In a special series direct from the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Irma chats with siblings Rhett and Brooke Davis about what it’s like sharing the world of publishing with a sibling, their very different paths to becoming published authors, the downsides of a worldwide tour when your book is a smash hit, the childhood books that shaped them and are now echoed in their writing, how grief led to them both publishing novels, the pressure of writing a second novel when your debut has been an international bestseller, seeing famous writers in the green room and realising how petrified they are, and horrifying realisations gleaned from diary writing.

About Brooke and Rhett
Brooke Davis is author of the internationally bestselling novel Lost and Found which sold into 25 countries. And Rhett Davis won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2020 for his novel, Hovering. Rhett and Brooke grew up in Bellbrae, Victoria, but Brooke now lives in Perth and Rhett in Geelong. 

In a special series direct from the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Irma talks to Claire G. Coleman about how poetry influences her non-fiction style, the downsides of book touring, how she deals with Twitter trolls, the complications of working with two publishers, her love-hate relationship with the editing process, and how she responds to criticisms that she’s ‘not blak enough’.

About Claire
Claire G. Coleman is a Noongar woman whose family have belonged to the south coast of Western Australia since long before history started being recorded. Her debut novel, Terra Nullius, won a Black&Write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship and a Norma K. Hemming Award. Her latest book is a non-fiction work, Lies, Damned Lies. She also writes poetry, short fiction and essays, and lives mostly in Naarm (Melbourne). 

Craig and Irma unpack the role Amazon plays in the book world.

Then Irma chats with Ultimo Press publisher Robert Watkins about why diverse publishing is so important to him, how to nab an editorial job, the way that authors should own the publicity stage and be proud, what makes him want to publish a manuscript, what good sales mean in terms of hard numbers, the impact of Covid on the publishing landscape, and a case of mistaken identity in the green room.

About Robert
Publishing Director of Ultimo Press, Robert Watkins, has over 20 years’ experience in the Australian book industry having worked in book retail, sales, marketing, publicity, publishing and most recently as Head of Literary at Hachette Australia. His love for a good story well told has led to publishing some of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary authors, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Claire G. Coleman, Dr Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Sarah Schmidt and Peter Polites, to name just a few. 

Craig and Irma talk about books that have wowed them.

Then Tony Birch chats to Irma about the sensitivity around fictionalising family, the importance of First Nations writing, who has the right to tell certain stories, the problems with teaching writing at university, the rejections that have really stung, the time his mum threatened a radio host, and the famous writers who have snubbed him in green rooms.

About Tony
Tony Birch is an author of three novels, four collections of short stories and two collections of poetry – which have won or been shortlisted for many of Australia’s most prestigious literary awards – including winning the Indigenous Writers Award for both the NSW and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. He was head of the Honours program for creative writing at the University of Melbourne before becoming the first recipient of the Dr Bruce McGuinness Indigenous Research Fellowship at Victoria University in 2015. In 2017, he became the first First Nations writer to win the Patrick White Award, and his most recent book is Dark as Last Night, a collection of short stories.

Irma and Graig talk about teaching writing in schools.

Then Craig talks to Sulari Gentill about how she turned a hobby into a profession, why she can write anywhere but finds a quiet environment impossible, how she was snubbed at a major awards ceremony, the pros and cons of the profit share model of publishing, the ways in which writing about the past reveals patterns in contemporary times, and the time she accidentally hug-assaulted Tanya Plibersek at a writers festival.

About Sulari
Sri Lankan born Sulari Gentill studied astrophysics and so became a successful lawyer - before deciding to become a successful writer. She is best known for her Rowland Sinclair mystery series, featuring globe-trotting artist-cum amateur detective Rowland Sinclair. She has also written a young adult series The Hero Trilogy, and the stand alone award-winning meta-novel Crossing the Lines.  Her writing awards include being short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and winning the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction, and the Australian Crime Writers Association’s Ned Kelly Award.

Irma and Craig discuss inspirational quotes.

