NEW!
Short and Sweet reads and interviews!
New shorter Podcasts from us called ‘Quickpods’ are also now on our site and on Spotify and other Podcasting destinations. Short and sweet! Here’s a Libsyn link to all our Podcasts as well.
Author Mark Smith reads for Narratives from ‘The Road to Winter’ at the Somerset Festival of Literature QLD 2017. Claire Christian at the Somerset Festival 2018. Michelle Somers recorded at ARRC 2017 . Our new Narratives Van at Kyogle Festival.
Narratives Library National Edition is a special series of half hour programs with between one and three authors interviews and reads and thoughtfully selected music from Australian songwriters and composers.
Narratives Library National Edition is now broadcast on Spotify!
Because not everyone want to subscribe to Spotify, editions will be here on this page for your listening pleasure.And because not everyone wants to be tied to their computer you can also listen on your mobile phone or tablet. Don’t miss an edition- just subscribe for free and you will receive notifications and posts.
CRN – COMMUNITY RADIO NETWORK
resumes on May 6th 2024.
Yes, we are finally back on the National Network so your local community radio can also get a new 30 minute program with two new authors each week!
However, for your convenience I will post these podcasts here as well.
NARRATIVES NATIONAL EDITION PODCASTS 2024
May 6 -Fantasy and Crime: Lucy Sussex – A Tour Guide in Utopia and Anne Buisst – Locked ward
May 13 -Craig Silvey -‘Runt’ and Nat Amoore ‘We Run Tomorrow’
May 20 – Lisa Hannett – ‘Viking Women Life and Lore’ and Dennis Altman-‘Death in the Sauna’
May 27 – Suzanne Gervay ‘ Heroes of the Secret Underground’ and Sally Collin-James ‘One Illumined Thread‘
June- Richard Roxburgh ‘Artie and the Grime Wave’ and Tony Flowers ( and Nick Falk) with ” How to Stop an Alien Invasion using Shakespeare”
June- Mark Holden with ‘My Idol Years’ and Stuart Coupe with ‘Roadies’ reveal secrets, triumphs and heartache in the rock industry.
July- James Bradley ‘Clade’ and Melissa Lucashenko ‘Too Much Lip’
July – Indira Naidoo ‘The Space Between the Stars’ and Bruce Pascoe ‘Black Duck’.
Episode 30: Small Towns, Bad Towns and Bad Times – Three more authors from BAD Crime Writers Festival
Small Country towns hold secrets that everyone knows but the cop sent to investigate the disappearance of two girls in Margaret Hickey’s ‘ Cutter’s End’ ; a woman aid worker escapes from a riot in Northern Ireland but the ‘Troubles’ follow her to Australia in Rae Cairn’s ‘ The Good Mother’ and family gatherings can bring things to the surface that maybe should have remained hidden in Suzanne Leal’s ‘ The Deceptions’.
Episode 29: White Coat Crime – Three Authors from the BAD Crime Writers Festival.
Here are three authors who base their crime novels around medical institutions, and as they are in the health professions themselves they know what they are writing about. Mercedes Mercier with ‘ White Noise’, Lyn McFarlane with ‘The Scarlet Cross’, and Susan white with ‘Cut’. Recorded at BAD 2022.
Episode 28: Zined out in Byron Bay – Byron Bay’s first ever Zine and Print Fest.
So it was big day for little magazines at the first ever Byron Print Fest. Dozens of zine authors from all over the country converged on the modest Byron Scout Hall, set up their wares and waited to see if anyone would turn up . And they certainly did!
Episode 27: Two Poets- Chris Mansell and Richard Tipping – Foxline, 101 Quads, Soft Riots, Instant History.
Chris Mansell reads three poems here – Night Fox, When and an Ecstasy of Oranges. Richard Tipping reads Soft Riots, Mangoes Deep Water, and Beyond 2020. And he throws in a bonus poem or two in the interview!
Recorded at Kyogle Writers Festival 2022
Episode 26: Libby Hathorn -‘ Eventual Poppy Day’, ‘A Soldier , a dog and a Boy’ and T.M Clarke: ‘Tears of the Cheetah’
Libby Hathorn’s ‘A Soldier, a dog and a boy’ is a picture book for small children about the First World War. ‘Eventual Poppy Day’ is for older readers on the same subject. They are beautifully written stories about a serious subject and with Anzac day coming up in two week s might provide a gentler explanation of just what those old blokes are marching in the street for.
