Why aren't you reading more poetry? Perhaps you don't know where to begin — in which case, listen here, for a guide. Join Kate Evans, as she is joined by acclaimed author and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, Stella Prize-winning poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, much-loved broadcaster and author Daniel Browning, and best-selling author and journalist Julia Baird to discuss and read some of the poems that have shone brightest for each of them this century, as well as how the art-form has evolved. This event was presented at the State Library of NSW in partnership with Red Room Poetry. This event was first broadcast on 3 October 2025 POETS AND POETRY MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE •    Warsan Shire, Home •    Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World •    Graeme Dixon, Six Feet of Land Rights •    Gwen Harwood, In the Park •    Anonymous Rose, Broken World •    Zora Howard and Joshya Bennett, Still Life with Police Sirens •    Ali Cobby Eckermann, works •    Simon Armitage, The Shout •    Evelyn Araluen, decolonial poetics (avant gubba) •    Candy Royale, works •    Max Porter, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans Producer, Kate Evans, Lisa Needham Sound engineer, Ann Marie Debettencor + Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown  

Colm Tóibín onstage at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival with The Bookshelf's Kate Evans — on fiction, fridges, rain, hinges, melodrama, reading, and why he can't write American dialogue so every character he writes has to be Irish (except, of course, when they're Thomas Mann and family). This is a conversation that begins in his hometown of Enniscorthy, site of his novels Nora Webster, The Blackwater Lightship, Brooklyn and Long Island — and the site of his memories and overheard conversations — and moves on to his bookshelves, writing, and the story of a tongue. Really.  

In the year of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, this lively and thought-provoking discussion explores her life, legacy, and literary brilliance — her novels are charming, sure, but also radical, political, witty, and entertaining. Presented in partnership with the State Library of NSW, this event brings together Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh from The Bookshelf, with Scott Stephens from Radio National's The Minefield, and Sophie Gee, English Professor at Princeton, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow in the humanities at the University of Sydney, and co-host of the Secret Life of Books podcast, for a conversation that delves into Austen’s sharp observations on friendship, ambition, money, love, power, and equality. This program was first broadcast on 12 September 2025 CREDITS Panellists: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Scott Stephens, Sophie Gee Producer: Kate Evans, Amanda Roberts Sound engineer: John Jacobs Editors: Muditha Dias, Rhiannon Brown

It's Christmas, 1962, and a baby is born . . . and left behind, in Ireland. This all takes place in the fictional town of Faha, a place created by write Niall Williams in his novels History of the Rain, This is Happiness and (his latest, and the one featuring said baby) Time of the Child. Niall Williams spoke to The Bookshelf's Kate Evans onstage at the 2025 Adelaide Writers Week. (A longer version of this discussion was broadcast on Friday 18 April 2025. You can listen to it here: The Bookshelf Easter Special: Irish writer Niall Williams — ABC listen Presenter/ Producer: Kate Evans Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan Arts Editor: Rhiannon Brown  

Whodunnit, whydunit, and where in time was all of it done — in an historical crime fiction special for our Summer Bookshelf. Kate Evans, onstage at the 2025 BAD Sydney Crime Festival, with novelists Nilima Rao (the story of an Indian police officer in Fiji in the 1910s), Michael Burge (religious communities and Jenolan caves in the 1850s), and Lainie Anderson (women policing Adelaide in the 1910s). This discussion was recorded at the site of one of Australia's oldest lending libraries — the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts. BOOKS Nilima Rao, A Shipwreck in Fiji, Echo Publishing Michael Burge, The Watchnight, Histria Lainie Anderson, Murder on North Terrace, Hachette GUESTS Nilima Rao, creator of the Akal Singh series set in Fiji — whose latest, and second in the series, is A Shipwreck in Fiji Michael Burge, journalist and novelist whose books include Tank Water and Dirt Trap — and his latest, The Watchnight Lainie Anderson, also a journalist and novelist, and creator of the Kate Cocks series of novels set in Adelaide — the second of which is Murder on North Terrace. She has also written a PhD on the real historical figure of Kate Cocks Presenter/ Producer: Kate Evans Sound engineers: Timothy Jenkins, Harvey O'Sullivan Arts Editor: Rhiannon Brown  

