Fully Lit

What does it really take to read and review First Nations writing with integrity?

Wiradjuri poet and critic Jeanine Leane joins Graham Akhurst for a powerful conversation that turns the spotlight on the critics themselves. With sharp insight and deep cultural knowledge, Jeanine unpacks the idea of “cultural rigour” — and why it’s essential for anyone engaging with Black writing in Australia.

Whether you're a reader, reviewer, or writer, this episode challenges you to rethink what it means to read responsibly — and to listen deeply.

Graham Akhurst is a Kokomini writer and the author of Borderland (UWAP). He is the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges at UTS and a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Australian Studies and Creative Writing. As a Fulbright Scholar, Graham took his love for writing to New York City, where he studied for an MFA in Fiction at Hunter College. He is a board member of Varuna: The National Writers’ House, and the Sydney Review of Books. He lives with his wife on Gadigal Country in Sydney and enjoys walking Centennial Park with a good audiobook.

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, teacher and academic from southwest New South Wales. After a longer teaching career, she completed a doctorate in Australian literature and Aboriginal representation and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the Australian National University. She is the recipient of two Discovery Indigenous Awards through the Australian Research Council, ‘The David Unaipon Award: Shaping the literary and history of Aboriginal Writing in Australia’ (2014-2017) and; 'Indigenous Storytelling and the Living Archive of Aboriginal Knowledge' (2020 -2024).

Jeanine has published widely in the area of Aboriginal literature, writing otherness and creative non-fiction. Jeanine was the recipient of the University of Canberra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Poetry Prize, and she has won the Oodgeroo Noonucal Prize for Poetry twice (2017 & 2019). Her second volume of poetry, Walk Back Over was released in 2018 by Cordite Press. In 2020 Jeanine edited Guwayu – for all times – a First Nations collection commissioned by Red Room Poetry and published by Magabala Books.

'The Past' read by its author, Oodgeroo Noonuccal

'We Are Going' read by its author, Oodgeroo Noonuccal

'History' read by its author, Jeanine Leane

Borderland, read by its author, Graham Ackhurst

Carpentaria by Alexis Wright, read by Isaac Drandich (with thanks to Audible)

Cultural Rigour, read by its author, Jeanine Leane and Shari Sebbens

'We are Going' by Oodgeroo Noonuccal, held at the National Film and Sound Archive

'Returning To Our Futures' by Jeanine Leane, in the Sydney Review of Books

Fully Lit is presented by Anna Funder.

The podcast series is produced, edited and sound designed by Regina Botros.

Sound engineering by Simon Branthwaite.

Executive producers are James Jiang and Sarah Gilbert.

Fully Lit is a co-production between UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books, with support from the UTS Writing and Publishing Program.

To cite this episode, use Impact Studios, Gilbert, S., Jiang, J., & Botros, R. (2025, May 15). Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, Ep 3, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15421502

What is the Australian novel today? Is it even a novel?

And what remains of the idea of a national literature once we eschew nationalistic clichés of Aussieness?

Writers Mykaela Saunders and Yumna Kassab join Lynda Ng to tackle these questions.

With readings from Australian fiction that reveals a literature deeply engaged with the world and with writing beyond our shores.

Dr Mykaela Saunders is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, critic and editor. Mykaela’s debut speculative fiction collection ALWAYS WILL BE (UQP 2024) won the David Unaipon Award, was longlisted for The Stella Prize and was highly commended for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing.

Mykaela is the editor of THIS ALL COME BACK NOW (UQP 2022), the world’s first anthology of blackfella spec fic, which won an Aurealis Award, and was highly commended for the Small Press Network Book of The Year and the Booktopia Favourite Australian Book Award. Mykaela has won other prizes for fiction, poetry, life writing and research, including the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize. Mykaela is a postdoctoral research fellow at Macquarie University, working on the project LAYING DOWN THE LORE: a survey of First Nations speculative, visionary and imaginative fiction.

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, The Lovers and Politica. Her latest book, The Theory of Everything, is available from Ultimo Press.

Her books have been listed for a number of prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature.

Dr Lynda Ng is a Lecturer in World Literature (including Australian Literature) at The University of Melbourne. She is the editor of Indigenous Transnationalism: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2018), and is the recipient of an ARC Discovery Grant for a collaborative project on J. M. Coetzee and the Margaret Church Memorial Prize for the best essay published in MFS: Modern Fiction Studies.

