A round-up of authors interviewed on the Readings Podcast in 2017
The Readings Podcast is a celebration of books, music, film, TV and pop culture. Episodes are published fortnightly and include author interviews, event recordings, booksellers chatting about books, and more.
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Below is a round-up of all the author interviews we’ve released over the past 12 months.
Lindy West
Lindy West is a Seattle-based writer, editor and performer whose work focuses on pop culture, social justice, humour and body image. In Shrill, she recounts how she went from being the butt of people’s jokes, to telling her own brand of jokes – ones that carry with them with a serious message and aren’t at someone else’s expense.
Jessa Crispin
With Why I Am Not A Feminist, cultural critic Jessa Crispin offers a searing and provocative rejection of contemporary feminism – and demands something better in its place. This book is a radical call for revolution that demands nothing less than the total dismantling of a system of oppression.
Brit Bennett
Brit Bennett’s debut novel, The Mothers, was one of our top 10 fiction reads of 2016. Set within a small black community in Southern California, Bennett follows three characters – Nadia, Aubrey and Luke – from their late teens through to adulthood. This is a story of first love and family, of secrets and gossip, and of learning to live with your grief.
Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax is a comedian, actress and mental health campaigner. She chats about her most recent book, A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, in which she shows readers how to ‘de-frazzle’ by making simple changes that allow time to breathe and reflect.
George Saunders
We were thrilled when George Saunders was named the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his debut novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. Set over one night in 1862 during the early days of the Civil War, Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of realism, entering a thrilling, supernatural domain both hilarious and terrifying.
Nadja Spiegelman
Nadja Spiegelman is an American author and the daughter of famed cartoonist Art Spiegelman and New Yorker Art Editor Françoise Mouly. Her memoir, I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This, is the story of her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and explores the fallibility of memory and intergenerational trauma.
Jenny Valentish and Brigid Delaney
In this interview, we chat with two authors and the ways their books intersect. Jenny Valentish’s Woman of Substances is an investigation into the female experience of drugs and alcohol that blends in the author’s own experiences. Brigid Delaney’s Wellmania is an entertaining deep dive into the cult of wellness.
Anna George
Anna George’s first novel was the brilliant literary thriller, What Came Before. Her second novel, The Lone Child, is no less psychologically acute – a suspense-laden exploration of the effects of early motherhood and the moral choices made while under intense pressure.
Zana Fraillon
Zana Fraillon was the inaugural winner of the Readings Young Adult Book Prize. The Bone Sparrow takes readers into the world of 10-year-old Subhi, a Rohingyar refugee born in a detention centre. Subhi finds hope, curiosity and friendship in hopeless circumstances, but his optimism is challenged by worsening conditions in the camp. This is a gutsy and timely story that deserves to be read by people of all ages.
Tony Birch
Tony Birch is an award-winning Australian poet, short story writer and novelist, and his books are a favourite with Readings staff. Common People is his unforgettable new story collection which brings alive a cast of recognisable characters.
Kayla Rae Whitaker
Kayla Rae Whitaker’s The Animators is a funny and heartbreaking tale of friendship and art. When two young women meet in art class, they become fervent friends – bonding over their love of classic cartoons, their dysfunctional working-class families, and their craft: drawing. A decade later, they are an award-winning animation duo but with success comes new troubles which threaten their partnership.
Sofie Laguna
Miles Franklin winner Sofie Laguna returns with The Choke, a claustrophobic and haunting novel from a child’s perceptive. Abandoned by her mother as a toddler and only occasionally visited by her volatile, secretive father, Justine is raised by her Pop, an old man tormented by visions of the Burma Railway. Justine finds sanctuary in Pop’s chooks and in The Choke, a place of staggering natural beauty that is both a source of peace and danger.
Rachel Khong
Rachel Khong is the former editor of stylish foodie magazine Lucky Peach and this past year released her first cookbook, All About Eggs. and novel, Goodbye, Vitamin. In this interview, she chats about the novel – a wry, funny and beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads.
A.S. Patrić
A.S. Patrić won the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award for his novel, Black Rock White City. His highly-anticipated new book, Atlantic Black, takes place on the cruise ship RMS Aquitania, on the last day of 1938 as the world teeters on the precipice of World War II.