Trent Dalton (Gravity Let Me Go, Boy Swallows Universe), Heather Rose (A Great Act of Love, Bruny) and Garry Disher (the Peninsula Crimes and Hirsch series) name some of their favourite books, and the titles may delight and surprise you. Hosted by Kate and Cassie as part of this year's Canberra Writers' Festival. TRENT DALTON'S PICKS Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath HEATHER ROSE'S PICKS Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker Virginia Woolf, Orlando Peter Carey, The Fat Man in History; Illywhacker Haruki Murakami, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle William Faulkner, Light in August John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men Toni Morrison, Beloved David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas George Eliot, Middlemarch GARRY DISHER'S PICKS Russell Braddon, The Naked Island Nicolas Monsarrat, The Cruel Sea Raymond Carver, works Richard Ford, works Evan Connell, Mrs Bridge Colm Toibin, Brooklyn Alice Munro, works Ron Rash, works Cormac McCarthy, Child of God Helen Garner, The Children's Bach Kingsley Amis, works Claire Keegan, works John Sandford, works Michael Connelly, works Ian Rankin, works OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Stephen King, The Life of Chuck Hannah Kent, Devotion James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond Chronicles Richard Stark, Parker series Donald E. Westlake, Dortmunder series Lloyd Jones, Mr Pip

The best books of 2025 as selected by Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans and a panel of bookish guests - Jason Steger, Jon Page and Robert Goodman. Keep scrolling for a full list... GUESTS  Jason Steger, arts journalist. Former book editor of the Age & SMH, and panellist on ABC TV’s Book Club  Jon Page, long time bookseller with Pages and Pages bookshop, former General Manager of Dymocks Sydney – and now, book-buyer for W.H. Smith  Robert Goodman, reviewer and literary judge specialising in genre fiction; regularly reviews for the Newtown Review of Books. His website is pilebythebed.com  Jason Steger's Picks On-air: Flesh by David Szalay You Must Remember This by Sean Wilson The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Long Island by Colm Tóibín My Father Bryce by Adam Courtenay Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping by Craig Silvey Extras: My Sister and Other Lovers by Esther Freud Jon Page's Picks On-air: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy Flashlight by Susan Choi I Want Everything by Dominic Amarena One Day Everyone Will Have Been Against This by Omar El Akkad Extras: A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan The Body Next Door by Zane Lovitt The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong The Rose Field [Book of Dust, Vol. 3] by Philip Pullman The Names by Florence Knapp Robert Goodman's Picks On-air: Salvage by Jennifer Mills Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow We Do Not Part by Han Kang Eden by Mark Brandi King Sorrow by Joe Hill Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky Extras: The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia Esperance by Adam Oyebanji Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico Lion Hearts by Dan Jones Rapture by Emily Maguire Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson Hotel Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith The Hollow Girl by Lynn Yeowart The White Crow by Michael Robotham Stillwater by Tanya Scott The Reunion by Bronwyn Rivers The Peak by Sam Guthrie The Seventh Floor by David McClosky Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma Cassie McCullagh's Picks On-air: Dream State by Eric Puchner Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah The Transformations by Andrew Pippos Arborescence by Rhett Davis What We Can Know by Ian McEwan On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle Extras: The Silver Book by Olivia Laing Dancing in the Lift by Mandy Sayer Kate Evans' Picks On-air: Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati Roy Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje Twist by Colum McCann Landfall by James Bradley The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Fierceland by Omar Musa Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray Extras: On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle We Do Not Part by Han Kang The Wax Child by Olga Ravn Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah What We Can Know by Ian McEwan Flashlight by Susan Choi I Want Everything by Dominic Amarena CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Tegan Nicholls Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown  

