Final Draft - Great Conversations

Michelle Cahill is a poet, author and essayist. Her short story collection Letter to Pessoa (Giramondo) won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing and Michelle has a slew of awards and nominations. Michelle’s latest novel is Daisy and Woolf.

Daisy & Woolf works itself into the spaces between the seminal Virginia Woolf novel Mrs Dalloway.

Woolf’s novel expands across a single day in London society. Clarissa Dalloway embarks to order the flowers. She will host a party that night and she must be prepared. Across the city characters intersect and nearly miss each other in a web of events and reminiscences.

One character, remarked upon but who never speaks in Daisy Simmons. It is Daisy who Michelle Cahill rescues from her literary silence to explore her lot and inner world. In doing so Cahill is opening up her novel to the silenced voices of Anglo Indian character who very much occupied Woolf’s mind but failed to feature in her novel.

1924 - Daisy Simmons works to arrange passage from Calcutta to London. She must leave her family, desperate to be reunited with her lover Peter Walsh. It is a journey that demands much from her and will extract a price. What can she expect on the other side of the world and is it worth her exercising this reckless freedom?

2017 - Mina is a writer trying to pull together the threads of Virginia Woolf’s work into a unique novel. Mina wants to restore agency and voice to Daisy, giving her the story Woolf glossed over.

As Mina works to free Daisy from her fictional invisibility she must also reconcile herself to the bonds of her own world; career, family and duty all pulling on her. These are the so-called responsibilities a woman must meet and in shucking them off to write in London Mina must learn to make peace with the costs a writer must pay in bringing a life onto the page…

I found Daisy & Woolf a delightfully literary novel. In writing into the cannon of modernist literature Cahill is challenging us to understand what the cannon means to us (and by way of clarification - by cannon I mean the books that are prescribed on syllabus, you know the ones you’re told you simply have to read)

With great affection for Woolf, Cahill also challenges the narrowness of the voices she presents to us. Daisy’s world is rich and varied but also beset by its own power dynamics.

It seems that in any story some voices will invariably be privileged over others. Just as Woolf failed to give us a whisper of Daisy, in turn Cahill must struggle with the story of Rhadhika. This is not a fault of the book, rather it challenges us as the reader to understand the limitations of storytelling (and I think in turn challenges us to read widely and of many authors with unique perspectives).

The stories of Daisy & Woolf intersect to show us the ways that women are hemmed into ways of living and prescribed modes of being. Both Daisy and Mina struggle with their role as mother and the expectations that their own lives should be secondary to their child.

Both Daisy and Mina adventure, but with consequence as the novel travels the reader across the globe.

Daisy & Woolf is a lush and beautifully realized exploration of life as told through literature. It’s both an homage and a challenge to the literary lives many of us love to get lost in and it left me with a fresh perspective on how I read a novel.

Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople

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

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The Final Draft Great Conversations 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 Haddad is a writer, artist and doctoral candidate at the Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University.

George joins us with his new novel Losing Face

Losing Face is a story about Family…

Joey’s nineteen; young and directionless. His Tayta Elaine feels old and wonders at the directions her life has taken her in. Elaine worries about where Joey is heading.

The friends Joey hangs out with aren’t the sort you bring home to meet your parents, his job isn’t taking him anywhere and his true friends are busy with uni. Joey feels like he has more to offer but he’s a spectator in his own life and that’s about to lead him into a terrible situation, one that will change many lives, a moment that he won’t be able to take back…

Discover George Haddad’s Losing Face...

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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Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler are the authors of the critically acclaimed novel Black Cockatoo. Carl is a Jaru and Kija man from Halls Creek. He works with young Indigenous boys focusing on improving engagement with education. Carl was nominated for Australian of the Year in 2016. Hakea is an English teacher who has taught around Australia including in remote Aboriginal communities.

Deklan Archer, Dek to his friends, arrives at school to news that has shocked the community. Old Mr Henry, infamous for selling sly grog to locals, has been found drowned.

To make matters worse, the bus returning the Year Twelve camp is running late. This has got Dek stressed because he and his mates were mucking around near the bus.

The cops are talking to everyone and Dek is one of the first students called up. Could Mr Henry’s death be murder, and if so what does that mean for the busload of missing students?

From the start Tracks of the Missing draws the reader into its adventure. From Dek’s perspective this a calamity; he’s got family and friends on the bus and he knows the cops don’t understand the country well enough to search properly.

Dek wants to investigate and he and his mates are ready to ditch school and join their family. It’s not that simple though. Dek has a big footy trial coming up. It’s not often the big city scouts come to their remote community. If Dek misses the chance to show his skills then he might miss the only chance he has to get out of town and see the world.