‘Tears of the Cheetah’ is set in South Africa and is a novel about the dangers of running conservation projects in that country. T.M Clark grew up in South Africa and most of her novels are set there as she tries to alert her readers to the complex social and political problems facing the country.
Music track : “ Down the river’ by Starboard CannonsT. M Clark recorded at the ARRC in Melbourne 2016 and Libby Hathorn at Somerset Literature Festival in 2017
Episode 25:Publishing versus self publishing in the Romance Fiction industry
Want to publish your own ‘bodice ripper’? Or have you written a crime romance you are sure a publisher will jump to publish? Hear one of the country’s top romance publishers tell you what they are looking for in a manuscript and also listen to self published authors and romance readers explain why they love the genre.
Recorded at the Australian Romance Readers Convention Melbourne 2016.
Episode 24: Kim Mahood ‘ Position Doubtful’ ; and Sophie Green – ‘ The Inaugural meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Bookclub’
‘Position doubtful’ is an old surveyors map term used for areas where it is almost impossible to get a landmark for bearing.In her memoir , Kim Mahood uses this term to apply to her memories of the history of a homestead that used to belong to her family and her deep attachment to the land and its indigenous peoples that surround this place. Here she reads from her opening chapter and later in our interview explains what has drawn her to write of this geographical place that is located in her heart and of the personal charts she creates to explain its history. ‘The Fairvale Ladies Book Club’ is also about living in the Australian outback, but Sophie Green’s central character, is newly arrived as a bride from London and struggling to find friends and her feet in a radically different land.
Music tracks: ‘ Periphery’ by Belle Miners
Kim Mahood and Sophie Green were recorded at the Byron Writers Festival.
Episode 23: Luc Sante ‘The Other Paris’
This is lovely treat – Author Luc Sante takes us on a walk through the Paris of the nineteenth century, a very different place to now. The fields outside the ‘wall’ he mentions are now where the motorway known as the Peripherique encircles the city, and thousands of people live there.Luc’s sonorous delivery makes this a very meditative aural experience, Ken Naughton’s discreet piano fills in spaces.
Australian duo ‘Bebe et Lulu’ gives the end a french flair.
Music Tracks:Ken Naughton , – Variations – Baby et Lulu- ‘Paris’ and ‘Paris se regarde’
Luc Sante was recorded at the Sydney writers Festival 2016.
Episode 22: Nadja Spiegelman “ I’m supposed to protect you from all this”, Jenevieve Chang ‘The Good Girl of Chinatown”
Nadja Spiegelman had a complicated family life, a fact she observed very early on as a small child . Her mother was highly strung and emotional and it made for a fraught relationship. Jenevieve Chang went to teach dance in China and found she was a lot more Australian than she realised, but not exotic enough for her employers.
Music tracks:‘I love you and let you go’ by Gyan; ‘Fire in her Belly’ by Trysette.
Nadja Spiegelman and Jenevieve Chang were recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2017.
Episode 21: Nick earls and Friends read from “Wisdom Tree’
‘Wisdom Tree’ is a series of 5 novellas entitled : Gotham, Venice, Vancouver, Juneau, Noho by prolific author Nick Earls.
The actual books are half size of a normal paperback and fit in your back pocket or purse for a quick read at any moment. The five stories are linked but in subtle ways so each novella stands on its own. Nick has asked several other author friends -Abdel Jasmin-Mageid, Matt Conlon, Liam Piper, Ashley Hay – to read from his works and he also reads himself. In the interview he explains a little about each novella and why he chose that particular author to read from it. No music track in this podcast.
Nick Earls,Abdel Jasmin-Mageid, Matt Conlon, Liam Piper, Ashley Hay were recorded at the Byron writers Festival 2016.
