Welcome to our Summer Series -- a chance to catch up on some episodes you may have missed out on the first time around.

If you listened to the season 6 finale, you'll know that The First Time is taking a break in it's current format in 2024 BUT! Don't delete the feed just yet, Katherine will be back (solo) in March with something new. It'll feature interviews with writers but also creatives, comedians and entrepreneurs.

Finally, to celebrate six years of the pod and to kick off the coach-sulting (coaching/consulting) work she'll be doing this year (see here), check out Katherine's tips on interviewing and being interviewed (via Instagram).

Kate travelled to Castlemaine to record this interview in person with Cate Kennedy in her beautiful home amongst overflowing bookshelves. Kate attempted to edit down this episode, she really did, but Cate Kennedy just shares so much writing wisdom it was hard not to just give you the uncut super long version! Settle in with a cuppa if you can.

Cate Kennedy has published several collections of both poetry and fiction. Her story collections Like a House on Fire and Dark Roots are widely studied in Australia and her poetry collections include The Taste of River Water, Signs of Other Fires, Joyflight, and Crucible and Other Poems. She is a two-time winner of The Age Short Story Competition, and a recipient of the 2013 Steele Rudd Award, the 2002 Vincent Bucklet Poetry Prize, and the 2001 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, among others. Her highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, won the People's Choice Award in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in 2010 and she is also the author of travel memoir Sing and Don’t Cry.

Kennedy works as a writing teacher and advisor on the faculty of Pacific University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program in Portland, Oregon, and received her PhD in Creative Writing from LaTrobe University in 2021. She lives in Castlemaine, Victoria on Dja Dja Wurrung country.

Get in touch via Instagram - Katherine @katherinecollettewriter, Kate @kmildenhall or The First Time Podcast @thefirsttimepod.