Her research frequently considers Australian literature within a transnational paradigm, touching on the intersection between economics and literature as well as the environmental humanities. She is currently completing a project on Chinese diasporic writing.

The Tree of Man by Patrick White, read by Humphrey Bower (with thanks to Audible)

Plains of Promise by Alexis Wright, read by Sharni McDermott

‘The Argentine Writer and Tradition’, essay by Jorge Luis Borges, read by Nicolas Pustilnick Colombres

The Swan Book by Alexis Wright, read by Sharni McDermott

‘Windows’, excerpt from a short story read by its author, Yumna Kassab

‘Taking Our Time’, excerpt from a short story read by its author, Mykaela Saunders, from her collection Always Will Be

Fully Lit is presented by Anna Funder.

The podcast series is produced, edited and sound designed by Regina Botros.

Sound engineering by Simon Branthwaite.

Executive producers are James Jiang and Sarah Gilbert.

Fully Lit is a co-production between UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books, with support from the UTS Writing and Publishing Program.

To cite this episode:

Impact Studios, Botros, R., Gilbert, S., & Jiang, J. (2025, May 15). Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, Ep 2, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15421502

What makes a novel uniquely Australian? How do our stories stack up on the world stage?

Writer, critic and former diplomat Nick Jose joins Lynda Ng—Oz Lit scholar and literary critic—for a deep dive into the Australian novel and its shifting place in global literature.

Through powerful readings from literary giants like Patrick White, Peter Carey, Alexis Wright, and Christina Stead, we ask:

How has fiction shaped the idea of ‘Australia'?

How has that idea changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century?

Nicolas Jose is a novelist, essayist and playwright, whose thirteen books include the novels Paper Nautilus, Avenue of Eternal Peace (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award), The Custodians (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize) and Original Face; two short story collections; a volume of essays, Chinese Whispers; and the memoir Black Sheep.

Dr Lynda Ng is a Lecturer in World Literature (including Australian Literature) at The University of Melbourne. She is the editor of Indigenous Transnationalism: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria(2018), and is the recipient of an ARC Discovery Grant for a collaborative project on J. M. Coetzee and the Margaret Church Memorial Prize for the best essay published in MFS: Modern Fiction Studies.

Her research frequently considers Australian literature within a transnational paradigm, touching on the intersection between economics and literature as well as the environmental humanities. She is currently completing a project on Chinese diasporic writing.

An Australian Girl by Catherine Martin, read by Regina Botros

For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke, read by Tug Dumbly

The Tree of Man by Patrick White, read by Humphrey Bower (with thanks to Audible)

The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning, read by Glen Phillips

For Love Alone by Christina Stead, read by Trisha Starrs

Plains of Promise by Alexis Wright, read by Sharni McDermott

Carpentaria by Alexis Wright, read by Isaac Drandich (with thanks to Audible)

Oscar & Lucinda by Peter Carey, read by Steven Crossley (with thanks to Audible)

Farewell My Orange by Iwaki Kei, read by James Jiang

Voss by Patrick White, read by Humphrey Bower (with thanks to Audible)

The Cambridge History of the Australian Novel, edited by David Carter

Indigenous Transnationalism: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria, edited by Lynda Ng

The Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, edited by Nicholas Jose

Fully Lit is presented by Anna Funder.

The podcast series is produced, edited and sound designed by Regina Botros.

Sound engineering by Simon Branthwaite.

Executive producers are James Jiang and Sarah Gilbert.

Fully Lit is a co-production between UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books, with support from the UTS Writing and Publishing Program.

To cite this episode:

Impact Studios, Botros, R., Gilbert, S., & Jiang, J. (2025, May 15). Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, Ep 1, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15421502

What is Australian literature today? How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? And where is it headed? 

Welcome, or welcome back, to the Sydney Review of Books podcast - now known as Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, presented by Anna Funder.

Over eight episodes, you'll hear from John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Leane, Anita Heiss and other luminaries of Australian letters as they dissect the work of Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Patrick White, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Christina Stead and many more.

Fully Lit is brought to you by the Sydney Review of Books, Impact Studios, and the UTS Writing and Publishing program. 

