The Kill Your Darlings Podcast

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 Silicon Valley as recorded in her memoir, Uncanny Valley (HarperCollins). After that we delve into what makes a good (or bad) book club and mention a few online ones you could follow along with right now.

Further reading:

Read Nathania Gilson's interview with Anna Wiener.

After Uncanny Valley we’d recommend reading:

The Great Hack on Netflix

How To Do Nothing, Jenny Odell (Read Cher Tan's review)

Blueberries, Ellena Savage (Read Chloë Cooper's review and Kylie Maslen's essay)

Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino

Our recommendations:

Alice: Ghost Species by James Bradley and the Sex and Death web series

Alan: Watching Riverdale (or anything else) with friends on Netflix Party

Meaghan: Starting a new series (a few suggestions are Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac O’Reilly series, Kerry Greenwood’s Miss Fisher series, Ben Aaranovitch’s Rivers of London.)

If you’re looking for an online book club and don’t want to start your own, you could try:

The KYD First Book Club (of course)

City of Melbourne’s “What are you reading?” Facebook group

Yarra Libraries' Short Story Club

#Whatareyoureading Book Club (Every Thursday at noon on Twitter)

Text Publishing’s ‘The Common Room’

Neighbourhood Books is holding their Sunday Salons online where possible.

Theme music: Broke For Free, ‘Something Elated’.

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“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 Darlings First Book Club. For March that debut is Wayne Marshall’s short story collection Shirl, out now from Affirm Press.

In Shirl, Wayne Marshall takes a range of what-if scenarios to their fabulist and comedic extremes. Superbly inventive and powerful, these fourteen stories skewer contemporary Australian society—particularly the crises of masculinity and national identity—in insightful and yet hilarious ways, blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Our First Book Club host Ellen Cregan asked Wayne a few questions about the collection and his reading and writing life.

Our April First Book Club title will be The Adversary by Ronnie Scott. Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’.

Further reading:

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of Shirl in our March Books Roundup.

Read Wayne Marshall's Shelf Reflection on his reading habits and the writing that inspires him.

Listen to the Wheeler Centre's 'Rough Diamonds' podcast which inspired Wayne to enter the VPLAs.

Read 'The Hearing', a story from Shirl, in New Australian Fiction 2019.

 

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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 Your Darlings First Book Club. For February that debut is Laura McPhee-Browne’s Cherry Beach, out now from Text Publishing.

Hetty and Ness, best friends since childhood, have left suburban Melbourne for the first time to live in Toronto. Hetty is charming and captivating, the life of the party. Ness is a wallflower, hopelessly in love with her. As winter freezes the lakeside city, the dark undercurrents of Hetty’s character become ever stronger, and Ness may lose the person she loves more than anyone else in the world. Laura discussed the novel with our First Book Club host Ellen Cregan at our event at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library on 13 February.

This is an edited recording. Thanks to Laura McPhee-Browne, Text and  Yarra Libraries.

Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’.

Further reading:

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of Cherry Beach in our February Books Roundup.

Read Laura McPhee-Browne’s Shelf Reflection on her reading habits and the writing that inspires her.

 

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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 you’ll hear excerpts from some of them. Tune in to hear Jack Kirne, Andrea Gillum, Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Zoë Bradley, A.S. Patrić, Wayne Marshall and Anne Hotta read from their work – but don’t forget to pick up a copy of the anthology to read these brilliant stories in their entirety.

Want to be a part of New Australian Fiction 2020? Submissions for stories for the anthology will open on 13 January next year. We’ll be back with more podcasts in the new year too!

Thanks to the Australian Short Story Festival and Glenferrie Hotel for hosting the event.

Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated.’

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“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 First Book Club. For November that debut is Matt Okine’s Being Black ‘N Chicken & Chips, out now with Hachette.

In the book, twelve-year-old Mike Amon deals with all the regular teenage concerns with a major extra thrown in – his mum has been diagnosed with cancer. Our First Book Club host Ellen Cregan asked Matt a few questions about reading, writing and the editing process.

Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’.

Further reading:

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of Being Black ‘n Chicken, & Chips in our November Books Roundup.

Read Matt Okine’s Seven Tips to Help You Write Anything.

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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 that when it comes to race, white entitlement is too often masked by victimhood. What happens when racism and sexism collide? Our First Book Club Host, Ellen Cregan, asked Ruby a few questions about the book’s origins and her writing process.

Our theme song is Broke for Free’s ‘Something Elated’.

Further reading:

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of White Tears/Brown Scars in our October Books Roundup.

Read an extract from the book.

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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 culture, Content (24.00). Despite best intentions spoilers are present, particularly in the first section!

Further reading: 

Read Freya Howarth’s review of The Testaments in our October Books Roundup.

Our recommendations:

Alan: Attraction – Ruby Porter (read an extract on KYD)

Meaghan: Eyes on Gilead

Alice: Guest House for Young Widows – Azadeh Moaveni

Ellen: Paul takes the form of a mortal girl – Andrea Lawlor

With thanks to Melbourne Library Service – Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre for studio space.

Theme music: Broke For Free, ‘Something Elated’.

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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’.

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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.

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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'.

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