but also what isn’t inherent, but is in fact a product of the way society treats people who are different.

Mental Health is a big and important conversation in the book. Chloe has a wonderful way of introducing the topic and of preparing readers with signals for topics that may be too much. 

And there’s a lot in this book that feels too much. We are shown the harm that is done in a one-size-fits-all world, a world that has little tolerance for difference.

There’s a lot to recommend Different Not Less but I would say it is hard to go past its heart and the generous way Chloe Hayden takes her platform and uses it to support a world that has not done its fair share to understand. 

Neurodiversity is about all of us and supporting neurodiverse folks means taking more time to listen to their stories and then changing our world to be a more open place.

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

George’s life feels too loud. Her best friend Tess has decided to get pregnant at eighteen, but George will be there for her just like she always has been.

She’ll be there for Tess just like she’s there for her family and her friends. George is even trying to find a way to be there for her estranged dad when he calls her out of the blue to drop some world shattering news.

George will be there for them all because she doesn’t know how to not be there for them. It’s all too noisy.

And now with fires ringing the city, her dad’s incessant calls and a new girl appearing on the beach. George can’t help feeling when something might just be for her.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Today on book club we're previewing University of Queensland Press' new First Nations Classics series.

The First Nations Classics collects incredible writers and brings their works back to the reading public. This series opens up the landscape of writing in so-called Australia and asks questions about who gets to tell the story and what it means to be a classic.

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Martha Elliott’s approach to psychotherapy is unconventional, but her unorthodox methods have not gone unnoticed… 

The arrival of a mysterious couple in Martha's office sets in motion a series of events that will cut to heart of Martha’s practice and deep into the raw truths about human nature, forcing Martha to confront her own demons. Who are they, and what do they know about Martha? 

Join Andrew and discover Hugh Mackay’s The Therapist

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Two years ago I called Emily Spurr's A Million Things heart-warming with a killer twist.

It's time to revisit our book club and see how it stands up.

Did you check it out (and if so what did you think?!?)

Loved this review?

You can get more books, writing and literary culture every week on the Final Draft Great Conversations podcast. Hear interviews with authors and discover your next favourite read!

Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

Benjamin Law is a Guest Curator for this years Sydney Writers' Festival. Ben joins Andrew to talk books, writing and how the stories we tell help shape the world we live in.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Welcome back to Book Club on 2SER. 

Today, we have "The Bell of the World" by Gregory Day. 

Gregory Day is a writer, poet and musician. I loved his last novel A Sand Archive and so am excited to be bringing you Greg’s latest, The Bell of the World

In The Bell of the World Sarah Hutchison journeys to Ngangahook, a bush property near Geelong. Ngangahook is run by her Uncle Ferny and Sarah is there to rediscover herself after drifting from her days in an English boarding school. 

Surrounded by nature, Sarah the world as distinct from the trappings of ‘society’. Ngangahook attracts the unconventional and Sarh begins to infuse her poetry and music with elements plucked from her surroundings.

As the coterie of like minded souls at Ngangahook grows, so too does the world surrounding it. How long can Sarah and her uncle hold out against a world that seeks to civilize them and destroy the natural world they protect? 

As I delved into the pages of "The Bell of the World," I found myself drawn into the expansive scope of Sarah's journey. The majority of the narrative unfolds during the early years of Australia's Federation but Day’s narrative is concerned with the entirety of so-called Australia’s history and white Australia’s struggles to reconcile itself to the land it overtook.  

Gregory Day brings this era to life as a creative era of development, highlighting its significance in shaping the country's identity. Against this we have the destructive impulse of the civilising force represented in the ‘bell’ that the townsfolk would have hung in their rural outpost.

While the bells toll would bring time and structure into their daily lives it would sound out the natural call of life that has resonated through the region for thousands of years; Sarah’s Bell of the World.

Building on the themes from his previous work, "A Sand Archive," Day continues to examine the relationship between humanity and nature. In "The Bell of the World," the tension between Ngangahook and the encroaching modern world represents the struggle to preserve and appreciate nature amidst relentless progress and societal pressures.