On this episode Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton, the co-founders of Blackfulla Bookclub,

talk about the online community they’ve built around First Nations storytelling and discuss their experiences of reading Fire Front, an anthology of poetry and essays curated by Alison Whittaker. It’s about seeing, and hearing, and reading the world through powerful First Nations perspectives. Listen up.

* Please note that this episode contains names and references to deceased persons*

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You can find Blackfulla Bookclub on Instagram @blackfulla_bookclub

Merinda Dutton is on Twitter and  Instagram @min_dutton

Teela Reid is on Twitter and Instagram @teelareid

Fire Front: First Nations poetry And Power Today was curated by Alison Whittaker and published by UQP.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

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Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, graphic novelist Pat Grant explains what happened during the seven years it took him to make his second book, The Grot. We’ll also hear about the challenge of getting hard copies of your own book in the midst of a global pandemic.

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Pat’s website is patgrantart.com where you can order a copy of The Grot.

You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @patgrantart

Our producer is Allison Chan. Sound design and mixing by Elina Godwin.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

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Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

- - - -

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode of the SRB podcast is an audio essay: ‘Climbing the Hill’ by Eileen Chong. We are fascinated by the ways the places we live shape the poems, books and essays we write. When poet Eileen Chong was invited take up this theme she wrote an essay with roots in three places:  Singapore, where she was born, Sydney, where she now lives, and Scotland, the country her husband is from.

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Read Eileen’s essay ‘Climbing the Hill’ on the SRB website.

Eileen’s website is eileenchong.com.au

She’s on Twitter @eileenchongpoet

Our producer is Allison Chan. Sound design and mixing by Elina Godwin.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

- - - -

Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

- - - -

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘It’s not a document that anyone can see or get hold of, rather, it’s the way I’ve broken things down to guide me and my anxiety along. The extroverts are a loud, 25-strong Lebanese clan – all of us living in three houses side-by-side on the same street in Punchbowl, south western Sydney, roaming freely onto each other’s properties, with detached fences and no clear borders.’

In this episode Rawah Arja presents an essay on family life at her home in Punchbowl, Western Sydney.

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Read Rawah’s essay ‘An Introvert’s Guide to Surviving an Arab Family of Extroverts’ on the SRB website.

Find more of her work at her website: rawaharjaauthor.com

Follow her on Instagram @rawaharja

Our producer is Allison Chan. Sound design and mixing by Elina Godwin.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

- - - -

Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

- - - -

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In recent years there’s been a trend of writers publicly giving away prize money to charity or sharing it with other shortlisted writers.

But when novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, she was working in a call centre. The $80,000 prize would have utterly changed her life and bought her literally years of time to write. 

We’re suspicious of romantic notions about starving artists here at the SRB. We asked Andrew Brooks to talk to Laura about her essay ‘Award Rate’ and the complex relationship between writing, money, work, and prizes.

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Read Laura’s Writers at Work essay ‘Award Rate’ on the SRB website

Laura’s website is lauraelizabethwoollett.com
She’s on Instagram @lauraelizabethwoollett.

Andrew Brooks is one half of the critical art collective Snack Syndicate and part of the Rosa Press collective.

Our producer is Allison Chan. Sound design and mixing by Elina Godwin.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

- - - -

Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

- - - -

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the Sydney Review of Books podcast, a show about Australian books and writers.

Each week we publish criticism and essays by Australia’s best writers on our website ­– and now we’ve got a podcast to match. It’s about what writers do to make books, essays and poems – and what they do to make a living.

We’re bringing you five episodes featuring some of our favourite local writers: 

• Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton from Blackfulla Book Club
• Pat Grant, author of the graphic novel, The Grot
• Eileen Chong, a poet with numerous collections to her name
• Rawah Arja, Author of the YA novel, The F Team
• And Andrew Brooks in conversation with fiction writer, Laura Elizabeth Woollett

Settle in for audio essays, conversations and documentary and make sure to subscribe to our feed.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes, transcripts and more.

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Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter bit.ly/3lOFfpK

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

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SRB Editor and podcast host: Catriona Menzies-Pike

Producer: Allison Chan

Production assistant: Alice Desmond

Sound design and mixing: Elina Godwin

The SRB is produced at the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University and this podcast was made possible by funding from the Create NSW Digitise Initiative.

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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.