The Kill Your Darlings Podcast

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 Memoir of Not Belonging(Hachette), while Ambelin Kwaymullina speaks about co-editing Meet Me At The Intersection (Fremantle Press) and co-writing her latest YA title, Catching Teller Crow (Allen & Unwin).

Further reading:

Read Ambelin Kwaymullina’s 2014 reflection on what it means to be an Indigenous speculative fiction writer.

Read two extracts from Meet Me at the Intersection: Olivia Muscat on learning to live with blindness and Omar Sakr on grief and talking to a brother you’ve never met. 

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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! Thrown into the drama of adapting to a new culture and language, building connections from scratch and losing the feeling of relevance her work gave her, Jay soon learns even enviable situations are more complex than they appear from afar. In Jay’s memoir Vodka & Apple Juice (Fremantle Press), she unpacks the trials and tribulations of an undiplomatic wife.

In our September First Book Club chat, she joined us to discuss writing about Poland from afar, creating engaging narrative from personal experience, and what she learned about Australians from her time abroad.

Further reading:

Read an extract from Vodka & Apple Juice.

Read Jay Martin on writing the book and condensing her experiences into a single story.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Transcript coming soon

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Drew Rooke’s One Last Spin: The Power and Peril of the Pokies (Scribe Publications) is not just a searing take on problem gambling in Australia, it’s also our KYD First Book Club book for August. Last month Rooke appeared at Sydney’s Better Read Than Dead with writer, director and producer Jane Manning, to discuss his research and the resulting book.

Drew Rooke is a freelance journalist and author. His work focuses on contemporary Australian society and has appeared in publications such as The Saturday Paper, Neighbourhood, Meanjin, Good Weekend, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Drew was a finalist in the 2015 Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers, and One Last Spin is his first book.

Jane Manning is a writer, director and producer for film and TV. Her short drama films have won many awards including the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival; Best Australian Film, Most Popular Film, and Best Direction at Flickerfest; two High Commendations at the Berlin Film Festival; and First Place at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. She directed and wrote Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation (ABC), the groundbreaking documentary that helped ignite a new era of activism against poker machines and won Highly Commended at the 2016 Director’s Guild Awards, the Adelaide Fringe Festival’s Award, was longlisted for the Walkleys, and was a double finalist at the 2015 ATOM Awards.

Thanks to Scribe and Better Read than Dead.

Further reading:

Read an extract from One Last Spin.

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of the novel.

Our September First Book Club title is Jay Martin’s Vodka & Apple Juice (Fremantle Press).

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Transcript coming soon!

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On this episode we’re happily upstaged by podcaster extraordinaire Helen Zaltzman, host and creator of The Allusionist. Officially, it’s Britain’s smartest podcast – unofficially, it’s also witty and very entertaining, just like Helen herself. After we chat about Australian sound, the barriers of podcast entry and what editing your own show tells you about storytelling it’s time for writer Allee Richards to read her short story ‘The Passengers‘. Come along for the ride!

Thanks to Audiocraft for their help in making this episode happen!

Further reading:

Jane Howard on how language podcasts like The Allusionist help us develop new ways of talking about the podcast form.

Allee Richards’ 2017 short story ‘Perry Feral’.

If you love the art of podcasting, check out the excellent Audiocraft Podcast.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Meaghan Dew (KYD): Hello and welcome back to the Kill Your Darlings Podcast. I’m Meaghan Dew and today I’m bringing you as usual a couple of very good storytellers. You’ll hear from short fiction writer and playwright Allee Richards as she reads her story ‘The Passengers’, one of the new fiction releases on Kill Your Darlings.

Before that we’ll speak to the inimitable Helen Zaltzman, who was in the country for the Audiocraft conference earlier this year. You might recognise Helen’s voice from her linguistics podcast The Allusionist, or from Answer Me This, where she and her collaborator Olly Mann have been answering questions from their listeners for more than a decade. Since then she’s acquired a boatload of experience shaping stories, editing audio and drawing in her listeners. But since we’re word nerds here, we thought we’d start by asking her to explain the podcast voted Smartest in the 2018 British Podcast Awards.

Helen Zaltzman: I am so bad at doing this, I don’t even have the elevator pitch for my own show that I’ve been doing for three and a half years. So if I was talking about it to a friend I’d say, Oh it’s a podcast, you don’t have to listen to it. It’s fine. And if I really had to, I’d say it’s kind of an entertainment show but has a focus on language and how people use it and why we use it the way we use it.

KYD: That is pretty much how I’d describe it, except I would also use the word ‘funny’ a lot! Because if you describe it purely by the content you must often get some people like ‘oh, isn’t that a little bit dry?’ It’s like ,no, it’s really interesting! 

HZ: That is a problem. People assume that if you make a show about language it’s just saying ‘you’re using commas incorrectly, ra ra ra.’ It’s yeah, so dull. So I’m operating against people’s assumptions that this thing is dull, and who am I to say to them it’s not dull? 

KYD: You seem to be doing it quite effectively. But this is not your first foray into podcasting a

It’s hibernation time, perfect for curling up under the doona with a story. But if you do have to get up and go about your business why not take the stories with you? In this episode of the Kill Your Darlings Podcast you’ll hear Abigail Fisher read her short story, Vermont, as well as First Book Club author Robbie Arnott discussing his novel, Flames. Enjoy – then get back under the covers as soon as you can. Happy listening!

Further reading:

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of the novel.

Read Abigail Fisher’s short story, Vermont.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Transcript coming soon!