Edition 20: Rachel Craw – ‘Spark’; Krissy Kneen –‘ An Uncertain Grace’; James Bradley ‘ Clade’
Three science fiction authors for this week. In ‘Spark’ Rachel Craw has a group of teenagers, fumbling with their own emerging feelings and identities caught up in a tale of genetic engineering and superheroes, James Bradley explains the title of his work ‘Clade’ and reads from the opening chapter when the hero has elected to go on a mission to Antarctica, while Krissy Kneen in ‘An Uncertain Grace’ really gets our heads turned around with the idea of observing the world through other people’s eyes- even their skin!
Music track ‘ Robotica’ by Michael Fairley from ‘Boy from Mars’
Rachel Craw was recorded at the Somerset Festival of Literature; Krissy Kneen and James Bradley were recorded at the Sydney writers Festival.
Edition 19:George Gittoes ‘Blood Mystic’ and Louise Doughty ‘Black Water’
Today our edition has a serious theme as two authors give us very different accounts of the horrors of war. Australian Artist George Gittoes has been present at so many wars I actually lost count and he corrected me when I was interviewing him. As a public speaker he is riveting His book ‘Blood Mystic’ is an account of just a few of the warzones he has witnessed and recorded, and of his life lived perpetually on the edge of danger. Louise Doughty’s book ‘ Blackwater’ is a novel, but it is based on extensive research she made into Jakarta’s dark history. There is strong language used in this edition and adult themes.
Music track:‘Things Fall Apart’ the General Assembly
George Gittoes was recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2017, Louise Doughty was recorded at Byron writers Festival 2016.
Edition 18 :Jesse Blackadder – 60 seconds’ and Ashley Hay ‘100 small lessons’.
Our two authors today have set their work in tropical areas, and it is this ‘sense of place’ that imbues their characters trajectory.
In Jesse Blackadder’s ‘ 60 Seconds’ – a move from Tasmania to the Northern rivers of NSW provides the backdrop to a family tragedy, while in Ashley Hay’s ‘ 100 small lessons’ the character of Lucy has moved from Sydney to Brisbane. Both these novels are about coping with loss and change.
Music tracks :‘Vulnerable –Angie Hudson; ‘When I get There’ – Lucie Thorne
Recorded at the Byron writers Festival 2017
Edition 17:Lance Balchin ‘Mechanica’ ; Jack Heath – ‘The Cut Out’ ; Fleur Ferris – ‘Black’
This week three fabulous authors who are classed as ‘Young Adult’- which means really, anyone over the ages of 14 will enjoy them. Lance Balchin reads from ‘Mechanica’ – of a world without insects and animals, Jack Heath’s ‘The Cut Out’ , his protagonist also inhabits a future world, one where he is forced to act as double for the good of the government, while Fleur Ferris in ‘Black’ explores that classic stage set- the reputed ‘haunted house’.
Music track:‘Call the Police’ by Robert Childs from ‘Elastic Band’Mark Balchin and Fleur Ferris were recorded at the Somerset Festival of Youth Literature 2017 and Jack Heath was recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2017
Edition 16: Keenan Malik- ‘From Fatwah to Jihad’
Keenan Malik is an Indian-born British writer, lecturer and broadcaster, trained in neurobiology and the history of science . he is also a writer, lecturer and broadcaster and a presenter of Analysis, BBC Radio 4’s flagship current affairs programme and a panelist on the Moral Maze.It is 20 years since the late Ayatollah Khomeini declared that everyone involved in the publication and sale of Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses should be killed. Keenan Malik’s book FROM FATWAH TO JIHAD – The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath attempts to understand the legacy of its publication and questions the notions of political correctness it has led us into in our debates about cultural differences.Keenan opened our interview by explaining the context for his book and the significance of its publication date. Because it is such an important and complex issue , Keenan’s read and interview will be our whole show this week.
Music Track : ‘ Bollyrock ‘by Fourplay from Cd ‘Now to the Future’
Keenan Malik was recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2017
Edition 15: Lesley Truffle –‘The Fabulous Hotel du Barry ‘ &’The Scandalous Life of Sacher Torte’ and Cassandra Dean –‘Silk and Scars’
Two authors and three novels in this edition. Romance but really adult fiction and wonderful escapist stuff for the holidays. Lesley Truffle’s novels are set in olden Tasmania and in her interview she tells me why while Cassandra Dean sets her heroine in that wonderful standby for creepy Georgian carryings on – the Moors of England !
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Featured music track: ‘Silvermines’ by Shane Howard from ‘Clan’.
Lesley Truffle and Cassandra Dean recorded in Melbourne 2017
Edition 14:Peter Helliar – ‘Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase’; Luke Proudfoot – ‘Shaka, Shaka Hawaii’ ; Damien Prossner – ‘Helix and the Arrival’
Peter Helliar recorded at Byron writers Festival 2017; Luke Proudfoot and Damien Prosner recorded at Somerset festival of Youth Literature 2017.
Some kids just love to read and can be found with their nose in a book or glued to a screen e-reading any time of the day, but for some the magic of entering those other imaginary worlds eludes them. Reading is an important skill and some parents despair that their children just don’t seem interested but maybe they just haven’t found that one book that is the key . Our three authors today all write for that tricky age of ‘7-12 years – Damien Posner – in ‘Helix and the Arrival’ goes back in time , way back , to prove that pre-historic families were just as exasperating for a teenager as present day. While Luke Proudfoot on ‘Shaka, Shaka Hawaii’ has three friends who love to surf and play music in their band and well known comedian Peter Helliar thinks kids are a tough crowd, but once you have won them over, they become faithful fans so his much demanded follow up books to’ Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase’ are already available.
Featured music track :’Endless Summer’ by Laura Hill
Edition 13: Tex Perkins – ‘Tex’ , and Mark Holden- ‘My Idol Years’
To day we hear from Tex Perkins reading, under slight duress on a hot day at a Byron Writers Festival, from his book entitled simply ‘Tex’, in which he reveals he was never dismayed that he wasn’t taken seriously as a musician, he never wanted to be serious as a musician – and Mark Holden reads from ‘ My Idol Years’ about one of the highlights of his career, singing with the Temptations.
Featured music tracks : ‘How Good is Life’ & ‘One step ahead of the Blues ‘ by Tex, Don and Charlie .
Recorded at the Byron writers Festival 2017
Edition 12: Penelope Janu -‘ In at the Deep End’, Kendall Talbot – Lost in Kakadu’, and Susan Lattwein – ‘Arafura- Blood, the Wet and Tears ‘
Well here is some holiday listening! Three Adult romance authors with a love of the outback and the top end and the deep sea!Featured music track:’Nullabor Song’ by Kasey Chambers
Recorded at the A.R.R. A conference , Melbourne 2017.
Edition 11 : Catherine Evans – ‘The Healing Season’ and Kelly Hunter –‘Wish’
Today we hear from two authors who are classed as Romance authors but this genre is now so expanded that under books published by romance imprints along with the usual love stories you will find, crime, fantasy, science fiction, historical and in the case of Catherine Evans and her book ‘ The Healing Season’ – scientist romance! In Kelly Hunters novel ‘Wish’ we have a classic ‘ searching for a new life’ saga – but charmingly and satisfyingly told as a young mother struggles to start again.
Featured music track:‘The day that I lost You’ – Suzannah Espie; “ Back to the Sun” -Ange Takats
Recorded at the A.R.R. A conference , Melbourne 2017.
Edition 10 :Tracey Spicer – ‘The Good Girl Stripped Bare ‘; Mary-Lou Stephens –‘ Sex,Drugs and Meditation’ and Suzanne Leal – ‘The Teacher’s Secret’
Well this week’s edition is certainly topical! Here is Tracey Spicer with her explosive expose of the misogyny in the media industry ( who’d have thought?!) and Mary-Lou Stephens tells all about being bullied at the ABC and Suzanne Leal weighs in with a fictional novel of life in the education department.
Featured music tracks:‘Change’ –Jodi Martin; ‘Some say I got Devil ‘ –Inge Liljestrom
Recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2017, Byron writers Festival 2015, Sydney Writers Festival 2017
Edition 9: Sebastian Smee –‘ The Art of rivalry’ and Ashleigh Wilson –‘Brett Whiteley –Art, Life and the other thing.’
Two fascinating books on artists’s lives. In ‘The Art of Rivalry’, Sebastian Smee shows us how the relationships between artists can influence what we see in our museums, and how art movements have evolved by artists interacting and competing with each other.Ashleigh Wilson delves ever deeper into Brett Whiteley’s tumultuous life to reveal the man behind the artist in “Brett Whiteley- Art, Life and the other Thing”..Featured music tracks: “Talk About Love” –My Friend the Chocolate Cake, “All the colours’ by Neil and Tim Finn
Recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2017
Edition 8: David Leser “To Begin to Know – walking in the shadows of my Father”, Nikki Gemmel ” After”.
David Leser reads from his memoir ‘To Begin to Know- in the shadows of my father’, in which he attempts to understand the forces that shaped his father’s childhood and their subsequent relationship. Nikki Gemmel reads from ‘After‘, an astonishing examination of the aftermath of her mother’s suicide. ( This interview and read deals with the subject of assisted dying .)
Featured Music track : “Undertow” by Cye Wood
Recorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2016 and Byron writers Festival 2017 respectively.
Edition 7: Charlie Veron,–‘ A Life Underwater’, Peter Doherty ‘ ‘The Knowledge Wars’ and Tim Flannery –‘Atmosphere of Hope’
Charlie Veron ‘ the father of coral’, recounts “the view from my coffin” as he imagines looking back, Peter Doherty tells you how to sort climate fact from climate fiction, and Tim Flannery says don’t give up on the planet just yet.
Featured music track : ” Falling” by Miriam Lieberman
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2017 and Sydney writers Festival 2016 respectively.
Edition 6 :Sophie Hardcastle ‘ Breathing Underwater’ and Mark Smith ‘The Road to Winter’
Sophie Hardcastle reads from her haunting novel ‘Breathing Underwater‘ and Mark Smith reads from a dystopian future in ‘The Road to Winter’. Both authors have ocean themes running through their work. Good for surfers of any age!
Featured music tracks : ” Underwater” by Domini Forster and ” Seals at Play” by Riley Lee
Recorded at the Somerset Festival of Literature 2017
Edition 5 : -Rajith Savanadasa “Ruins’ and Sohila Sanjani ‘Scattered Pearls’
I loved listening to Sohila Sanjani reading her memoir with her beautiful Persian accent, and Rajith was very informative about Sri Lankan mythology in his interview. Two interesting new australians ( although they have been here a while!)
Featured music track: ” Alunud” by CODA
Recorded at the Byron writers Festival 2016
Edition 4: L.A Larkin reads ‘Devour’ and Michael Robotham tells us all about ‘The Secrets She Keeps’.
Two crime writers with twist – for Larkin it is skulduggery regarding protecting the earth’s environment, for Robotham it is the psychological profile of the criminal mind.
Featured Music Track : “Riddle and Rhyme” by Abbie Cardwell
Robotham recorded at Byron writers Festival 2017
Edition 3: Richard Roxburgh with ‘Artie and the Grime Wave’ and Tristan Bancks with ‘My Life and other Stuff I made up’
Two actors writing funny kids books, naturally they have to read all the characters in different voices as well! Richard also did the illustrations for his book so here he is holding one up to the camera!
Featured music track : “Round the Twist” by Tin Pan Orange
Recorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2017
Edition 2 : Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist – ‘Two Steps Forward’.
Hear husband and wife writing team Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist combining forces to read the characters they wrote for ‘Two Steps Forward’.
Featured music track : The ‘River of Remembrance” by Lucinda Peters
Recorded at the Sydney writers Festival 2017 in Graeme and Anne’s hotel room ( as the media room was too noisy!)
Edition One :NARRATIVES LIBRARY NATIONAL PODCAST – Hannah Kent ‘The Good People’ & Robert Drewe ‘Whipbird’
The lovely Hanna Kent reads from her latest novel ‘The Good People‘ ( with a smashing Irish Accent!) and Robert Drewe muses on family reunions in ‘Whipbird’.
Featured Music track: ‘Rebel Song’ by Shane Howard and Irish dance by Cathie O’Sullivan
Recorded at Byron Writers Festival 2017
So stay tuned for more wonderful stories and reads from our hundreds of authors and beautiful music from Australian artists!
Karena at the desk in Studio 1 Bay FM 99.9 Byron Bay Australia