Podcast interviews with authors

Podcast with Helen Trinca

Helen Trinca is a journalist of 35 years standing, who has worked for a number of publications, she is currently the Managing Editor of The Australian. Her latest book, Madeleine, is a biography of little known expatriate author, Madeleine St. John, who was the first Australian nominated for the Mann Booker Prize.

Podcast with Trevor Young

Trevor Young is a PR and social media communications consultant, speaker and coach who helps companies and individuals to increase the intensity of connection they have with the people who matter most to the success of their business, cause or issue. His new book is microDOMINATION: How to leverage social media and content marketing to build a mini-business empire around your personal brand.

Podcast with Maureen McCarthy

Maureen McCarthy is a Melbourne-based author whose most recent book is The Convent, a fictional novel about the lives for four generations of women who are all inextricably linked to The Abbotsford Convent, a real place in Collingwood Melbourne. Maureen is also well known for her novel bestselling and much-loved book Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life.

Podcast with David Vann

David Vann’s books are daring, emotionally fraught narratives that have struck a chord with readers the world over. His books have been internationally best-selling, multi-award winning and translated in 18 languages. His fiction books include Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island and his new release Dirt. 

Podcast with Nicolas Rothwell

Nicolas Rothwell is an award-winning Australian author and journalist. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was a foreign correspondent for The Australian newspaper and continues to write for the paper from his home in the Northern Territory. In 2006 he was awarded a Walkley Award for his coverage on Indigenous Affairs. He has written six books and his latest is Belomor.

Podcast with Katherine Howell

After 15 years working as a paramedic in Sydney, Katherine Howell decided it was high time she pursued her love of writing full time. Her debut novel, Frantic, won the 2008 Davitt Award for best crime fiction, and was followed by The Darkest Hour, Cold Justice (which won the 2011 Davitt Award making Katherine the only author to have won it twice), Violent Exposure and Silent Fear. Her latest novel, Web of Deceit, sees the return of the very popular police detective Ella Marconi.

Podcast with Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project by debut author, Graeme Simsion, is destined to be one of the literary hits of 2013. Developed initially as a film script, Graeme turned his idea into a novel during a novel writing course at Melbourne University in 2012. That manuscript went on to be shortlisted, and win, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. It was then picked up by Text Publishing and the rights have now been sold to more than 30 countries.

Podcast with Kate Morton

Kate Morton is a Brisbane-based author who has enjoyed huge success at home and overseas. Since publishing her first book in 2006 she has become one of Australia’s biggest selling authors internationally and her books have been published in more than 38 countries. Her latest book is The Secret Keeper.

Podcast with Richard Gill

Richard Gill is an award-winning Australian conductor and music educator. His long career in music started when he was a teacher in Sydney’s western suburbs. He went on to become the dean at the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, the Director of Chorus at the Australian Opera and, since 2005, he has been the Music Director at Victorian Opera. Richard’s long-awaited memoir is Give Me Excess of It. In it he traces his life from his school days to the highs and lows of conducting and directing an opera company.

Podcast with Chris Masters

Chris Masters is one of Australia's best known investigative journalists. In 1983 he began his career as the longest-serving journalist on the ABC's Four Corners program. For 25 years (he left his permanent position there in 2008) he reported on everything from the genocide in Rwanda, the Bosnian conflict and the war in Afghanistan. Chris has published four books. His latest, Uncommon Soldier, is an exploration of the modern Australian soldier.

Podcast with Ramona Koval

Ramona Koval has been living a life richly steeped in words since she learned to read and checked out Kafka's The Trial at 10 years of age. A writer, journalist and broadcaster, she was Australia's voice of literature for five years as the presenter of the Book Show on the ABC. She's written everything from news to novels to cook books.

Podcast with Kimberley Freeman

Kimberley Freeman is an Australian contemporary women’s fiction author who has also published speculative fiction and horror under her real name, Kim Wilkins. She is an award-winning author in her original genre, In 2007 she decided to explore a new genre and published her first women’s fiction novel, Duet. Her fourth book in the genre is Lighthouse Bay.

Podcast with Joanne Harris

Joanne Harris is the best-selling author of 14 novels, including Chocolat, Blackberry Wine and Five Quarters of the Orange. Her latest novel is Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé, the third book in the trilogy that started with Chocolat and Lollipop Shoes.

