In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of Irma Gold's novel Shift.

Gusty and gripping, tender and deeply compassionate, Shift is a compulsively readable story about the messy process of art-making, and the mess of love and family. It is an unflinching, insightful and immersive novel that takes the reader inside the inner life of one township in South Africa, beyond the hyperbole of newspaper headlines, to offer bold, big-hearted hope.

In the year of the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter which outlined the principles of democracy and freedom in South Africa comes a novel set in the township where it was signed. Shift asks us to examine both the world around us, and ourselves.

In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of the anthology, Someone Like Me. In the book, edited by Clem Bastow and Jo Case, 25 Autistic gender-diverse and women writers explore their experiences – and explode stereotypes.

This groundbreaking anthology ranges from sex, living room dance parties and the natural world to eating disorders, all-encompassing passions and religion. Autistic people of all kinds are invited to find company in these pages – and maybe even see themselves, too.

The book was launched by ABC Radio National’s Hilary Harper and the event featured readings from several contributors.

In this episode, a conversation with a Readings favourite, Diana Reid, author of the new novel, Signs of Damage.

The Kelly family’s idyllic holiday in the South of France is disturbed when Cass, a thirteen-year-old girl, goes missing. She’s discovered several hours later with no visible signs of injury. Everyone present dismisses the incident as a close brush with tragedy. Sixteen years later, at a funeral for a member of the Kelly family, Cass collapses. The present and the past start to collide as buried secrets come to light and old doubts resurface. What really happened to Cass in the South of France? And what’s wrong with her now?

A gripping tale of unravelling memories and moral ambiguities, Signs of Damage wrestles with the difference between understanding other people, and trying to explain them.

In this episode we have a conversation with acclaimed author, Kate Grenville, to discuss her most recent book, Unsettled.

Grenville is no stranger to the past. Her success and fame as a writer exploded when she published The Secret River in 2005, a bestseller based on the story of her convict ancestor, an early settler on the Hawkesbury River. More than two decades on, and following the defeat of the Voice referendum, Grenville is still grappling with what it means to descend from people who were, as she puts it, “on the sharp edge of the moving blade that was colonisation”. So she decided to go on a kind of pilgrimage, back through the places her family stories happened, and put the stories and the First People back into the same frame, on the same country, to try to think about those questions. This gripping book is the result of that journey.

In this episode, a conversation recorded at the launch of Shapeshifting, a wide-ranging collection of nonfiction by First Nations writers co-edited by Jeanine Leane and Ellen van Neerven. With Evelyn Araluen and contributors.

These lyric essays push the boundaries of nonfiction beyond the biographical or the academic, with pieces that experiment with form and embark on carefully crafting and re-crafting interventions that both challenge and expand existing genre structures.

In this episode, a conversation with academic Kate Fitz-Gibbon, and author of Our National Crisis.

In this book, Fitz-Gibbon explains why violence against women and children is not a series of isolated incidents but a pervasive, systemic issue. The impacts of this violence on individuals, families and communities are wide-ranging and can be long-term. Addressing domestic, family and sexual violence requires a national effort across the full spectrum of prevention, early intervention, response, and recovery and healing.

In this episode of the Readings Kids podcast, a conversation with Lisa Fuller, winner of The Readings YA Prize in 2020, and author of the new book, Washpool.

In Fuller’s new work of middle grade fiction, the world looked as though it had been drawn in weird crayon colours ... There were no bird calls. No distant rustling of animals in the scrub. No breeze teasing the tops of the trees. Everything was still. Bella is shy and thoughtful. Her big sister, Cienna, is popular and brave. One thing they have in common is their love for Washpool, the local swimming spot. But one weekend when they dive into Washpool, Bella and Cienna surface in the strange new world of Muse.

In this episode, a discussion about music and why it matters in our lives. Leading the conversation is Dr. Shain Shapiro, author of the book This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City.

To discuss live music and culture in Melbourne, pre- and post-Covid, Shapiro was joined by Helen Marcou, cofounder and owner of Bakehouse Studios, Patrick Donovan, former CEO of Music Victoria, and Kirsty Rivers, former director of Creative Australia, now with SoundStory.

In this episode, a conversation with author Melanie Cheng, a winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, and author of the book, The Burrow.

Amy, Jin and Lucie are leading isolated lives in their partially renovated, inner city home. They are not happy, but they are also terrified of change. When they buy a pet rabbit for Lucie, and then Amy's mother, Pauline, comes to stay, the family is forced to confront long-buried secrets. Will opening their hearts to the rabbit help them to heal or only invite further tragedy?

The Burrow tells an unforgettable story about grief and hope. With her characteristic compassion and eye for detail, Melanie Cheng reveals the lives of others – even of a small rabbit.

In this episode, a conversation with New York Times-bestselling author Neal Shusterman. Shusterman’s newest book, All Better Now, is a young adult thriller about a world where happiness is contagious but the risks of catching it may be just as dangerous as the cure. Three teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in very different ways find themselves at the center of a power play that could change humanity forever.