Join us today for a walk from Brunswick Street to Nicholson Street in Fitzroy. Make your way to the All Saints Parish on King William Street in Fitzroy and press play. With you on your walk today are five members of the Fitzroy Historical society – Simon Armstrong, Jennifer McKeagney, Meg Lee, Peter Woods and Mike Moore.

“The residence soon acquired a reputation amongst students as being a place of wild debauchery. several of its inmates drunken at 7pm, and a place of riotous parties and various lewd amateurish adventures.” Peter Woods

Fitzroy, Melbourne’s first suburb, is full of stories both old and new. The Fitzroy Walking tours podcast series makes Fitzroy history easily accessible to the public.

Each podcast features local experts talking about a particular topic. Simply download the podcast, go to the starting point, and start your walk around the streets of Fitzroy. Visit places of interest on your journey, taking things at your own pace. Or listen at anytime, anywhere!

This podcast is bought to you by Yarra Libraries and the Ewing Trust.

Music is Better Days by Ketsa

“Forty years into the future there’s going to be this idea of a groundswell of books emerging about this time that were all about this topic that got us all talking” – Khalid Warsame on the hoped-for impact of climate change in fiction

As part of The Fitzroy Writers Festival we were thrilled to welcome Khalid Warsame, Alice Robinson and Sean O’Beirne for a discussion about one of the most pressing issues of our time, climate change, and how it’s addressed in fiction. This is an edited recording of the session held earlier this year.

You can find work from Khalid, Alice and Sean in the Yarra Libraries collection, both in branch and online through e-resources like Cloud Library.

Khalid Warsame is a writer whose essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in numerous publications, including The Lifted Brow, The Saturday Paper, Overland, The Big Issue, Cordite Poetry Review, and Meanjin. Khalid also contributed a piece to the anthology After Australia. His story, List of Known Remedies, is a slice of life of young Melbournians – working in cafes, talking with friends, and tending to ill pets, set against a backdrop of extreme weather and increasingly authoritarian government rule.

Sean O’Beirne is the author of the short story collection A Couple of things before the End, a funny, bitingly satirical and outstandingly original debut told in a range of voices and styles.

Alice Robinson is the author of two novels. Her debut, Anchor Point, was longlisted for the Stella Prize and the Indie Book Awards. Her latest novel, The Glad Shout, is a stunning novel set in a Melbourne that has been destroyed by a catastrophic storm. Told in a starkly visual and compelling narrative, the book is a deeply moving homage to motherhood and the struggles faced by women in difficult times.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Glad Shout- Alice Robinson

Anchor Point - Alice Robinson

A Couple of Things Before the End- Sean O’Beirne

After Australia Anthology

The Rain Heron – Robbie Arnott

Our theme is Add And by Broke for Free

//CW: sexism, online abuse, bulling, divorce, eating disorders, strong language//

“There are so many women walking around who feel completely duped by what it is they were taught to aspire to.” – Clementine Ford

Yarra Libraries and The Ewing Trust are pleased to present Clementine Ford and Alice Robinson, in conversation as part of the Fitzroy Writers Festival. This was a memorable, booked out event where the acclaimed authors discussed their friendship, writing, feminism, sexism, parenting and their goals for the future.

“I feel like the power that I hold as a woman in our culture is the power to disarm people because the expectations, they have of me when they meet me is very low. And at some point the truth comes out, and then I have power. And that’s such a depressing power to have.” – Alice Robinson

This is a live recording, and there is a short stretch at the beginning where the microphone doesn’t sound great. Stay with us, it gets better very quickly.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Fight Like a Girl - Clementine Ford

Boys will be Boys – Clementine Ford

The Glad Shout – Alice Robinson

Anchor Point – Alice Robinson

Our theme is Add And by Broke For Free

Daphne Du Maurier’s short story The Birds is a classic of horror and short fiction, made most famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation for the big screen. After reading and discussing the story with attendees of The Short Story Club, Meaghan and Nell share their thoughts about this thrilling tale while touching on the life of this fascinating author.

You can book in for meetings of The Short Story Club via the Yarra Libraries website – we always welcome new members.