Dek’s hand is forced when his Grandfather, a renowned tracker, enlists him to the search. Hitting the road with a reluctant police officer they head into the bush away from the main search party. Grandfather has a feeling and Dek backs him up, but there is something worrying them both this time.

Carl and Hakea’s style in Tracks of the Missing is sharp and pacy. When we spoke for Final Draft they described wanting to engage young readers in a way that is exciting but isn’t off putting to those who feel less confident in their reading skills.

Carl also talked about wanting to engage young men, particularly in the communities where he’s worked with stories that relate to their personal experience.

Tracks of the Missing is a thrilling mystery but at its heart Dek vacillates between the pull to solve it, to save his family and friends and to leave it all behind to follow his footy dreams. Carl talked to me about this pull and the need to walk in two worlds.

The novel also highlights the relationship between Dek and his Grandfather. As they track the missing bus, Dek reflects on the skills his grandfather has taught him and how they will be lost when Grandfather dies. Dek is like so many young Indigenous people building connections with culture and worrying that the generation that carries that culture is getting older.

Tracks of the Missing also does fascinating things with white conceptions of genre. If you think you know YA, or adventure, or even fantasy, Tracks will shake down your preconceptions and introduce new ways to think about these storytelling tropes.

I found Tracks of the Missing a real wild ride with a strong heart. It taught me something about the legacy of colonization and dispossession and challenged my notions of the endurance of culture.

Tracks of the Missing is out now from Magabala Books, and just a quick shout out to Magabala. They are an independent Indigenous publishing house that have been around since the eighties. They produce an incredible range of titles from first nations writers, most particularly books for younger readers. If you’re concerned with supporting a change in the kids of stories that are told in this country and offering Indigneous perspectives to young readers they are a must and always my go to when buying books for family and young friends.

The Final Draft Great Conversations 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.

Michelle Cahill is a poet, author and essayist. Her short story collection Letter to Pessoa (Giramondo) won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing and Michelle has a slew of awards and nominations.

Michelle join Andrew with her new novel Daisy and Woolf.

1924 - Daisy Simmons works to arrange passage from Calcutta to London. She will leave her family, her life to be reunited with her lover Peter Walsh.

2017 - Mina is trying to write a novel. She will restore agency and voice to Daisy, a woman who was never even given a voice in Virginia Woolf’s seminal novel Mrs Dalloway. As Mina works to free Daisy from her fictional invisibility Mina must also reconcile herself to the bonds of career, family and duty to make peace with the responsibility of a writer bringing life onto the page…

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 Great Conversations 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 Artistic Director Michael Williams joins Andrew on this special bonus episode

Michael has been the director of the Wheeler Centre, a presenter on Radio National and RRR down in Melbourne.

Michael joined SWF during the pandemic and has been instrumental in sheparding the festival through that turbulent time

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 Great Conversations 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.

Dinuka McKenzie's debut crime fiction novel, The Torrent, won the HarperCollins Australia 2020 Banjo Prize

Dinuka joins Ben Herder from 2ser's Death of the Reader in conversation on the podcast today.

Heavily pregnant and about to go on maternity leave, Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is counting down the days. When a violent hold-up at a local fast-food restaurant reveals unsettling connections to her own past, Kate knows her final days are going to be complicated.

Meanwhile, a simple informal review into the closed case of man drowned in floods is growing into something more complicated. Secrets and betrayals threaten Kates last days, and Kate is forced to consider how far is she prepared to push to discover the truth?

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 I’ve brought you all a book that I flew through. I don't know which cliche you want to invoke; page turner, unputdownable, I found myself thinking of them all as I devoured George Haddad’s Losing Face.

George Haddad is an award winning writer from Western Sydney. He won the Viva la Novella for his story Populate or Perish and is a doctoral candidate at the Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University.

Losing Face is told between the narrative perspectives of Joey and his Tayta Elaine.

Elaine came to Australia as a young wife from her village in Lebanon. Through years of work and raising a family she has confronted the expectations and disdain her adoptive country has heaped on her. Now with her husband gone she lives for her grandsons, although she is not quite sure what Joey is doing with his life.

Joey’s nineteen; young enough to feel bulletproof but far enough away from school to wonder if he should be doing more. His friends aren’t everything to him, his job is even less than that but Joey feels like he has more to offer.

As Joey drifts from music festivals to cafes and barbershops he wonders whether his life should be more. In doing nothing he is setting himself on a path that finds him in a car full of young men like himself. Men who want more from the world, and in one horrific chain of events try to take it.