This struggle is not simply anm environmental concern. Rather it represents a severing of our human nature from the world around it. Sarah and Ferny strive to live with the land and move away from a sense of human exceptionalism while the town clings to its separateness as a kind of talisman against what it views as wild and unforgiving.

Day’s treatment of this tension dives into the human impulse to create art and offers up fascinating ideas of this creative process.

Ferny's is shown to be infatuated with Joseph Furphy's novel, "Such is Life." The novel is a talisman for Ferny with its evocative capturing of Australian life, and when it wears out is rebound in a most surprising way that was reminiscent to me of modern sample culture and remixing of ideas and influences.

Another fascinating element is Sarah's modification of the piano at Ngangahook, using found natural elements. The resulting songs become a blend of ephemeral sounds and representations of their world. This raises questions about the possibility of creating art that remains wild and natural, or whether our very presence adulterates nature.

In the midst of the growing unrest in the region, the bell becomes a focal point of the town’s feelings about Sarah, Fernny, and Joe's unconventional living arrangements. There's an undercurrent of cultural clash, that mirrors our modern sense of tension and unease at things we don’t want to understand.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love.

These are the stories that make us who we are.

In this special presentation Felix Shannon, host of Death of the Reader sits down with Pip Williams to discuss her new novel The Bookbinder of Jericho.

Pip Williams is the much loved author of The Dictionary of Lost Words

In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying at Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her.

When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

Want more great conversations with Australian authors?

Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Get in touch with Andrew and Final Draft. We love to hear about what you’re reading!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/finaldraft2ser 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/finaldraft2ser/ 

Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay writer and Song of the Crocodile is her debut novel.

The town of Darnmoor promises itself as ‘The Gateway to Happiness’. Within the town though is a world divided. The white population live on the paved streets and brick buildings, while down the old black road, past the tip are The Campgrounds.

Margaret lives out at the Campgrounds with her daughter Celie and Celie’s husband Tom. The family have their lives and their love for each other but they also know that once all the lands surrounding Darnmoor were theirs. 

Tom’s got a mind to fix things though. He’s heading to the city where there’s the promise of men who’ll listen. Men who might affect change.

Except the people of Darnmoor aren’t looking for change and they don’t want the campgrounds and its residents closer to town.

Song of the Crocodile is a generational tale. Across decades of the mid-twentieth century the reader travels alongside members of the Billymil family and their lives in Darnmoor.

The book is a fiction about the very real stories of dispossession, oppression, often outright murder that are woven throughout the history of this country. Too often understood but rarely told.

As we move through the generations, Song of the Crocodile paints a tale of resilience against incredible hardship. I don’t want to say too much and reveal the story but truthfully much of this story is the stuff that we often feel cannot be spoken aloud.

From the outset we learn that lives in the Campgrounds are considered cheap. Even as Tom sets out to try and find a way to improve their lives forces are mustered against him.

The actions of the white townspeople; both overt and covert are heaped against The Billymil family as they are against all of the residents of the campgrounds. Despite this Song of the Crocodile shows us the endurance of The Billymil and how their connections; to each other, to their land and to their history carries them forward. 

A part of this connection is the entwined lives of the family and teh ways their connection transcend their terrestrial existence. That felt like a mouthful, but I wanted to express the way that Simpson brings in elements of a broader conception of culture and spiritualism without resorting to overused terms like ‘magic-realism’.

Within the novel characters interact with cosmic, creator beings and thus we see their lives and their roles in the grand narrative extended. That’s not to say this is a fantasy novel, or that the book takes us into genre in any of the conventional ways. 

The feeling I got as I read is that Nardi Simpson has invited us as readers to experience something of the storytelling that is intrinsic to her being. In doing so she shares an understanding of the world that includes multigenerational lineages that aren’t necessarily ended upon death. It also includes an entwined relationship between land, water and sky that sees human beings a part of the greater whole and hence subject and responsible for how they treat their environment.

I can’t help but reflect that my thoughts here are inadequate. They don’t fully capture my reading of Song of the Crocodile; the joys and rage at the turns of the family. My horror and guilt that as white Australians we are inheritors of the wrong side of these stories. Yes this is fiction but it speaks to a myriad tales that were covered up. Stories that must be heard and understood.

Go check out Nardi Simpson’s Song of the Crocodile