You can find The Birds in The Birds And Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier, as well as in a few places online using your preferred search engine.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Novels

Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

My Cousin Rachael – Daphne Du Maurier (also available as an audiobook through borrowbox)

Short Stories

The Birds and Other Stories – Daphne Du Maurier

Don’t Look Now and Other Stories – Daphne Du Maurier

The Doll: short stories – Daphne Du Maurier

The Breakthrough – Daphne Du Maurier (available as an ebook through Cloud Library)

Non-Fiction

Vanishing Cornwall - Daphne Du Maurier

Biographies

Manderlay Forever - Tatiana de Rosnay,

Daphne Du Maurier and her Sisters – Jane Dunn

Films

The Birds – Alfred Hitchcock – contained in this Alfred Hitchcock Collection

Rebecca – Alfred Hitchcock

A few more disasters

I am Legend - Richard Matheson

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndam

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo

White Space Series by Elizabeth Bear

Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear

Machine by Elizabeth Bear

Neapolitan Series by Elene Ferrante

The Expanse (TV series)

2012 – Film

Our theme is Add And by Broke for Free

“There’s nothing holy about Australian history – it’s all just haunted” – Evelyn Araluen

The Kill Your Darlings First Book Club celebrates debut Australian authors every month. In March, we partnered with them to bring you Evelyn Araluen discussing her debut collection of essay, poetry and prose; Dropbear. With Brunswick Bound’s Ellen Cregan, Evelyn discusses family, rage, May Gibbs and turning one poem into a book.

You can find out about the next Kill Your Darlings First Book Club book, as well as more great Australian writing, on the Kill Your Darlings website.

You can find Dropbear at Yarra Libraries, on Cloud Library, and at local bookstores like Brunswick Bound.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Dropbear – Evelyn Araluen (also available on Cloud Library)

New Australian Fiction 2020 – Rebecca Starford (ed.)

Blakwork – Alison Whittaker

Fire front : First Nations poetry and power today (ed. Alison Whittaker, also available on Cloud Library)

Born Into This – Adam Thompson (also available on Cloud Library)

A History of My Brief Body - Billy-Ray Belcourt

Slowlier - Ella O’Keefe

Admit the Joyous Passion of Revolt - Elena Gomez

Our theme is Add And by Broke for Free

Yarra Libraries, the Ewing Trust and Fitzroy Legal Service are pleased to present Eleni Hale, author of Stone Girl, a powerful and moving novel about a young girl who becomes a ward of the state.

Eleni is joined in conversation by Anna Spargo-Ryan, author of novels The Gulf and The Paper House. In 2016, Anna received the Horne prize, and award for long form non-fiction writing, for The Suicide Gene.

Stone Girl is available at all good bookstores, as well as available to borrow via Yarra Libraries.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Eleni Hale: Stone Girl

Anna Spargo-Ryan: The Gulf

Anna Spargo-Ryan: The Paper House

Anna Spargo-Ryan: The Suicide Gene (online)

https://www.thehorneprize.com.au/2016-winner

Praise for Stone Girl:

A heartbreaking novel of raw survival and hope, and the children society likes to forget. A stunning and unforgettable debut YA novel for mature readers.

- Justkidslit.com

Eleni Hale’s prose is stunning, her analogies fresh, her writing raw and uncensored. This is an honest story that doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities facing kids on the fringes. Very few writers are capable of telling this story.

- Hayley, goodreads.com

Hale has written a novel that is so much more than just a fantastic book. This is a book that gives a voice to the forgotten ones, the kind of book a child stuck in the system might pick up and feel some hope after reading it. And maybe, just maybe some real change will occur.

- L J Lacey, owner of Three Four Knock on the Door Bookshop

This podcast is bought to you by Yarra Libraries, the Ewing Trust and Fitzroy Legal Service, as part of Fitzroy Writers Festival 2021.

Fitzroy Legal Service is a community legal centre covering the Cities of Yarra and Darebin. It was established in 1972 and is one of the oldest legal centres in Australia. Fitzroy Legal Service provides criminal, family, family violence, and generalist legal services to socially and economically disadvantaged clients with a particular focus on people stigmatised and criminalised due to poverty, homelessness, childhood abuse, family violence, trauma, drug-use, mental health, contact with the criminal legal system and incarceration.

Our theme is Add And by Broke For Free

Joining us on this Fitzroy Writers Festival podcast are two contributors to the Liminal Anthology Collisions: Fictions from the Future.

The collection asks the question: What does the future hold? Featuring both emerging and established writers of colour, this collection showcases some of the best work that Australian literature has to offer.

The stories are sites for collisions: against Eurocentric ideals, against narrow concepts of excellence, against stagnant ideas of the world to come. But collisions also manifest in the way our lives come into contact with others, how our pasts shift against the present, and how our imaginations sit against our realities.

Bryant Apollonio is a Filipino-Australian writer and lawyer. He came to Sydney with his family when he was three and he currently lives in Darwin. In 2017, he won the Overland prize for fiction.

Mykaela Saunders is a writer, teacher, and community researcher of Koori and Lebanese descent who has won prizes for fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and research. Mykaela was born on Dharug ancestors’ lands in Western Sydney, growing up between there and in Tweed Heads.