Podcast with Sulari Gentill

Sulari Gentill’s latest novel is Paving the New Road, the fourth book in the Rowland Sinclair historical crime series. It is the second book in the series she’s released in 2012 and has just been awarded the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for the best crime novel by a woman. The first book in the series, A Few Right Thinking Men, was nominated in 2011 for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel in the South Easy Asia and Pacific.

Podcast with Zane Lovitt

Zane Lovitt’s first book is The Midnight Promise. Told over a collection of 10 crime mysteries, it is the story of private inquiry agent, John Dorn. It has already garnered critical praise and comparisons to Australian crime writer, Peter Temple. Zane was formerly a documentary filmmaker before turning his hand to crime fiction.

Podcast with Nichole Bernier

Nichole Bernier is a feature writer, editor and now novelist. Her debut novel is The Unfinished Journals of Elizabath D. She lives in Boston with her husband and five children. Nichole has also been a senior editor at Boston Magazine. Over the years she has written for Elle, Self, Health, Men’s Journal, Child and Yankee.

Podcast with Elliot Perlman

Elliot Perlman is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories. His debut novel Three Dollars was published in 1998 and won The Age Book of the Year award and the Betty Trask Prize. It was later turned into a film by Elliot and director Robert Connolly, and was released in 2005.

Podcast with Kim Kiyosaki

Kim Kiyosaki is a successful entrepreneur who was able to retire in 1994 thanks to the success of her business endeavours, but she couldn’t sit still for long, and in 1997 with husband, Robert Kyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, she began travelling the world and imparting the secrets of her financial success.

Podcast with Brian Thacker

Brian Thacker’s seventh travel book is Tell Them to Get Lost – Travels with the Lonely Planet guidebook that started it all. Travelling South-East Asia with a copy of the first-ever shoestring guidebook, published in 1975, Brian travels through Portuguese Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Burma.

Podcast with Jessica Rudd

Jessica Rudd’s second novel, and sequel to her debut Campaign Ruby, is Ruby Blues. After helping the opposition win government in Campaign Ruby, Ruby Stanhope is now struggling with a PM whose popularity is quickly waning, a luke-warm love life, and her looming 30th birthday.

Christmas podcast

For the Christmas edition of our podcast, we've done something a little different. Regular listeners will know that we usually interview one author per podcast. this time, we've interviewed two former students of the Australian Writers' Centre, Heather Smith and Al
McKillop, who both have books released this month.

Podcast with Tara Moss

Tara Moss is the best-selling author of The Spider Goddess, the second book in her new series of paranormal fiction featuring Pandora English. Tara started her career as an international fashion model before pursuing her love of writing and publishing her first novel, Fetish, at the age of 23.

Podcast with Judy Nunn

Judy Nunn is an Australian author and actress, known by many of us for her role in Home and Away as Ailsa. Her latest books is Tiger Man, set in Tasmania in the 1850s when ambitious entrepreneurs rapidly built a thriving centre of industry at the expense of the state’s natural resources and environment.

Podcast with Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki dropped into the Australian Writers’ Centre and we chatted about his new book Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich – And Why Most Don’t, which he co-authored with Donald Trump. Robert has built an entire empire on his “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series of books so it was great to be able to chat to him about his writing and book marketing strategies.

Podcast with James Halliday

James Halliday is one of Australia’s leading wine experts. He is a wine writer, critic and competition judge. An experienced winemaker, James is famous for the James Halliday Australian Wine Companion, which is a must buy for any wine buff, from the novice to the connoisseur.

Podcast with Nick Earls

Nick Earls is an award-winning author of 12 novels and two short story collections. His latest is The Fix, is the story of a wannabe investigative journalist working instead as a fixer – the PR spin-master who can get any client out of a bind. Nick has written both popular adult and young adult fiction. Of his popular fiction novels he is most well-know for Zigzag Street, which has been adapted for theatre (and plays regularly in Brisbane), and his 2009 novel, The True Story of Butterfish.

Podcast with YA Erskine

After working for 11 years as a police officer in Tasmania, YA (Yvette) Erskine decided to leave the force and pursue her writing career. Her first book is The Brotherhood, a fictional account of what many police officers experience daily in their working lives. The novel follows the investigation of the murder of Sergeant John White, and all-round good guy who is killed during a routine callout.

