Category: Interviews with writers

In our interviews with authors, we often like to end on a question that is a little outside the box. And that question is: “What is your writing superpower?” Writers can be rather humble beasts, but by putting a mask and cape on the question (and putting its underwear on

Deborah O’Brien is a teacher, visual artist and author of non-fiction books, articles and short stories. Her debut novel was the 2012 bestselling Mr Chen’s Emporium and her fourth novel, The Trivia Man, will be released in June 2015. In episode 16 of our top-rating So You Want to be

Gabrielle Tozer is a journalist, author, editor and former 18-year-old, among other things. Her second book, Faking It, came out in January, and we thought now was the perfect time to bombard her with a stack of questions and see how she holds up. Oh, shhh, here she comes now.

Fleur McDonald is one of Australia’s leading authors of rural fiction and her first novel, Red Dust was the highest selling debut in 2009. In March 2015 she released her sixth book, Emerald Springs, but it was last year that she caught up with Allison Tait for our top-rating podcast,

Judith Rossell has been involved in children’s books for more than 12 years – having written a dozen of her own books and illustrated more than 80. She teaches the course Writing Picture Books for the Australian Writers’ Centre in Melbourne. Her latest book, a beautifully illustrated junior novel called

They say it’s a great thing to find your own niche as a writer, and Fleur McDonald has done just that – over the past six years (and six books) becoming the ‘Voice of the Outback’. They also say to write what you know, and Fleur also ticks most of

Crime and thriller author Candice Fox is the author of the bestselling book Eden, the complex story of a hardened female detective set in Sydney. It’s the sequel to Hades. Candice is now working on the third book in the trilogy Fall. But how did she get her first novel

Jane Rawson’s debut novel A Wrong Turn at the Office of Unmade Lists was last year was named ‘Australia’s most underrated book’ in a literary prize that rewarded books that had not received the recognition or readership judges thought they deserved. Intrigued, we made our list and made no wrong

Our top-rating So you want to be a writer podcast features a regular ‘Writer in Residence’ segment – where an author, editor or other industry professional has a chat with either one of our awesome presenters, Allison Tait and Valerie Khoo. In episode 47, Valerie spoke with Nigel Bartlett, author

Recently we had a chat with writer and children’s author Susanne Gervay about her new picture book curiously titled Elephants Have Wings. It turns out that it’s not an exposé of little-known mammal anatomy, but a rather more spiritual journey… Hi there Susan. Perhaps before we start, we need to

Every successful author has a first novel – the one that started it all and paved the way for what followed. Fortunes may shift up and down, but you are a first-time novelist just once. And like many other ‘first times’, there’s often a story to be told. Here’s Nick

No, that headline has nothing to do with an unfortunate sun-tanning incident. It is in fact in reference to a recent interview on our top-rating So you want to be a writer podcast. Each week the podcast features a regular ‘Writer in Residence’ segment. In episode 48, Valerie Khoo spoke

Our top-rating podcast So you want to be a writer features a regular ‘Writer in Residence’ segment – where an author, editor or other industry professional has a chat with either one of our awesome presenters, Allison Tait and Valerie Khoo. In episode 25, Allison spoke to Liane Moriarty, whose fifth

Charlotte Wood has been described as one of the most intelligent and compassionate novelists in Australia. She writes fiction and non-fiction and has been short-listed and long-listed for several prestigious prizes, winning the People’s Choice Medal in the 2013 New South Wales Premiers Literary Awards for her last novel, Animal People.

Bernadette Foley has worked as an editor and publisher in the Australian publishing industry for over 25 years. Her career had also taken her to New York to work with the Penguin Putnam publishing company. She has spoken at writers’ festivals and conducted editing and writing workshops around the country.

2015 is set to be an exciting year for Lisa Chaplin, Australian Writers’ Centre graduate and author of The Tide Watchers – to be released in June. Not that the years that have come before have been particularly dull. We asked Lisa some questions recently, and here’s what she had to say…

American writer Kurt Vonnegut is well known for his books Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle, and Breakfast of Champions. His musings on the writing process are well documented and shared. We love this excerpt from a lecture he gave on “The Shapes of Stories” (4:37). You’ll never look at Cinderella the same

Kylie Ladd is a novelist and freelance writer and part-time neuro-psychologist. So, the usual mix then. Her previous three books have all gone gangbusters – picking up many accolades along the way. She spoke with Allison Tait recently for our podcast “So you want to be a writer”. They discussed