Collisions: Fictions from the Future is available to buy now at all good bookstores and available to borrow at Yarra Libraries.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Swan Book – Alexis Wright

Heat and Light – Ellen van Neervan

Land of the Golden Clouds – Archie Weller

Born into This – Adam Thompson

Where the Fruit Falls – Karyn Wilde

After Australia – Anthology

2666 – Roberto Bolano

Fictions – Jorge Lius Borges

Mona – Pola Oloixarac

Blueberries – Elena Savage

Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes

“Collisions felt like speed dating, and that peculiar anxiety of finding myself falling in love with almost every new stranger I meet. Almost every writer in this anthology deserves their own book.”

—Jessie Tu, The Age/SMH

“In the wake of conversations around racial justice and representation entering the wider public consciousness this year [...] Let us urge you to put Collisions next on your list.”

—Monisha Rudhran, Marie Claire

“Collisions is full of humour, pathos, anger, warmth, and compassion. Above all, it is full of outstanding writing.”

—Tracey Korsten, GLAM Adelaide

Our theme is Add And by Broke for Free

“It’s very much a celebration of Melbourne… a love letter to the city, and to partying in the city.” - Madeleine Ryan

A young woman gets ready to go to a party. She arrives, feels overwhelmed, leaves, and then returns. Minutely attuned to the people who come into her view, and alternating between alienation and profound connection, she is hilarious, self-aware, sometimes acerbic, and always honest.

‘A Room Called Earth’ is a brilliant debut from a neurodiverse author that explores a young woman's magical, sensitive, and passionate inner world. In this Fitzroy Writers Festival podcast Madeleine discusses this debut novel.

Madeleine is also currently working on the screen adaptation of ‘A Room Called Earth’ with her collaborator, Hector H. Mackenzie.

‘A Room Called Earth’ is available to buy now at all good bookstores and available to borrow at Yarra Libraries.

Madeleine Ryan is an Australian writer, director & author. Her articles & essays have appeared in SBS, The Daily Telegraph, The Sydney Morning Herald, Vice, Bustle, Lena Dunham’s publication Lenny & The New York Times. She is currently working on the screen adaptation of A Room Called Earth with her collaborator, Hector H. Mackenzie. Madeleine lives in rural Victoria.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Madeleine Ryan: A Room Called Earth

Lisa Bellear: Aboriginal Country

J.D Salinger: A Catcher in the Rye

Andy Warhol: The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Jane Austen: Emma

Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden

The Brothers Grimm: Sleeping Beauty

This is a Fitzroy Writers Festival Podcast presented with thanks to Yarra Libraries and The Ewing Trust.

Our theme song is Add And by Broke for Free.

New releases are so exciting! In this Kids Shelf Episode of The Yarra Libraries Podcast Children’s Librarian Bridget asks Leesa from The Little Bookroom for some of her favourite new books for kids, from picture books right up to upper junior fiction. The best part? They’re almost all from local authors! So place a hold at Yarra Libraries or pop in to The Little Bookroom to support these fabulous new titles.

Leesa and The Little Bookroom Recommend

Don’t Forget – Jane Godwin and Anna Walker

Mary has the Best Pet (School of Monsters #1) – Sally Rippin

Séance Tea Party – Reimena Yee

Huda and Me – H. Hayek

The Edge of Thirteen – Nova Weetman

Tales from the Bush Mob – Helen Milroy

Yarra Libraries also recommends

All The Ways To Be Smart – Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys

Under The Love Umbrella - Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys

The Secrets We Share – Nova Weetman

The Secrets We Keep – Nova Weetman

Elsewhere Girls – Emily Gale and Nova Weetman

Music is Add And by Broke for Free

Join us today for a walk around Fitzroy Town Hall. To take this walk start outside the Fitzroy Town Hall on the corner of Napier and Condell Streets and pressing play. With you on your walk are three members of the Fitzroy History Society – Simon Armstrong, Jennifer McKeagney, and Peter Woods.

"The origin of the Fitzroy name is very interesting. ‘Roy’ means King, ‘Fitz’ means illegitimate, so Fitzroy is ‘The illegitimate son of the King.’" – Simon Armstrong

"Town Halls are impressive monuments to fierce local pride." – Jennifer McKeagney

Fitzroy, Melbourne’s first suburb, is full of stories both old and new. The Fitzroy Walking tours podcast series makes Fitzroy history easily accessible to the public.

Each podcast features local experts talking about a particular topic. Simply download the podcast, go to the starting point, and start your walk around the streets of Fitzroy. Visit places of interest on your journey, taking things at your own pace. Or listen at anytime, anywhere!

This podcast is bought to you by Yarra Libraries and the Ewing Trust.

Music is Better Days by Ketsa