The Kill Your Darlings Podcast

By Kill Your Darlings

What's The Kill Your Darlings Podcast about?

Interviews, readings and discussions about books, culture and the arts in Australia and beyond, brought to you by Kill Your Darlings magazine.

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SJ Norman on ‘Permafrost’: ...

11.29.2021

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For November that debut is Permafrost by SJ Norman, out now from UQP. This brilliant collection of short fiction explores ...

The Kill Your Darlings Podcast episodes:

11.29.2021 SJ Norman on ‘Permafrost’: First Book Club Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For November that debut is Permafrost by SJ Norman, out now from UQP. This brilliant collection of short fiction explores ...
11.09.2021 Pub Talk: Leah Jing McIntosh from Liminal Welcome to the second episode of our new interview series, Pub Talk, where we chat to some of Australia’s most experienced and influential publishers, editors and agents. During these conversations you’ll receive insiders’ information about the industry, as well as ...
10.26.2021 Gary Nunn on ‘The Psychic Tests’: First Book Club Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For October that debut is The Psychic Tests by Gary Nunn, out now from Pantera Press. In The Psychic Tests ...
09.28.2021 Allee Richards on ‘Small Joys of Real Life’: First Book Club Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For September that debut is Small Joys of Real Life by Allee Richards, out now from Hachette. The night Eva ...
09.14.2021 Pub Talk: Brigid Mullane from Ultimo Press Welcome to the first episode of our new interview series, Pub Talk, where we chat to some of Australia’s most experienced and influential publishers, editors and agents. During these conversations you’ll receive insiders’ information about the industry, as well as ...
08.31.2021 New Australian Fiction 2021 We're thrilled to bring you this special podcast episode celebrating the publication of our third print anthology, New Australian Fiction 2021. New Australian Fiction 2021 collects a number of brilliant short stories from authors from around the country, and in ...
08.17.2021 Clem Bastow on ‘Late Bloomer’: First Book Club 'When you don’t understand something that important about yourself, [diagnosis is] almost a kind of cheat code to go back and understand things that you’ve been through.' Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in ...
07.22.2021 Amani Haydar on The Mother Wound: KYD First Book Club Editor’s Note: This conversation includes discussion of family violence. 'We’ve got an ongoing conversation happening about violence against women in Australia, and I felt that it was important to contribute what I had learnt from my perspective as a Muslim ...
06.24.2021 Lisa Emanuel on ‘The Covered Wife’: First Book Club Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For June that debut is The Covered Wife by Lisa Emanuel, out now from Pantera Press. Sarah is a smart, ...
05.13.2021 Lech Blaine on ‘Car Crash’: First Book Club 'I wanted to dig into the complexity of an event like that, and allow people to see not just the humanity of the people involved, but also the negative aspects of how these events play out.' Each month we celebrate ...
04.29.2021 Madeleine Ryan on ‘A Room Called Earth’: First Book Club 'Conversations can be really dull compared to our inner lives, and I find that fascinating. The book was, for me, a real exploration of that difference.' Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the ...
03.30.2021 Evelyn Araluen on ‘Dropbear’: First Book Club "Particularly after the hellish year we've just had, poetry makes the burden of existence a lot nicer." Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For March that ...
03.17.2021 ‘The Shape of Sound’ and ‘Why Are You Like This’ KYD’s Hayley May Bracken, Alan Vaarwerk and Suzy Garcia discuss Fiona Murphy's new memoir The Shape of Sound (available 30 March from Text Publishing) and its exploration of how her deaf experience has been shaped by the social and structural ...
02.23.2021 Sam van Zweden on ‘Eating With My Mouth Open’: First Book Club "I started to interrogate my own relationship with food and realise that it wasn't so simple." Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For February that debut ...
02.01.2021 ‘The Imitator’ by Rebecca Starford In this special episode we're talking to KYD publishing director Rebecca Starford about her new historical fiction novel, The Imitator, out now from Allen & Unwin. The Imitator is a page-turning World War II spy thriller set among London’s aristocracy, ...
12.01.2020 Earthlings and Voxdocs The KYD team get together once again to discuss acclaimed Japanese author Sayaka Murata's experimental, compelling and disturbing new novel Earthlings, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori and published by Granta. We also compare notes on Voxdocs, a series of eight ...
