Meera Atkinson is a Sydney-based writer. She published Traumata in 2018 and The Poetics of Transgenerational Trauma in 2017. She received the Varuna Dr Dark Flagship Fellowship in 2017, an award given for non-fiction of outstanding quality in social, historical or political writing.

Meera teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Sydney and University of New South Wales.

About The Garret

Astrid Edwards is the new host of The Garret. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret LIVE at the Library

In partnership with the State Library of Victoria, The Garret is hosting a series of live podcast events with leading Australian writers in 2018.

Benjamin Law was our second guest. He spoke to Astrid Edwards and our live audience about the importance of representation in literature, on-screen and on-stage. He also announced his next work, the Black Inc. anthology Growing Up LGBTQI in Australia. 

About The Garret

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Benjamin's interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com/benjamin-law-live.

The shortlist for the 2018 Miles Franklin was announced on 17 June 2018 in Canberra. This episode - featuring the four shortlisted writers  who attended the awards ceremony in Canberra - was released on 21 June 2018.

This episode features interviews with Michelle de Kretser (The Life To Come), Kim Scott (Taboo), Felicity Castagna (No More Boats) and Catherine McKinnon (Storyland).

Gerard Murnane (Border District) and Eva Hornung (The Last Garden) were also shortlisted.

About The Garret

Edwards is the new host of The Garret. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of the interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com/miles-franklin-shortlist-2018.

Sofija Stefanovic is a Serbian-born and Australian-raised writer and storyteller living in New York.

She is known for her ability to explore the most personal - and true - stories. Sofija has published two books, You’re Just Too Good To Be True: A Love Story About Lonely Hearts and Internet Scams, and her memoir, Miss Ex-Yugoslavia.

Sofija hosts the live storytellingevents Women of Letters NYC and This Alien Nation, and she is a contributor to The Moth, The New York Times and The Guardian.

About The Garret

Astrid Edwards is the new host of The Garret. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Sofija’s interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com.

Tony Martin is one of Australia’s best known comedians. He has been writing and performing comedy for TV, radio and the big screen for almost thirty years, as well as performing his own stand-up shows.

Tony’s first book, Lolly Scramble (2005) is collection of humorous autobiographical essays, and was followed by the sequel A Nest of Occasionals (2009). Tony published his first novel, Deadly Kerfuffle, in 2017.

Tony co-wrote Childproof with Sarina Rowell, a TV sitcom about a young couple who decide not to have children. But after three years of pitching the idea, they were unable to sell the project to any of the Australian TV networks as it was considered ‘too niche’. Instead, Childproof was performed as a live podcast at the 2017 Melbourne Fringe Festival and won Best Comedy Podcast in the 2018 Australian Podcast Awards.

Tony was a member of the D-Generation and has been involved with Working Dog Productions throughout his career. His screen writing credits include (but are in no way limited to) The Late Show, Bag Eggs and Boy Town Confidential. Tony has written and performed sketch comedy for the iconic radio shows Martin/Molloy and Get This. 

About The Garret

Astrid Edwards is the new host of The Garret. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Tony’s interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com/tony-martin.

Jamila Rizvi is an Australian writer and commentator. She began her career as an advisor to the Rudd and Gillard Governments, and then became Editor in Chief of Mamamia. In 2018 she became Editor at Large of Future Women.

She has published two best-selling books, Not Just Lucky (2017) and The Motherhood (2018). She has also written a twice weekly column for News Limited, and is a regular commentator on The Project, Today, The Drum and Q and A. Jamila is a board member of the Melbourne Writers' Festival.

Related episodes:

Lousie Adler and Philippa McGuinness are leading Australian publishers. They spoke to The Garret about publishing and the state of the book industry in Australia today.

About The Garret

Astrid Edwards is the new host of The Garret. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Jamila’s interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com.

Josephine Wilson is a Perth-based writer, poet and teacher.

Josephine received the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2015 for her manuscript of Extinctions, a work which would go on to receive the 2017 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Colin Roderick Award, and also be shortlisted for the 2017 Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction.

Josephine’s first novel was Cusp (2005), and her early works include Customs and The Geography of Haunted Places with Erin Hefferon. She has taught at Murdoch, the University of Western Australia, and Curtin University. 

About The Garret

Astrid Edwards is the new host of The Garret. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Josephine’s interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com/josephine-wilson.

Alec Patric and Ryan O’Neill have an extraordinary writing partnership, and have been sharing their writing since 2010.

Alec was awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Prize for Black Rock White City in 2016. Ryan was then shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2017 for Their Brilliant Careers, a work which went on to receive the Prime Ministers Literary Award.

About The Garret

This is the first interview with our new host, Astrid Edwards. Astrid has been with The Garret from the start, and she is now stepping out from behind the scenes. You can follow Astrid on Twitter or Instagram.

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Alec and Ryan's interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com.

Charlotte Wood is a renowned Australian fiction author. She has published five novels and two works of non-fiction.

Her awards and honours include:

The Natural Way of Things (2016), was awarded the 2016 Stella Prize and the 2016 Indie Book of the Year and Novel of the Year, and was the joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction

Animal People (2012), was awarded the People's Choice Award in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award

The Submerged Cathedral (2005), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize

Pieces of a Girl (1999), was awarded the Dobbie Award and the Jim Hamilton Prize.

Charlotte received the Writer in Residence Fellowship at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre in 2016. She was a guest curator of the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2018.

Related episodes:

Charlotte mentions her conversation with Hannie Rayson about the writers life.

Charlotte also mentions Christos Tsiolkas, who she interviewed for her non-fiction work The Writers Room. We have recorded two interviews with Christos, the first in 2017 and the second recorded in front of a live audience in 2018.

About The Garret

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Charlotte’ interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com/charlotte-wood

Gideon Haigh is an independent journalist. He has been in the trade for more than thirty years and has written extensively on business and sport.

While he is best known for his sports writing (twenty of his thirty books are about cricket), he is an acclaimed writer regardless of subject.

A selection of his award-winning work includes:

Certain Admissions: A beach, a body and a lifetime of secrets (2015), awarded the Ned Kelly Award for True Crime

End of the Road (2013), a long form investigation into the car industry, was shortlisted for the John Button Prize

On Warne (2012), shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Biography of the Year, the National Biography Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award

The Office: A hardworking history (2012), winner of Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction (NSW Premier’s Literary Awards)

Asbestos House: The secret history of James Hardie Industries (2006), winner of the Harry Williams Prize for Promoting Public Debate (Qld Premier’s Literary Awards) and the Gleebooks Prize (NSW Premier’s Literary Awards)

The Cricket War: The inside story of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket (1993), listed as one of The Times’ 50 Greatest Sports Books.

Gideon has contributed to The Age, The Australian and The Times, among other publications.

Related episodes:

If you are interested in writing non-fiction and journalism in Australia, listen to our interviews with Erik Jensen, Benjamin Law, George Megalogenis and Don Watson.

About The Garret

The Garret is committed to accessibility and education. The transcript of Gideon's interview is available at www.thegarretpodcast.com/Gideon-Haigh.