Superstars of the literary and musical world this week: Margaret Atwood’s new memoir; Hannah Kent’s critical readings; Stuart Coupe’s musical knowledge; Bob Dylan . . . OK, well he’s not exactly on the show, but he’s the subject of MUCH literary speculation in a buzzy new release by New Yorker Sam Sussman. Also – the voice of the wind howls, laughs and taunts its subjects, in an inventive piece of writing from Sarah Hall. BOOKS  Sam Sussman, Boy from the North Country, Grove Press  Sarah Hall, Helm, Faber  Margaret Atwood, Books of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, Chatto & Windus  GUESTS  Hannah Kent, novelist and memoirist whose books include Burial Rites, The Good People, Devotion and – most recently - Always Home, Always Homesick: A Love Letter to Iceland    Stuart Coupe, music writer and promoter whose books include Roadies: The Secret History of Australian Rock’n’ Roll; Shake Some Action: My Life In Music, (and Other Stuff); and – most recently – Saffron Incorporated: The First King Of King Of The Cross And Fifty Years Of Sex, Murder, Music And Mayhem  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, Niko Stratis Harley Loco, Rayya Elias Happy Doll series, Jonathan Ames All the Way to the River, Elizabeth Gilbert The History of Sound, Ben Shattuck Linea Maja Ernst, Waist Deep (translated by Sherilyn Hellberg) Deborah Levy, Hot Milk Heart the Lover, Lily King Bread of Angels, Patti Smith CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Hubermann and Harvey O'Sullivan Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Short story collections reveal the fragile beauty of human experience in Salman Rushdie’s The Eleventh Hour, Liadan Ní Chuinn’s Everyone Still Here, Morgan Talty’s Night of the Living Rez, and Tony Birch’s Pictures of You. Then we shift gears and crank up the suspense with a look at some new crime fiction, including the icy new instalment in the phenomenally successful The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Millennium series, the brainchild of late author Stieg Larsson, and now written by Karin Smirnoff; plus, a sharp round-up of some recent Australian releases. BOOKS  Short story collections:  Salman Rushdie, The Eleventh Hour, Jonathan Cape  Liadan Ní Chuinn, Everyone Still Here, Granta  Tony Birch, Pictures of You, UQP  Morgan Talty, Night of the Living Rez, Scribe   Crime:  Karin Smirnoff, The Girl with Ice in her Veins (translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death), Maclehose Press  Michael Brissenden, Dust, Affirm Press  Garry Disher, Mischance Creek, Text  Chris Hammer, Legacy, Allen & Unwin  Kerry Greenwood, Murder in the Cathedral, Allen & Unwin  Jane Harper, Last One Out, Macmillan   Michael Connelly, The Proving Ground, Allen & Unwin  Abir Mukherjee, The Burning Grounds, Harvill Secker  GUESTS Johan Gabrielsson, Host of the Noir Hear This podcast. Documentary maker. His film Climate Changers is available on the streaming platfrom DocPlay, and has an upcoming screening in Sydney   Professor Sue Turnbull, Crime fiction reviewer, academic, and co-author of Migrants, Television and Australian Stories: A New History OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, works Henning Mankell, works John Ajvide Lindquist, The Writing in the Water; The Room in the Ground  Christian Kracht, Kracht x 3; The Dead   Ulf Kvensler, Sarek Sam Guthrie, The Peak CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Hamish Camilleri and Harvey O'Sullivan Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

This week, Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green take a look at Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket - a cryptic plunge into paranoia and power, where nothing is quite what it seems. Plus, Olivia Laing’s The Silver Book, a shimmering meditation on the cinema scene in 1970s Italy, and Jeanette Winterson’s One Aladdin Two Lamps, which re-imagines duality and the stories we tell ourselves. BOOKS Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon (Jonathan Cape)  The Silver Book by Olivia Laing (Hamish Hamilton)  One Aladdin Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson (Penguin Random House) GUESTS Huw Griffiths — Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School in English and Writing at the University of Sydney Claire Mabey — Founder of New Zealand’s literary festival Verb Wellington, books editor at The Spinoff, and author of the award-winning middle-grade novel The Raven's Eye Runaways. Its sequel, The Raven’s Eye Rebellion, is due in April next year. OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Naomi Arnold, Northbound Nadine Huder, Slowing the Sun Thomas Mann, Death in Venice Seán Hewitt, Open Heaven Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials trilogy - The Rose Field Ruby Tandoh, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now CREDITS Presenter, Cassie McCullagh and Jonathan Green Producer, Cassie McCullagh and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Beth Stewart Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown  