11.24.2020 First Book Club: Lucky’s (with Andrew Pippos) "I wanted to write about how someone changes over the course of a life, and how a culture changes." Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For ...
10.21.2020 First Book Club: Hysteria (with Katerina Bryant) "My illness is not a metaphor. Any amount of self-reflection in the world will not make it go away." Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For ...
09.28.2020 First Book Club: The F Team (with Rawah Arja) "I love to tell the story of my rejection and put it out there in the world because I know that so many emerging writers are facing the same dilemmas that I was." Each month we celebrate an Australian debut ...
09.23.2020 Having and Being Had & Hungry Ghosts This month the KYD team are discussing Eula Biss’s latest genre defying work ‘Having and Being Had’, a series of linked essays in which Biss explores her lived experience of capitalism, along with SBS’s new supernatural drama 'Hungry Ghosts', in ...
08.31.2020 New Australian Fiction 2020 We're thrilled to bring you this special podcast episode celebrating the publication of our second print anthology, New Australian Fiction 2020. New Australian Fiction 2020 collects a number of brilliant short stories from authors from around the country, and in ...
08.26.2020 First Book Club: The Fogging (with Luke Horton) "We’re living in increasingly anxious times…I think it’s bubbling away in the backdrop of every contemporary novel in some way." Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction with the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. ...
08.04.2020 The Vanishing Half and Stateless In this episode, the KYD team get together (remotely) to discuss Brit Bennett's expansive, multi-generational saga The Vanishing Half (Dialogue Books), and the six-part ABC drama Stateless, which explores the overlapping stories of staff and detainees at an Australian immigration ...
07.21.2020 First Book Club: A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (with Jessie Tu) "I honestly think that the root of racism is a lack of empathy. If you grew up only watching movies where the central character is a white dude you’re only ever going to learn how to empathise with white dudes." ...
06.17.2020 First Book Club: ‘Fathoms’ (with Rebecca Giggs) 'I suddenly realised that all these environmental problems—consumer culture, plastic pollution, animal welfare—they all came together inside the whale.' Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction with the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For ...
06.04.2020 The Octopus & I and Normal People In this month's podcast, the KYD team get together remotely once again to discuss human–animal relationships and Erin Hortle's stunning Tasman-soaked debut novel The Octopus & I (Allen & Unwin), and what we thought about the human–human relationships in the ...
05.21.2020 KYD First Book Club: ‘Please Don’t Hug Me’ (with Kay Kerr) 'I would love young autistic girls to find this book, first and foremost…there’s not a lot of books out there where they would see themselves reflected back.' Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction with ...
04.21.2020 KYD First Book Club: ‘The Adversary’ (with Ronnie Scott) 'We’ve all had that feeling where the ground has shifted when you weren’t quite paying attention.' Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction with the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For April that debut ...
04.14.2020 Silicon Valley Book Club This episode of the KYD Podcast is coming straight to you from our respective bunkers—though we can’t promise we look as stylish as Ira Glass while doing it. In the episode we use tech to discuss Anna Weiner’s time in ...
03.26.2020 KYD First Book Club: Shirl (with Wayne Marshall) “I see no reason why short stories have to be small. I think they can be large. I think they can be big experiences.” Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction with the Kill Your ...
02.20.2020 KYD First Book Club: Cherry Beach (with Laura McPhee-Browne) Content Warning: This recording contains discussion relating to mental illness and suicide. ‘Most of us have had a chaotic relationship or two…the experience of loving someone is rarely not dramatic.’ Each month we celebrate an Australian debut with the Kill ...
12.15.2019 New Australian Fiction at the Australian Short Story Festival In October we were thrilled to join the Australian Short Story Festival for a special event celebrating our first print anthology. New Australian Fiction 2019 collects a number of brilliant short stories from local authors, and in this live recording ...
11.26.2019 KYD First Book Club: Being Black ‘N Chicken & Chips (with Matt Okine) “There are certain ingredients in every dish that you eat that you don’t necessarily love, but other people do, and that creates the whole flavour of the meal.” Each month we celebrate an Australian debut with the Kill Your Darlings ...