Losing Face performs the incredible narrative feat of vividly realizing an ensemble cast of characters and then challenging the reader to explore their morality.

While I’m not going to give away the pivotal moment that sends Joey and the novel hurtling towards their conclusion, it’s fair to say that Losing Face takes on the social question of men’s power and privilege and how that is weaponized against women.

Through the juxtaposed narratives of Joey and Elaine we see the toll of displacement from home and family and the legacy it leaves on families. Where Elaine learned how to be a Lebanese woman in the often racist world she found herself living in, Joey finds himself adrift. Is he the young Leb that people stare at on the streets of Greenacre or can he be the white, privileged Aussie that his father’s background might offer him.

In avoiding these choices Joey allows himself to be buffeted by the will of others in his life. It’s a non-decision that proves fateful.

Losing Face is powerful because it makes you care for Joey even as it shows you why you could hate him. It challenges the reader with injustice and makes us culpable for rooting for a protagonist who is implicated.

Losing Face is the new novel from George Haddad and it’s out now through UQP

George will be joining me on the show this Saturday morning and is also appearing as part of Sydney Writers Festival running the 16th - 22nd May.

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

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The Final Draft Great Conversations 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.

Fiona Wood is a celebrated author of children’s literature and she is joining me today with her new novel How to Spell Catastrophe.

Nell is going through a lot right now. She’s in Year Six and next everything was going to change anyway, but now her mum has a new boyfriend and they are planning on moving in together, her best friendship is feeling a little cold and her new friend is sometimes mean.

Nell’s used to planning for catastrophe’s but now her life is feeling a little out of control and that’s before she starts to look at what’s going on with climate change.

Nell is facing down one of the first big changes most younger people face; the transition from primary to high school and she’s doing it in a world with a very uncertain future…

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/

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Today I want to bring it back local, which is something that I think we are particularly good at here at 2ser. Focussing in on local creators doing interesting, innovative things.

My book this week is Climb from Philip Barker. Philip is a teacher from the Blue Mountains and he’s taken his understanding of his students and his passion for climbing and turned it into an incredible debut.

In Climb we meet Ashley Davies. Ashely has a talent for climbing but so far it’s only proven useful finding the best tree at lunch time and escaping from bullies who insult her brother.

Ashley loves her family and her town but now she’s in High school she realises there’s a lot she doesn’t understand.

There’s too many secrets in Ashley’s life and no one wants to trust her with the truth. So when a rock-climbing competition offers her the chance to (maybe) get some answers, Ashley decides it might be worth keeping a few secrets of her own…

The first thing I want to note about Climb is the centering of Ashley and the way that issues to do with young adults on the cusp of change is dealt with sensitively.

It may seem like a truism that come election season someone is going to bring up lowering the election age and this is invariably met with a slew of stereotypes about the immaturity of youth. In Climb we get to see that the emotions and reactions of youth are natural and often well thought out (if poorly executed). Barker shows us that when you are disempowered and made to feel a spectator in your own life it makes sense to take things into your own hands.

A strength of contemporary YA (young adult) writing is that it melds powerful characterisation with important issues. I’m never going to get to all the wonderful books that cross my desk but shout out to all the amazing cli-fi and other social justice issues being explored.

Ashley is interested in how she can be herself and why this always seems to be the subject of someone’s approval.

Climb takes us into the world of competitive climbing and tries to show us the passion along with the consequences. The book even begins with a ‘don’t try this at home’ type warning. We see in Ashley the infinite potential of starting something new melded with the risk of failing at something essential.

Another aspect I want to shout out is that Climb is independently published. Brought out through Abbeydale Collective, Philip described the group when we spoke as something of the beating heart of the book. Of course we know writers as the name on the cover but Abbeydale collective is a way to acknowledge the numerous and varied people that go into publishing.

Climb is an incredible achievement on its own but the book is already spawning a sequel. On the strength of the original story a follow up is on the horizon and may segue to more mainstream publishing. Whatever the outcome I wanted to introduce all to Climb for its incredible story and the world of possibility out there in original Sydney storytellers.

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/

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The Final Draft Great Conversations 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.

Callan J Mulligan is a writer of Science Fiction and Thrillers. He’s joining me today with his latest novel Astraeus.

Astraeus takes us on board the eponymous world settler starship, where one hundred thousand people are traveling on a one way trip into the Milky Way. When an engineer is murdered the Astraeus finds itself at a turning point.

Join me as we discover Callan J Mulligan’s Astaraeus...

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/