The post KYD Podcast: The Tales That Came In From The Cold appeared first on Kill Your Darlings.

Mira Robertson began writing The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean in the 90s, but at the time, she couldn’t make it work. The award-winning screenwriter, who worked on Only the Brave and Head On, has now returned to this story of a girl banished to the country during her mother’s illness, while World War Two rages half a world away.

Hear Mira speak with Ellen Cregan at Hill of Content about screenwriting, novels, research and Australian slang in this fantastic First Book Club Event.

Further reading:

Read an extract from The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean.

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of the novel.

Read Mira Robertson’s reflection on the process of writing the novel.

Our July First Book Club title is Robbie Arnott’s Flames (Text Publishing).

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Transcript coming soon!

The post KYD First Book Club Event: The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean appeared first on Kill Your Darlings.

Last month The Wheeler Centre hosted a spectacular array of international authors, so we sat down with two of the guests we were most excited about. Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) and Jenny Zhang (Sour Heart) are both young writers whose short story collections have made a distinct impression on the literary landscape – but that’s where the similarities end. Through unexpected receptions, ‘bad’ language, inspirational peers, urban legends, the Great American Dream, altered reality and, of course, Law & Order: SVU, we found both these authors as intriguing as their collections. Happy listening!

Note: This episode contains strong language.

Further reading:

Read Nathania Gilson’s 2017 conversation with Jenny Zhang.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

The post KYD Podcast: Mayhem, Collected appeared first on Kill Your Darlings.

Last month The Wheeler Centre hosted a spectacular array of international authors, so we sat down with two of the guests we were most excited about. Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) and Jenny Zhang (Sour Heart) are both young writers whose short story collections have made a distinct impression on the literary landscape – but that’s where the similarities end. Through unexpected receptions, ‘bad’ language, inspirational peers, urban legends, the Great American Dream, altered reality and, of course, Law & Order: SVU, we found both these authors as intriguing as their collections. Happy listening!

Note: This episode contains strong language.

Further reading:

Read Nathania Gilson’s 2017 conversation with Jenny Zhang.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Julia Prendergast’s debut novel, The Earth Does Not Get Fat (UWA Publishing), doesn’t shy away from the ugly truths families hide behind closed doors. Her protagonist, Chelsea, is responsible both for her dementia-riddled grandfather and her alcoholic mother – responsibility she carries with as much grace and love as she can in each moment. In conversation with our First Book Club Coordinator Ellen Cregan at Readings Carlton on 10 May, Julia touches on what people hide beneath the surface, and why it’s really Chelsea’s mother’s story after all.

Further reading:

Read an extract from The Earth Does Not Get Fat.

Read Ellen Cregan’s review of the novel.

Our June First Book Club title is Mira Robertson’s The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean (Black Inc).

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Transcript coming soon!

The post KYD First Book Club Event: The Earth Does Not Get Fat appeared first on Kill Your Darlings.

Kill Your Darlings joined Sisters in Crime last month for their event Past Imperfect. Sisters in Crime have been celebrating women’s crime writing since 1991, and in this event they celebrated the debut novels of Dervla McTiernan (The Rúin), Sarah Schmidt (See What I Have Done) and Katherine Kovacic (The Portrait of Molly Dean). Listen in as they discuss the mix of historical facts and speculation that fuelled their criminally good reads with chair Robyn Walton. This event was recorded live at Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel on April 6 2018.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app. Let us know what you think by rating and reviewing in your app of choice!

Meaghan Dew: Hello and welcome back to the Kill Your Darlings Podcast. Today on the podcast we have a recording of a very special event from Sisters in Crime. Sisters in Crime have been celebrating women’s crime writing since 1991. The organisation hosts a busy yearly calendar of events including interview panels, debates and book launches, as well as running an annual short story competition and the Davitt Awards, which celebrate the best crime books published by Australian women.

KYD joined Sisters in Crime last month for their event Past Imperfect, when authors Dervla McTiernan, Sarah Schmidt and Katherine Kovacic discussed how their debut novels shine light on unsolved crimes both real and imagined.

Robyn Walton: My name is Robyn Walton. A topic for tonight is delving into the swirl of history, mystery, intrigue and any other large words you can think of like that. So in other words, our three guest writers have dipped into the past for their plots. So we’re very happy to speak with them and I’ll be introducing each of them in a minute.

First of all though, I will do our normal Welcome to Country. At the outset as usual, we respectfully acknowledge the Yalukut Weelam of the Boon Wurrung clan. We pay our respects to their elders both past and present. We acknowledge and uphold their continuing relationship to this land. And we welcome any indigenous people who may be here this evening. Thank you.

I’ll now introduce these three writers. I’ll start directly beside me, shall I, and go across? Which I think – no it’s not in alpha order. So who knows what order it’s in.

Katherine Kovacic is directly beside me. Her book is The Portrait of Molly Dean. It’s very recently released. It’s flying up the charts over at Readings in St. Kilda because it’s set around Elwood and St. Kilda, so anyone who’s local or a Melbournian will really probably enjoy this one.

Next to Katherine is Sar-ah – or Sarah? You prefer Sarah? – Sarah Schmidt. Sarah was going to be a guest last year and unfortunately had to drop out, but we didn’t let her go, we brought her back this year. Which I think is even better, because her book is not one of those ones which sank without trace, but in fact it’s grown in lustre virtually every month since then. It’s won a number of awards. It’s just been listed for an international award for women’s writing. She also received an award over in Adelaide [applause] – Yes, yes! And I think a record number of reviews in mainstream Australian publications for a book by a woman.