10.22.2019 KYD First Book Club: ‘White Tears/Brown Scars’ (with Ruby Hamad) Each month we celebrate an Australian debut in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For October we’re thrilled to focus on Ruby Hamad’s book, White Tears/Brown Scars, out now with MUP. White Tears/Brown Scars blows open the inconvenient truth ...
10.15.2019 Handmaids & Influencers From Handmaids to influencers, KYD‘s Meaghan Dew, Alan Vaarwerk, Ellen Cregan and Alice Cottrell get together in the studio to unpack Margaret Atwood’s (newly joint Booker Prize-winning) The Testaments (00.50), and the inventive new ABC web series taking on influencer ...
10.02.2019 KYD First Book Club: ‘The House of Youssef’ (with Yumna Kassab) For our September First Book Club, Ellen Cregan sits down with Yumna Kassab to discuss reading, editing and the process of writing her debut short fiction collection ‘The House of Youssef’. The post KYD First Book Club: ‘The House of ...
09.09.2019 KYD First Book Club: ‘It Sounded Better In My Head’ (with Nina Kenwood) For our August First Book Club, Ellen Cregan sits down with Nina Kenwood to discuss her debut YA noval ‘It Sounded Better In My Head’, recorded live at Readings St Kilda on 22 August. The post KYD First Book Club: ...
08.07.2019 MIFF 2019: Adaptations and ‘Animals’ (with Sophie Hyde) To celebrate the Melbourne International Film Festival, the KYD team shares their favourite book to film adaptations, and we chat to director Sophie Hyde about her film 'Animals'. The post MIFF 2019: Adaptations and ‘Animals’ (with Sophie Hyde) appeared first ...
07.29.2019 KYD First Book Club: A Constant Hum (with Alice Bishop) For our July First Book Club, Ellen Cregan sits down with Alice Bishop to discuss her debut collection ‘A Constant Hum’, recorded live at Readings State Library Victoria on 18 July. The post KYD First Book Club: A Constant Hum ...
07.08.2019 KYD First Book Club: ‘Little Stones’ (with Elizabeth Kuiper) For our June First Book Club, Ellen Cregan sits down with Elizabeth Kuiper to discuss her debut novel 'Little Stones’, recorded live at Bargoonga Nganjin North Fitzroy Library on 25 June. The post KYD First Book Club: ‘Little Stones’ (with ...
06.18.2019 KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Stop Being Reasonable’ Ellen Cregan sits down with Eleanor Gordon-Smith to discuss her debut book 'Stop Being Reasonable’, recorded live at Readings Carlton on 23 May. The post KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Stop Being Reasonable’ appeared first on Kill Your Darlings.
06.03.2019 Don’t Be A Stranger (with Melanie Cheng) Melanie Cheng joins Alice Cottrell, Alan Vaarwerk and Ellen Cregan in the studio to discuss her new novel Room For A Stranger and her recent work as a guest-curator at the Sydney Writers Festival. The post Don’t Be A Stranger ...
05.07.2019 Speculative Fiction Showcase Sampler Hear readings from our first ever Speculative Fiction/Fantasy Showcase, read by Jane Rawson, J.R. Hennessy, J.A. Haigh, Angela Meyer and Claire Corbett. The post Speculative Fiction Showcase Sampler appeared first on Kill Your Darlings.
04.10.2019 KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Witches: What Women Do Together’ For our March First Book Club, Ellen Cregan sits down with Sam George-Allen to discuss her debut book 'Witches: What Women Do Together’, recorded live at Bargoonga Nganjin North Fitzroy Library on 27 March. The post KYD First Book Club ...
03.28.2019 Stella Shortlists and Sparking Joy Summer seems like a distant memory, but we here at Kill Your Darlings are just getting around to updating you on our summer reading goals. More importantly, we chat about the Stella Prize shortlist, and the ways we eternal book ...
03.14.2019 KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Call Me Evie’ The Kill Your Darlings Podcast is back for 2019 and so are our First Book Club events. We know you can’t always get to our events in person, but if you’ve read our February book club pick, or you’re planning ...
12.18.2018 KYD Podcast: Summer Reads & Recommendations The last Kill Your Darlings Podcast of 2018 is all about summer reading, so sit back and listen to our top picks to take with you on your break. We have books we discovered in 2018, books we wished we’d ...
12.06.2018 KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Trace’ Journalist Rachael Brown’s book Trace: Who Killed Maria James? is our last First Book Club book for the year, and it’s a fascinating way to end 2018. Trace is Rachael Brown’s first book, but it’s not just her story. First ...
10.17.2018 KYD Podcast: At The Intersection In this episode we speak to two writers we love about memoir, family, the Own Voices movement and the many facets of Australian identity. Zoya Patel, founder and editor of Feminartsy, tells us about her book No Country Woman: A ...
09.26.2018 KYD Podcast: Jay Martin’s ‘Vodka & Apple Juice’ Jay Martin was excited at the thought of spending three years as a diplomat’s wife in Poland. A break from her job as a social policy advisor and a first posting for her husband’s new career? Who wouldn’t be keen! ...

