What remains after loss? How do we carry the people, places and versions of ourselves that are gone? And can art help us make sense of what endures?

In this episode of Fully Lit, writer and broadcaster Sarah Runcie is joined by poet Vaughn Upward Garcia, musician Helen Franzmann, and writer and artist Judith Nangala Crispin for a wide-ranging conversation about grief, creativity and survival.

Garcia reflects on recovery, reinvention and the journey behind his debut collection Poems from the Afterlife. Franzmann discusses the making of Jay Marie, Comfort Me, an album shaped by the death of her sister and the search for comfort in grief. And Crispin explores death, Country, memory and belonging through her remarkable verse novel Dingo’s Noctuary.

Together, they consider what remains after loss, how art helps us navigate absence, and why love and grief are often inseparable. Along the way, they discuss sobriety, family, music, landscape, First Nations knowledge, and the stories we carry from one life into the next.

At its heart, this is a conversation about transformation, and the ways creativity can help us make meaning from what endures.

This episode was recorded live at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival.

Voices

Sarah Runcie is a writer, broadcaster and arts journalist whose work spans literature, music, theatre and cultural commentary.

Judith Nangala Crispin is an award-winning poet, visual artist and conservationist, and the author of the verse novel Dingo’s Noctuary.

Helen Franzmann is a singer-songwriter, musician and member of Mess Esque, whose work blends intimate lyricism with dreamlike, atmospheric soundscapes.

Vaughn Upward Garcia is a Queanbeyan-based poet and performer whose debut collection, Poems from the Afterlife, explores class, recovery, mortality and belonging.

Credits

This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival on Gadigal land in Sydney.

Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.

Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Recorded and mixed by Daniel Wiggins

Further Reading

Poems from the Afterlife by Vaughn Upward Garcia

Dingo’s Noctuary by Judith Nangala Crispin

Jay Marie, Comfort Me by Mess Esque

For more conversations on poetry, storytelling and contemporary Australian literature, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.

In conversation with Amy Sambrooke, Angela O’Keeffe discusses a book that asks an unusual and beguiling question: what if a book could think, feel and observe the world around it?

Partly narrated by a sentient novel, Phantom Days follows a book as it moves between readers, witnessing intimate lives and uncovering secrets that its human characters cannot see. Along the way, the novel explores motherhood, memory, longing, truth and the strange relationship between writers, readers and the stories that connect them.

O’Keeffe reflects on the novel’s origins, the challenge of writing from a book’s perspective, and the experience of returning to the manuscript after a cancer diagnosis and treatment. The conversation also touches on Virginia Woolf, Dostoevsky, Mark Rothko, faith, creativity and the mystery of where stories come from.

Phantom Days is a novel about what survives after we let things go, and the lives books continue to live long after they leave their authors behind.

This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at Gleebooks on Gadigal land in Sydney.

Voices

Angela O’Keeffe is the author of Night Blue, The Sitter and Phantom Days, novels that blend art, imagination and storytelling in strikingly original ways.

Amy Sambrooke is CEO of Varuna, the National Writers’ House, and a passionate advocate for Australian writers and literature

Credits

Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.

Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Further Reading

Phantom Days by Angela O’Keeffe

The Sitter by Angela O’Keeffe

Night Blue by Angela O’Keeffe

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Selected writings of Virginia Woolf

Works by Mark Rothko referenced throughout the discussion.

In this episode of Fully Lit, we bring you a live recording from the Sydney Writers’ Festival in Parramatta.

Hosted by James Jiang, editor of the Sydney Review of Books, the panel brings together Maxine Beneba Clarke, Yumna Kassab and Eda Gunaydin for a wide-ranging conversation on what makes a writer.

From early reading habits and first attempts at writing, to questions of craft, the discussion moves across the genres of fiction, memoir and poetry — exploring how writers navigate the realities of sustaining a writing life on and off the page. Fittingly, given its setting, the conversation also centres Western Sydney as both place and influence. Thoughtful, candid and often funny, this is a rich discussion about storytelling and the impulses behind writing itself.

Voices

Maxine Beneba Clark is an award-winning writer, poet and artist whose work explores race, identity, family and belonging.

Yumna Kassab is a writer whose fiction explores memory, migration, identity and the complexities of human connection.

Eda Gunaydin is a writer, critic and researcher whose sharp, insightful work examining class, culture, migration and identity in contemporary Australia.

James Jiang is a writer, editor and critic, and the editor of the Sydney Review of Books

Credits

This episode of Fully Lit was made on Gadigal land in Sydney.

Fully Lit podcast is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.

Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Recorded by the City of Parramatta