What is Australian literature today? How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? And where is it headed?

Welcome, or welcome back, to the Sydney Review of Books podcast - now known as Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, presented by Anna Funder.

Over eight episodes, you'll hear from John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Lane, Anita Heiss and other luminaries of Australian letters as they dissect the work of Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Patrick White, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Christina Stead and many more.

Fully Lit is brought to you by the Sydney Review of Books, Impact Studios, and the UTS Writing and Publishing program.

On this episode Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton, the co-founders of Blackfulla Bookclub,

talk about the online community they’ve built around First Nations storytelling and discuss their experiences of reading Fire Front, an anthology of poetry and essays curated by Alison Whittaker. It’s about seeing, and hearing, and reading the world through powerful First Nations perspectives. Listen up.

* Please note that this episode contains names and references to deceased persons*

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You can find Blackfulla Bookclub on Instagram @blackfulla_bookclub

Merinda Dutton is on Twitter and Instagram @min_dutton

Teela Reid is on Twitter and Instagram @teelareid

Fire Front: First Nations poetry And Power Today was curated by Alison Whittaker and published by UQP.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

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Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In recent years there’s been a trend of writers publicly giving away prize money to charity or sharing it with other shortlisted writers.

But when novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, she was working in a call centre. The $80,000 prize would have utterly changed her life and bought her literally years of time to write.

We’re suspicious of romantic notions about starving artists here at the SRB. We asked Andrew Brooks to talk to Laura about her essay ‘Award Rate’ and the complex relationship between writing, money, work, and prizes.

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Read Laura’s Writers at Work essay ‘Award Rate’ on the SRB website

Laura’s website is lauraelizabethwoollett.com
She’s on Instagram @lauraelizabethwoollett.

Andrew Brooks is one half of the critical art collective Snack Syndicate and part of the Rosa Press collective.

Our producer is Allison Chan. Sound design and mixing by Elina Godwin.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

- - - -

Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

- - - -

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the Sydney Review of Books podcast, a show about Australian books and writers.

Each week we publish criticism and essays by Australia’s best writers on our website ­– and now we’ve got a podcast to match. It’s about what writers do to make books, essays and poems – and what they do to make a living.

We’re bringing you five episodes featuring some of our favourite local writers:

• Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton from Blackfulla Book Club
• Pat Grant, author of the graphic novel, The Grot
• Eileen Chong, a poet with numerous collections to her name
• Rawah Arja, Author of the YA novel, The F Team
• And Andrew Brooks in conversation with fiction writer, Laura Elizabeth Woollett

Settle in for audio essays, conversations and documentary and make sure to subscribe to our feed.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes, transcripts and more.

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Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter bit.ly/3lOFfpK

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

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SRB Editor and podcast host: Catriona Menzies-Pike

Producer: Allison Chan

Production assistant: Alice Desmond

Sound design and mixing: Elina Godwin

The SRB is produced at the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University and this podcast was made possible by funding from the Create NSW Digitise Initiative.

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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.