Then Craig chats to writing couple Cat Sparks and Rob Hood about whether there’s competition in a relationship when you’re both writers, how your book can be a sausage in the sausage factory, how hard it is as an editor to get what you want from a slush pile (because authors don’t read the freaking guidelines!). Also, the benefits of being published by small presses and having a supportive writing community, what constitutes a good writing day versus a bad writing day, and snobby big name authors in the green room!

About Cat
Cat Sparks is a writer of speculative fiction as well as an editor, graphic designer and photographer. She has run Agog! Press, an Australian independent press that produced ten anthologies of new speculative fiction from 2002–2008. She has won several Ditmar Awards and Aurealis awards for excellence in speculative fiction, and has published a bajillion short stories, two collections of her own work and a novel, Lotus Blue.

About Robert
Robert Hood is one of Australia's leading horror writers although his work often crosses genre into science fiction, fantasy and crime. He has published five young adult novels, four collections of his short fiction, an adult fantasy novel, fifteen children's books and over 120 short stories in anthologies and magazines. He has also co-edited many anthologies of horror and crime. He has won seven Ditmars and been nominated for six Aurealis Awards.

Irma and Craig talk about the differences in typing and handwriting work.

Then they both speak to Nigel Featherstone about how he always feels like an outsider, why it shits him that writing isn’t considered real work, how Tony Abbott was the unlikely inspiration for his novel Bodies of Men, the strange benefits of interviewing his characters, why he is an obsessive re-drafter, the experience of a writing nervous breakdown and the moment his agent thought he literally died on the phone to her.

About Nigel
Nigel Featherstone is a Goulburn-based writer. His work includes novels, novellas, short stories, essays, memoirs, plays and even a libretto! His awards include being longlisted for the 2020 ARA Historical Novel Prize, short-listed for the 2020 ACT Book of the Year award, shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards and a 2020 Canberra Critics Circle Award. His novels include the highly-praised Bodies of Men, and his latest novel is My Heart is Wild Little Thing. 

Irma and Craig talk about literary tourism.

Then Craig talks with bestselling fantasy author Isobelle Carmody on the challenges of meeting fan expectations, why her writing income has suddenly dropped dramatically and how she adapted, whether genre labels are useful, the benefits of doing a creative PhD, and the repercussions of being an activist author.

About Isobelle
Isobelle Carmody is one of Australia’s most beloved and awarded authors of science fiction, fantasy, children's literature, and young adult literature. She is recipient of the Aurealis Award for best children's fiction. 

Craig and Irma talk about the dead authors they would most like to interview.

Then Irma talks with Allison Tait (AL Tait) on why the first structural edit she received did her head in and how she now works through them, the most difficult book rejection she’s ever experienced, why children’s book authors don’t get the kudos they deserve, and a whole lot more.

About Allison
Allison Tait (or AL Tait) is the internationally published bestselling author of middle-grade adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles and Ateban Cipher. Her latest novel is The Wolf’s Howl, book 2 in the Maven & Reeve Mystery series. Allison has a background in magazines, newspapers and online publishing, and is the co-host of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast and Your Kid’s Next Read podcast.    

Craig and Irma discuss lesson learned from life on the road doing a book tour for Irma's novel The Breaking.

Then Irma speaks with national living treasure Charlotte Wood about the terror of public exposure on releasing a book into the world, the discomfort of the first draft and why it’s important to ‘look for trouble’, how and when to get feedback on work-in-progress, how the pandemic has changed book publicity, why writers desperately need more financial support, why a book rejection was the best and worst moment of her career, and green room encounters that would horrify the reading public.

About Charlotte
Charlotte Wood is the author of six novels and three books of non-fiction, her latest being The Luminous Solution. Her latest novel is The Weekend, which won the 2020 Australian Book Industry Award for Literary Fiction and was shortlisted or longlisted for a number of other prizes, including the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. Her previous novel, The Natural Way of Things, won a swag of awards, including the Stella, the Indie Book of the Year and Novel of the Year, and shared the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction.