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.

Addi Road Writers' Festival is now in its third year.

Festival Artistic Directors Mark Mordue and Sheila Ngọc Phạm join Andrew on the show to talk about their festival theme for 2023 ‘Inner Worlds’ and creating an unofficial fringe to the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

DETAILS

Date: Saturday 20th May, 2023

Venue: Addison Road Community Centre

142 Addison Road

Marrickville

Time: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

Tix: https://events.humanitix.com/addi-road-writers-fest 

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!

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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.

This week's Book Club features an exclusive reading from Sarah Holland-Batt's The Jaguar

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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!

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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.

Michael Thompson is a journalist, producer, media executive and co-founder of the podcast production company Fear and Greed. How to Be Remembered is his debut novel.

Tommy Llewelyn’s got a problem. Tommy wakes up every fifth of January to a world that's forgotten him. Each year his life resets; No records, no belongings, no memories. No trace Tommy ever existed.

It’s a problem Tommy’s been enduring ever since he was born and the universe is showing no sign of letting up.

When Tommy meets Carey Price though, everything changes. 

The universe still seems to be out to get him but Tommy’s finally got a reason to fight back. This time he’s going to be remembered.

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/ 

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.

Paul Ashford Harris is the author of books for adults and children as well as two plays. He’s joining me today with his new historical novel Love, Oil, and the Fortunes of War

It is the early twentieth century and Europe is in a state of unrest. German ambition and growing naval power threatens the balance of power in the region and across the world.

With an aging, ailing navy holding it back Britain finds itself vulnerable on the high seas and at home. 

Love, Oil, and the Fortunes of War is the story of three unique, disparate individuals and the role they played in modernizing ancient battleships and changing the course of history…

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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Today’s book club is Helena Fox’s The Quiet and The Loud.

Helena’ debut novel, 2019’s How it Feels to Float was an incredible exploration of mental health and resilience, garnering the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award.

In The Quiet and The Loud Fox again takes us into the messy, complex and wonderful world of being young, showing the reader that while it will present us with seemingly immense problems it will also surround us with people who can support us.

George is going to be there for Tess. Sure their other friends had big questions when Tess decided to get pregnant at eighteen, but George will be there for her just like she always has been.

George will be there for Tess just like she’s there for her grandfather, her mums, Laz. 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 is going to be there for them all because she doesn’t know how not to be there for them all and she doesn’t know what to do with these feelings for Calliope, the new girl on the beach. The new girl who’s giving George feelings that might just be for her.

The Quiet and the Loud throws us headfirst, hands bound and with no life preserver into the life of George. George finds her world is too often, too noisy. The only place she can get any quiet is out on the water.

Now even paddling is getting complicated as memories resurface. Memories of when she was younger. Memories of how her dad could be erratic; like the night he took George out on the water in a canoe and left her there to go swimming.

Through George’s narration we are taken, sometimes too-close, into the world of complex trauma. George’s childhood has left her with difficulty managing the relationships in her life. She has trouble saying no, trouble keeping enough of herself quiet to stay above water.

Helena Fox’s writing has a way of making this ‘too loud, too close’ claustrophobia feel incredibly real. George’s anxieties become our own as we are immersed in her world and we are threatened with overwhelm as she tries to keep it all straight.

The novel shows us what it means to feel the pressures of everything weighing in. Now only is George struggling to manage her best friend's pregnancy, her dad’s news and a new relationship but fires are now threatening to surround Sydney even as they engulf parts of the state and the country.

The Quiet and The Loud takes all of this in and more importantly it takes it seriously because the pressures of the world are serious, even when you’re only eighteen and people want to tell you they know better.

This is a novel that dives deep into mental health and doesn’t emerge with trite solutions, rather it sits with the complexity even when it feels overwhelming. I found it a rough, immersive but ultimately worthwhile read because it showed me something that too often we only suspect; everyone’s doing it tough (at least sometimes) but that doesn’t mean we aren’t worthy of the time for ourselves.

This one’s fresh (today is publication day) so go check out Helena Fox’s The Quiet and The Loud

Ann Mossop is an ideas curator and festival programmer.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.

Sydney Writers Festival returns this May!

The festival is annual gathering of writers from Australia and across the world. It’s been described amongst the best writers festivals in the world with hundreds of writers across events Sydney wide.

Festival Artistic Director Ann Mossop joins Andrew on the show to chat books, programs and how to curate ideas.

Discover the full Sydney Writers Festival program here...

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/ 

Tommy Llewelyn’s got a problem. Every year on the fifth of January his life resets. No records, no belongings, no memories. No trace Tommy ever existed.

It’s a problem Tommy’s been enduring ever since he was born and the universe is showing no sign of letting up.

When Tommy meets Carey Price though, everything changes. 

The universe still seems to be out to get him but Tommy’s finally got a reason to fight back. This time he’s going to be remembered.

How To Be Remembered is the debut novel from Journalist and podcaster Michael Thompson.

How To Be Remembered opens on the suburban life of the Palmer’s. They’re upwardly mobile in a fairly standard way. Some might even say forgettable. Everything’s going to plan until Elise gets pregnant. Their lives progress until little Tommy’s first birthday approaches and well… you know what happens next.

Tommy’s first reset sees him estranged from his family and entered into the foster system. From here his life is an uphill battle as he struggles to understand what is happening to him through the eyes of a child.