Podcast with Lauren Shockey

After completing a degree at the University of Chicago, Lauren Shockey took up a role in a public relations agency. But after just one year in the “perdition” of the corporate world she quit her job and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute to start her training as a chef. She went on to take up internship roles in some of the world’s most well-known restaurants, in New York, Paris, Hanoi and Tel Aviv. Her book, Four Kitchens, chronicles her life as a chef’s apprentic).

Podcast with Barry Maitland

Barry Maitland is an architect turned author. His most recent novel is Chelsea Mansions, the latest in the Brock and Kolla series of crime novels. Barry was born in Scotland and, in 1984, moved to Australia from London to take up a role as Professor of Architecture at the University of Newcastle. In 2000 he retired from that role to write full time.

Podcast with Liz Porter

Liz Porter is the author of Cold Case Files, an account of how cold cases from Australia, the UK and the US have been solved using new science and techniques. She is also the author of Written on the Skin, which was the joint winner of the 2007 Ned Kelly award for best true crime book. 

Podcast with Anonymums

Anonymums is a book by 3 anonymous mothers, Mum A, Mum B and Mum C. The book started off as a game of "Truth or Dare", a game they played with each other to relieve themselves of boredom in suburbia. However the end result is a book that is a raw and revealing account of motherhood.

Podcast with Lisa Genova

Lisa Genova has just released her second book – Left Neglected. It is a fictional look at the devastating affects of a traumatic brain injury on high-powered supermum, Sarah Nickerson, and is inspired by an actual condition called Left Neglect. Her first book, Still Alice, made the New York Times bestseller list and has sold over 40,000 copies in Australia alone.

Podcast with Anna Lanyon

Anna Lanyon is an author and academic, with a long interest in Spanish and Portuguese langue and history. She has written three historical books and her third, Fire and Song, has just been released. Her earlier novels were Malinche’s Conquest (2000), which has been translated into five languages and was awarded the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for history. Her second book, The New World of Martin Cortes, was released in 2003.

Podcast with Mark Abernethy

Mark Abernethy is an Australian author well-known for his suspense and thriller novels featuring the Aussie super-spy, Alan McQueen. He has written four novels and two non-fiction books. His latest is Counter Attack, the third book in the Alan McQueen series. Based in Sydney, he has been a journalist, speechwriter and a senior editor at Australian Penthouse magazine. 

Podcast with Leslie Cannold

Leslie Cannold is an academic, ethicist and freelance writer. Her first novel is The Book of Rachael, a re-imagining of the story of Jesus told through the eyes of his younger sister. A long-time activist, Leslie Cannold is committed women’s rights and equality, two themes that feature strongly in her first novel. 

Podcast with Sara Foster

West Australian author, Sara Foster, has just released her second book – Beneath the Shadows. Beneath the Shadows is set in the isolated North Yorkshire Moors in England. Grace has returned there one year after her husband, Adam, vanishes. Her first novel, Come Back to Me, was released in 2010 and was well received by readers and critics alike.

Podcast with Dominic Smith

Dominic Smith is an Australian author currently living in Austin, Texas. He’s published three novels and his latest is Bright and Distant Shores. It follows the journey of an obsessive American collector who travels to islands in the Pacific to collect artefacts for an ethnographic exhibition. Set in the years after the Chicago World Fair, it chronicles the clash between modern and commercial America and the tribal Pacific. 

Podcast with Cory Taylor

Cory Taylor is a freelance writer from Brisbane, best known for her children’s books, including Rat Tales #1 and Rate Tales #2. Her first novel, Me and Mr Booker will be released in March this year (2011). Me and Mr Booker is already receiving a lot of interest in literary circles.

Podcast with Alison Booth

Author and academic, Alison Booth, has just published her second book – The Indigo Sky. Her first novel, Stillwater Creek, was published in 2010 and was well received by critics and readers alike. The Indigo Sky is the sequel to Stillwater Creek.

Podcast with Matthew Reilly

Publishing phenomenon Matthew Reilly is known for his action/thriller novels. His first book, Contest, was self-published in 1996. After being knocked back by every major publisher in Sydney, he produced 1,000 copies of Contest himself, and eventually won a publishing deal with Pan Macmillan. Matt Reilly&r