Stories of love, friendship, and the ties that bind - with a dash of dirt and darkness in three new works of fiction...Madeleine Gray's Chosen Family, a sharp exploration of friendship, love, and what it means to grow up when life gets messy; Chris Kraus' The Four Spent The Day Together, an autofiction-ish journey through a fractured America; and Graeme Macrae Burnet's Benbecula, where secrets unravel on the windswept shores of the Outer Hebrides.   BOOKS  Graeme Macrae Burnet, Benbecula, Text  Madeleine Gray, Chosen Family, Summit Books  Chris Kraus, The Four Spent the Day Together, Scribe  GUESTS  Nicola Heath, ABC Arts journalist; editor of ABC Online monthly book review column Patrick Carey, writer and content maker who works at Sydney Theatre Company  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Mary McCarthy, The Group Dylin Hardcastle, A Language of Limbs David Owen Kelly, Host City Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore Andrew Pippos, The Transformations Helen Whybrow, Salt Stones  James Rebanks, The Shepherd's Life Maggie Mackellar, works Andrew Miller, A Land in Winter  Lisa Tuttle, My Death  A.S. Byatt, Possession   Edmund White, The Married Man Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington    CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Tegan Nicholls, Antonia Gauci and Tim Jenkins Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Kate and Cassie are back in the studio, introducing a line-up of October releases that span continents, centuries, and genres, kicking off with an Australian story set in the world of print journalism in Andrew Pippos' The Transformations. Then, we head to India with Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, a grand tale shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. And finally, we travel back to 16th-century Denmark, where the spectre of witch trials looms large in Olga Ravn's The Wax Child. BOOKS Andrew Pippos, The Transformations — Picador Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny — Hamish Hamilton Olga Ravn, The Wax Child — Viking Penguin (Translated from Danish by Martin Aitken) GUESTS Scott Stephens — Editor of ABC’s Religion & Ethics online and co-host of The Minefield on Radio National (with Waleed Aly) Beejay Silcox — Critic and writer OTHER BOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONED George Eliot, Middlemarch EM Forster, Howard's End Charles Dickens, works Ernest Hemingway, works Leo Tolstoy, works Fyodor Dostoevsky, works Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Jeanette Winterson, The Daylight Gate Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders Jenni Fagan, Hex Ceridwen Dovey, Only the Astronauts Chris Flynn, Here be Leviathans Josephine Rowe, Little World Angela O'Keefe, Night Blue Hannah Kent, Burial Rites Lydia Davis, Into the Weeds Inger Sigrun Brodey, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness J.M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimopulos, Speaking in Tongues J.M. Coetzee, The Pole Toni Morrison, works Karl Ove Knausgaard, works Lydia Davis, Into the Weeds Joy Williams, works Lily King, Heart the Lover Michael Winkler, Grimmish; Grief Dog Devoney Looser, Wild For Austen Sofie Laguna, The Underworld  The Rose Field (The Book of Dust: Volume 3), Philip Pullman  Margaret Atwood, Book of Lives Patti Smith, Bread of Angels  Mick Herron, Clown Town Claire-Louise Bennett, Big Kiss Bye-Bye Brandon Taylor, Minor Black Figures John Irving, Queen Esther Catherine Newman, Wreck Eleanor Elliott Thomas, Do We Deserve This Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket Olivia Laing, The Silver Book Jeanette Winterson, One Aladdin Two Lamps Madeleine Gray, Chosen Family Chris Krauss, The Four Spent the Day Together Graeme Macrae Burnet, Benbecula CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Beth Stewart and Ann Marie Debettencor Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Join us for a lively Top 100 Books of the 21st Century after-party! Following last weekend’s extraordinary two-day countdown, this event recaps the results of over 288,000 votes cast by readers across Australia. Kate, Cassie, and special guests will unpack the trends, surprises, and insights that reveal what Australians are reading — and why.  Plus, the countdown is not over. We're revealing the books that almost cracked the Top 100! GUESTS Michaela Kalowski, Curator and Top 100 Producer Gavin Williams, Owner - Matilda Bookshop in the Adelaide Hills; Chair - BookPeople  Maryanne Vagg, Librarian, Warrnambool Library Download a printable list of The Ones That Got Away Listen to the Top 100 Books countdown. CREDITS Presenter, Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans Producer, Cassie McCullagh, Kate Evans, Michaela Kalowski, Shevonne Hunt, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Simon Branthwaite, Beth Stewart Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown  