From the get go How To Be Remembered knows where the heartstrings are and isn’t afraid to tug them.

The character of Tommy is immediately endearing and sympathetic. Thompson gives us enough to care about him and want to see him succeed even as he battles with his own special groundhog scenario.

The thing with this book is that it would have been all too easy to set up a standard hero's quest on the road to Tommy overcoming his ‘condition’. There are plenty of signposts that point to this archetype; an adversary, a love interest, a goofy best friend. All reassuring you that things are going to be alright.

It’s almost like Thompson wants you to feel this familiar story shape even as he carefully foreshadows that Tommy is not going to have his romantic climax. Because remember, Tommy is destined to reset, no one will remember.

As we shuck off the weeds of narrative determinism the we are left to conclude that Tommy is not destined to be part of some grand story precisely because Tommy is something of a guide for existing outside of stories. Tommy must find a way to exist outside of the universe’s plans. 

I think the point here is that Tommy’s condition has forced him out of the autopilot of modern life. Tommy can’t fall back on the ‘plans’ we see his birth parents making, he can’t fulfill the expectations or become the cliche. Tommy has to carve out something meaningful or risk having nothing at all.

I found How To Be Remembered a really poignant and affecting story. Even when I knew it was going in for the emotional kill it still got me (and I found myself more than a little moist in the ocular area).

The thing for me was whether or not I felt for Tommy (and at times he kinda lost me) I always felt for his situation and I truly wanted to believe in his mythology where best friends and lovers always end up back in each other's lives.

How To Be Remembered hits all the right emotional notes and is well paced, leaving me more than a little tired in the mornings after I told myself ‘just one more chapter’. This is definitely a book for the romantics and those of us looking for a life less ordinary.

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.

Zoya is a writer and communications professional. She is the founder of feminist arts and literature journal Feminartsy. She has been the Chair of the Stella Prize judging panel in 2021. Her debut book No Country Woman was a collection of memoir essays. Today Zoya joins us with her first novel Once a Stranger.

Ayat’s mother is dying. It has been six years since the two have been together, a rift seemingly impossible to heal.

But now Ayat has received a call from her sister Laila; their mother doesn’t have long to live and somehow they must reconcile. To reunite as a family.

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/ 

Every year when summer rolls around I take a break from reading new Australian novels and take a tangent into literature that I often can’t find the time for throughout the year.

This summer I reignited my love of Japanese literature and decided I wanted to find some new works that challenged my understanding. 

Now I’m a sucker for a talking cat and so I want to mention Sôsuke Natsukawa’s whimsical novel The Cat Who Saved Books. Truly though, the novel I read that shook me and really challenged my thinking is Sayaka Murata’s Earthlings.

Natsuki Sasamoto is certain she’s a wizard. She’s certain she’s not a part of the world of her family and developing her powers seems a sensible way to escape their world.

On their annual trip to the families home in the mountains Natsuki’s cousin Yuu confides that he is in fact an alien. It’s a fact Natsuki takes in her stride, confident Yuu is from the same planet as her plush Hedgehog Piyyut. Natsuki and Yuu pledge their love to each other and survive their lives in the real world on the promise that they will reunite at the family’s annual gathering where they will be picked up by a ship from Yuu’s home planet.

Like so many promises of childhood, Natsuki and Yuu are not able to fulfill their love and are instead ripped apart by their respective families.

Natsuki grows up with her cousin, a distant and unspoken memory. But the trauma of her childhood has shaped her irrevocably. In Natsuki’s estimation of the world, everyone is a component in a machine built for breeding and maintaining the status quo. 

Natsuki enters a celibate marriage with a man equally suspicious of society and is superficially happy. Until she and her husband embark on a trip that sees her return to the family’s mountain home where Yuu is now living.

Earthlings is a strange and disquieting novel. It’s a kind of social dystopia showing us a familiar world of modern cosmopolitan life morphed into a surreal organic machine. I was so beguiled by this idea that I found myself wondering if there is a term for something like the opposite of anthropomorphism.

Fun fact, there is; Chremamorphism.

Earthlings is a thought provoking novel. That doesn’t feel adequate…

This is a novel about social isolation and the ways dominant narrative can seriously marginalise and traumatise people who do not fit the (so-called) typical mold.

I’m going to throw a trigger warning on here for potential readers. There are some deeply troubling scenes in the book. It would be too much to spoil these moments but definitely go in with your eyes open.

For me I found my curiosity more than rewarded with a novel that flips our sense of social cohesion and opens up a world of dangerous wonder.

Discovering Earthlings has opened me up to Sayaka Murata’s writing and now I just need to find another free stretch of time to explore her other works.

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.

Shirley Le is a Vietnamese-Australian writer from Yagoona. She is a Creative Producer at Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement. Shirley’s writing has been published in Kill Your Darlings, The Griffith Review, Meanjin and several Sweatshop anthologies. My old bio used to say (Shirley is currently working on her debut novel with Affirm Press.) but now it’s out and we are talking about Funny Ethnics

Sylvia has just dropped a bombshell on her parents; she’s dropping law to focus on her writing. It’s a blow few parents are equipped to take and Sylvia’s parents are only too quick to remind her of their struggles fleeing Vietnam for a better life in Australia.

As Sylvia’s father points out the perilous future awaiting artists (he’s not quite so polite in his phrasing) Syliva takes us on a trip through her life and the perennial clash between her dreams and the expectations of her family and community.

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/