Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by VERONICA SULLIVAN – the director of the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival. You can learn more about her extensive career in fiction, publishing, and the arts in general at her website, but you can also find links to what we discuss in our artist-on-artist conversation in the links list below.

Buy tickets to the Melbourne Writers Festival taking place from May 8th to 11th, 2025 here.

Subscribe to the 5AM StoryTalk newsletter here.

A bonus episode, exclusive to 5AM StoryTalk’s rock-star paid subscribers, is also available. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, you’ll get more of Veronica and I discussing a seminal piece of art from his life – C.S. Lewis’s Narnia novel The Magician’s Nephew (1955). Listen ⁠here⁠.

Show notes. Veronica and I discuss the following (amongst other things):

· The influence of an artist's biography (both good and bad) on the reception of their work in today’s information-rich society, but also the larger problem we have in which we often appraise work based on what we know about it rather than our personal experience of it

· How Australia’s unique geographic and cultural dynamics shaped the country’s vibrant and robust literary culture and publishing traditions

· Festival curation as a form creation not dissimilar from storytelling

· The Melbourne Writers Festival’s focus on diverse forms of storytelling and events beyond traditional literary conversations – including the necessity for provocative cultural conversations that might challenge many attendees

· How platforms like Substack are reshaping how authors connect with their audiences, what it means for the future of publishing, and how literary festivals might adapt to these innovations to recognize Substackers’ achievements

· The role of writers and readers festivals – and arts festivals in general – in communities like Melbourne, enhancing cultural engagement and happiness.

Links:

· 5AM StoryTalk newsletter (become a paid subscriber here to gain access to both the 5AM StoryTalk newsletter and podcast

· Veronica Sullivan’s website

· Description of The Magician’s Nephew