Joining Kate and Cassie on stage at Brisbane Writers Festival, authors Eric Puchner, Toni Jordan, Patrick Holland, and Zeynab Gamieldien discuss their most recent novels and the books and writers who inspire them. With voting cast for our Top 100 Books of the Century, these writers make the case for their favourites. GUESTS Eric Puchner, novelist, academic, and short story writer, whose books include the collections Last Day on Earth and Music Through the Floor, and the novels Model Home and (his latest) Dream State Toni Jordan, a writer whose novels include Nine Days, Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, Prettier If She Smiles More, Dinner with the Schnabels . . . and her latest, Tenderfoot Patrick Holland is a writer and academic, and author of eight books, including the novel The Mary Smokes Boys and – his latest – Oblivion. He lives between Hong Kong and Brisbane  Zeynab Gamieldien is a writer whose first novel, The Scope of Permissibility, won the inaugural WestWords/Ultimo Prize (for emerging writers from Western Sydney); and her second novel, Learned Behaviours, has just been published BOOKS MENTIONED BY ERIC PUCHNER James Salter, Light Years Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad Joy Williams, works Willa Cather, My Ántonia Jhumpa Lahiri, A Temporary Matter Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping Evan S. Connell, Mrs. Bridge César Aira, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter BOOKS MENTIONED BY TONI JORDAN Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Zadie Smith, White Teeth Alexis Wright, Carpentaria Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet Richard Ford, Canada BOOKS MENTIONED BY PATRICK HOLLAND Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights Ernest Hemingway, 88 Poems Leah Swann, Bearings Felix Calvino, works Brian Castro, works Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian; All the Pretty Horses Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji BOOKS MENTIONED BY ZEYNAB GAMIELDIEN Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake Tara June Winch, The Yield Hisham Matar, The Return; My Friends Anne Enright, The Gathering Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn; Long Island Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These Sally Rooney, Intermezzo OTHER BOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONED J.G. Ballard, works Graham Greene, The Quiet American David Malouf, works Patrick White, works Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell David Mitchell, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans Sound engineer, Steve Fieldhouse Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown  

We look at some compelling new memoirs, including Mandy Sayer’s No Dancing in the Lift, a tribute to her jazz drummer father, capturing the grit of Kings Cross and the grace of caregiving. Elizabeth Gilbert’s All the Way to the River recounts her intense love story with Rayya Elias, confronting addiction and devotion. Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me reflects on her formidable mother’s legacy - equal parts shelter and storm, and S. Shakthidharan’s Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath offers a tender, multi-generational journey from Sri Lanka to Western Sydney. BOOKS Mandy Sayer, No Dancing in the Lift: A Memoir, Transit Lounge Elizabeth Gilbert, All the Way to the River: Love, Loss and Liberation, Bloomsbury Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me, Hamish Hamilton SHAKTI Shakthidharan, Gather Up Your World in One Long Breath, Powerhouse Publishing     GUESTS Melanie Tait, Playwright. Her latest, How To Plot a Hit in Two Days, plays at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney until 11 October. Roanna Gonsalves, novelist and academic; editor of the literary journal, Southerly   OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Hannah Kent, Always Home, Always Homesick Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal Elizabeth Strout, works Jenny Hocking, Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History; His Time Sarah Malik, Desi Girl: On Feminism, Race, Faith and Belonging CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Micky Grossman and Ann Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

What are your favourite poems of the last 25 years? The ones that you turn to, couplets memorised and shared, the lines that leapt from the page or stage. Poetry that both defined and defied space and time, whether it rhymed or not. Join Kate Evans, as she is joined by acclaimed author and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, Stella Prize-winning poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, much-loved broadcaster and author Daniel Browning, and best-selling author and journalist Julia Baird to discuss and read some of the poems that have shone brightest for each of them this century, as well as how the art-form has evolved. This event was presented at the State Library of NSW in partnership with Red Room Poetry. POETS AND POETRY MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Warsan Shire, Home Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World Graeme Dixon, Six Feet of Land Rights Gwen Harwood, In the Park Anonymous Rose,  Broken World Zora Howard and Joshya Bennett, Still Life with Police Sirens Ali Cobby Eckermann, works Simon Armitage, The Shout Evelyn Araluen, decolonial poetics (avant gubba) Candy Royale, works Max Porter, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans Producer, Kate Evans, Lisa Needham Sound engineer, Ann Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown  