Older episodes

The Kill Your Darlings Podcast

What's The Kill Your Darlings Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Kill Your Darlings Podcast episodes:

SJ Norman on ‘Permafrost’: First Book Club

Pub Talk: Leah Jing McIntosh from Liminal

Gary Nunn on ‘The Psychic Tests’: First Book Club

Allee Richards on ‘Small Joys of Real Life’: First Book Club

Pub Talk: Brigid Mullane from Ultimo Press

New Australian Fiction 2021

Clem Bastow on ‘Late Bloomer’: First Book Club

Amani Haydar on The Mother Wound: KYD First Book Club

Lisa Emanuel on ‘The Covered Wife’: First Book Club

Lech Blaine on ‘Car Crash’: First Book Club

Madeleine Ryan on ‘A Room Called Earth’: First Book Club

Evelyn Araluen on ‘Dropbear’: First Book Club

‘The Shape of Sound’ and ‘Why Are You Like This’

Sam van Zweden on ‘Eating With My Mouth Open’: First Book Club

‘The Imitator’ by Rebecca Starford

Earthlings and Voxdocs

First Book Club: Lucky’s (with Andrew Pippos)

First Book Club: Hysteria (with Katerina Bryant)

First Book Club: The F Team (with Rawah Arja)

Having and Being Had & Hungry Ghosts

New Australian Fiction 2020

First Book Club: The Fogging (with Luke Horton)

The Vanishing Half and Stateless

First Book Club: A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (with Jessie Tu)

First Book Club: ‘Fathoms’ (with Rebecca Giggs)

The Octopus & I and Normal People

KYD First Book Club: ‘Please Don’t Hug Me’ (with Kay Kerr)

KYD First Book Club: ‘The Adversary’ (with Ronnie Scott)

Silicon Valley Book Club

KYD First Book Club: Shirl (with Wayne Marshall)

KYD First Book Club: Cherry Beach (with Laura McPhee-Browne)

New Australian Fiction at the Australian Short Story Festival

KYD First Book Club: Being Black ‘N Chicken & Chips (with Matt Okine)

KYD First Book Club: ‘White Tears/Brown Scars’ (with Ruby Hamad)

Handmaids & Influencers

KYD First Book Club: ‘The House of Youssef’ (with Yumna Kassab)

KYD First Book Club: ‘It Sounded Better In My Head’ (with Nina Kenwood)

MIFF 2019: Adaptations and ‘Animals’ (with Sophie Hyde)

KYD First Book Club: A Constant Hum (with Alice Bishop)

KYD First Book Club: ‘Little Stones’ (with Elizabeth Kuiper)

KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Stop Being Reasonable’

Don’t Be A Stranger (with Melanie Cheng)

Speculative Fiction Showcase Sampler

KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Witches: What Women Do Together’

Stella Shortlists and Sparking Joy

KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Call Me Evie’

KYD Podcast: Summer Reads & Recommendations

KYD First Book Club Event: ‘Trace’

KYD Podcast: At The Intersection

KYD Podcast: Jay Martin’s ‘Vodka & Apple Juice’