This week’s episode explores three new books. First up, Patricia Lockwood’s Will There Ever Be Another You, a third-person autofiction-ish tale that includes a family trip to Scotland, grief and fairies. Then we head to the American frontier for blood-soaked vengeance and vampires in Stephen Graham Jones’ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Finally, Nell Stevens’ The Original takes us into a world of art forgeries, lost sons, con-artists and the tangled truths behind paintings. BOOKS Patricia Lockwood, Will There Ever Be Another You, Bloomsbury Circus Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Titan Books Nell Stevens, The Original, Scribner GUESTS Paul Daley, journalist, essayist, and novelist – who writes for the Guardian, and whose books include the non-fiction Beersheba and On Capitalism, and the novels Jesustown and The Leap Tom Wright, playwright and dramaturg. Artistic Associate, Belvoir St Theatre. His latest play, Troy, has just finished its run at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre PAUL DALEY'S TOP 100 LIST Percival Everett, The Trees Robin Robertson, The Long Take TOM WRIGHT'S TOP 100 LIST Martin Crimp, The City Ella Hickson, The Writer OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart Eric Puchner, Dream State Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs and Micky Grossman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

We get stuck into some new fiction, starting with Ian McEwan’s What We Can Know, a meditation on a future shaped by climate disaster and memory. We’re joined by Australian authors Madeleine Gray and Gretchen Shirm to take a look at Miranda Darling’s Fireweather, a poetic story of breakdown and resistance,  and Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night, a dreamy blend of folklore and philosophy. BOOKS Ian McEwan, What We Can Know, Jonathan Cape Miranda Darling, Fireweather, Scribe Olga Tokarczuk, House of Day, House of Night, (Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), Text GUESTS Gretchen Shirm, is a novelist and literary critic whose books include Having Cried Woolf and The Crying Room. Her latest, Out of the Woods, was published in April  Madeleine Gray, is a critic, arts writer, and novelist whose debut novel, Green Dot, was published in 2023, and whose latest novel, Chosen Family, will be out in November  GRETCHEN SHIRM'S TOP 100 LIST Rachel Cusk, Outline trilogy Sheila Heti, How Should a Person Be Vigdis Hjorth, Will and Testament Tara June Winch, Swallow the Air MADELEINE GRAY'S TOP 100 LIST Ali Smith, How To Be Both Evelyn Araluen, Dropbear Jessica Love, Julian is a Mermaid OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway Helen Garner, works Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait Erin Hortle, A Catalogue of Love Michelle Arrow, The Seventies: The personal, the political and the making of modern Australia A.S. Byatt, Possession James Fenton, works Richard Holmes, Footsteps Robert Louis Stevenson, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman and Tim Jenkins Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

In the year of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, this lively and thought-provoking discussion explores her life, legacy, and literary brilliance — her novels are charming, sure, but also radical, political, witty, and entertaining. Presented in partnership with the State Library of NSW, this event brings together Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh with Scott Stephens from Radio National's The Minefield, and Sophie Gee, English Professor at Princeton, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow in the humanities at the University of Sydney, and co-host of the Secret Life of Books podcast, for a conversation that delves into Austen’s sharp observations on friendship, ambition, money, love, power, and equality. CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Scott Stephens, Sophie Gee Producer: Kate Evans, Amanda Roberts Sound engineer: John Jacobs Executive producer: Muditha Dias  

Australian poet, artist, hip hop musician and author, Omar Musa, tells a story of Australia and Borneo, forests and fathers, in his new novel Fierceland.  An American saga of love, war, and complicated families in Patrick Ryan’s Buckeye, and experimental British author Geoff Dyer returns with Homework, a look back on his childhood and coming of age in sixties and seventies England. BOOKS  Omar Musa, Fierceland, Penguin Random House  Geoff Dyer, Homework: A Memoir, Canongate  Patrick Ryan, Buckeye, Bloomsbury  GUESTS  Andy Griffiths, bestselling children’s author whose works include the Treehouse series, and his latest, You & Me series (You & Me and the Peanut Butter Beast has just been released)  Geordie Williamson, literary critic for The Australian, The Saturday Paper, and publisher (Picador/ Pan Macmillan). His latest book is on Alexis Wright, in Black Ink’s Writers on Writers series  ANDY GRIFFITH'S TOP 100 LIST Kate Grenville, The Secret River Lech Blaine, Australian Gospel Robert Skinner, I'd Rather Not GEORDIE WILLIAMSON'S TOP 100 LIST Cormac McCarthy, The Road Alexis Wright, Carpentaria OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Frank Moorhouse, Dark Palace Hannah Kent, Burial Rites Daniel Kehlmann, The Director CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown