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Available Transcripts Transcripts for most Books & Writing programs from May 2004 onwards can be found on this page. Where a program has not been transcribed, it will usually be due to the ABC not owning the rights to publish the material. A certain number of transcripts for programs prior to May 2004 are also available here.past programs index. The four most recent programs are available as audio on demand. August 2005 Delia Falconer Broadcast date: 28/08/2005 What is a life worth? Lyn Gallacher speaks to writer Delia Falconer about her latest novel The Lost Thoughts Of Soldiers, a tale of remembering and re-evaluating a life. It’s the story of Frederick Benteen, a Captain in General Custer's ill-fated Seventh Cavalry during the Plains Indian Wars, trying to make sense of a lifetime which has been defined by a brief but bloody moment in history. [Transcript] Peter Smalley - HMS Expedient Broadcast date: 21/08/2005 A conversation with London-based Australian writer Peter Smalley about the joys of a life at sea in the 18th century. Peter speaks to Tony Barrell about his latest novel HMS Expedient, an evocative and wonderfully researched tale, woven around the long journey that takes the crew of a 36-gun British frigate to the South Seas. [Transcript] Robert Drewe Broadcast date: 14/08/2005 Grace is the latest novel from the pen of Robert Drewe. It's a tale of anthropology and theories of human origin, mingled with the menace of a stalker and crocodiles in the Kimberley. Robert Drewe discussed the book with Ramona Koval at last week's Byron Bay Writers’ Festival. [Transcript] The World of Creative Writing Courses Broadcast date: 07/08/2005 Ramona Koval asks Tony Birch, a writer, historian and creative writing lecturer at Melbourne University, whether the 'cash cow' of creative writing courses is capable of producing credible authors, and whether serious authors who teach creative writing end up sacrificing their own creative brains to feed a horde of wannabes. [Transcript] July 2005 BookScan and the Fading Mystique of Literary Australia Broadcast date: 31/07/2005 With the recent public revelation of BookScan, a measure of book sales, some uncomfortable truths emerged about just how few books many of our high-profile authors have sold. This has raised questions about publishers and agents massaging sales figures to keep reputations alive. But is myth-making such a bad thing? Can’t we afford a few literary illusions in a market that barely keeps our authors in bread and water? [Transcript] Edna Longley: Poetry and the Peace Process Broadcast date: 24/07/2005 After many lifetimes of conflict and intransigence in Northern Ireland, the fragility of the peace process has fostered a language of precariousness. According to Irish poet Edna Longley, the poetry of this period has done more than just passively observe the effects of division, violence, aspiration and disappointment. She believes that the works of people like Seamus Heaney are organically linked to the emotional and psychological wellbeing of a Belfast at the crossroads of change. More than that, Edna Longley says if you can’t imagine poetry, you can't imagine peace. [Transcript] Kate Grenville Broadcast date: 17/07/2005 Kate Grenville talks to Ramona Koval about her latest, and much anticipated, new novel The Secret River. This is a tale that seeks to gain a new vantage point from which to view Australia's European settlement. It's a story of ordinary people, inter-cultural incoherence and dreadful inevitabilities. [Transcript] Diana Abu-Jaber Broadcast date: 10/07/2005 A conversation with Diana Abu-Jaber, a Jordanian-American whose memoir, The Language of Baklava, describes a life lived with two distinct cultures, Arabic and American, evoked through the colours and aromas of food. [Transcript] Josip Novakovich Broadcast date: 03/07/2005 Croatian-born, US-resident novelist, essayist and short-story writer Josip Novakovich, in conversation with Ramona Koval, at this year's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal. Novakovich has an eye for the absurd, and in his first novel, called April Fool’s Day, he tells the story of Ivan Dolinar, a Croatian Everyman. This is a comedy about war, political oppression and a bad marriage. [Transcript] June 2005 Paul Morgan - The Pelagius Book Broadcast date: 26/06/2005 This week on Books & Writing, a tale of theological and ideological battles in the midst of Rome's crumbling edifice. The Pelagius Book is a novel by Paul Morgan that recreates the life and thoughts of the 5th century philosopher and teacher Pelagius, a man whose ideas about civil society and individual responsibility have been largely erased by the more dominant Christian teachings of the time – a dominance that persists to the present day. [Transcript] Frank Moorhouse On Researching The Novel Broadcast date: 19/06/2005 In a recent talk given at the National Library of Australia, Australian writer Frank Moorhouse reflects on how writers use research material to invent fictional worlds or explore another’s life. He speaks about the richness of the library's archives and the way they fuelled his imagination as he prepared to write his duet about the League of Nations Grand Days and Dark Palace. [Transcript] Speak Proper - Sydney Writers' Festival Broadcast date: 12/06/2005 This week we take a journey into the amorphous world of spoken English, a world of fluid meanings, imprecise pronunciations and downright foul language. [Transcript] Colin McAdam - Sydney Writers' Festival Broadcast date: 05/06/2005 In the first of our programs from the Sydney Writers’ Festival, we hear from Canadian-born author Colin McAdam about his novel Some Great Thing. This tale, set in Ottawa, is about two men, one from a life of privilege, the other from a world of struggle, whose parallel trajectories of comfort and opportunism finally intersect as they try to make sense of their lives. [Transcript] May 2005 Carmel Bird + Marion Halligan Broadcast date: 29/05/2005 Carmel Bird and Marion Halligan, two long-time friends, join Mary Lou Jelbart in a public conversation ... remembering an Australia that has disappeared, and marvelling at a new cultural landscape that is almost unrecognisable. They speak of their prodigious output as authors and of the deep friendship that supports and sustains them. [Transcript] Greg Day Broadcast date: 22/05/2005 Writer, poet, musician and artist Greg Day’s first novel is a tale of heavenly visitations on the Victorian coastline. Titled The Patron Saint of Eels, the book brings an 18th century Franciscan monk from southern Italy, into the 20th century life of a small Australian town. His mission is to rescue a colony of eels, but his impact on the locals is equally profound. [Transcript] 'A' - Rattawut Lapcharoensap Broadcast date: 15/05/2005 This week on Books & Writing, we meet ‘A’ - Rattawut Lapcharoensap – the young Chicago–born, Thai-American author whose first collection of short stories, titled Sightseeing, describes the less-than-glossy view of life, paradise and tourism from the vantage point of the Thai people. [Transcript] Russell Banks Broadcast date: 08/05/2005 A conversation with American author Russell Banks, whose latest book The Darling takes his usual examination of class and race in America to the outer reaches of the US empire – Liberia. At the recent Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal, Russell Banks spoke to Ramona Koval about this tale of white, middle-class, left, puritan politics set in west Africa. [Transcript] George Elliot Clarke Broadcast date: 01/05/2005 This week, one of Canada’s most celebrated poets and authors, the Afro-Canadian (or Africadian) writer George Elliot Clarke, in conversation with Ramona Koval at this year’s Blue Metropolis Literary Festival in Montreal. George and Rue is George Elliot Clarke’s first novel … a tale based on the life of his cousins George and Rufus Hamilton, who, in 1949 murdered a white taxi driver and in less than a year were hanged, back to back. [Transcript] April 2005 Carlos Fuentes Broadcast date: 24/04/2005 This week, Mexico’s greatest living author, Carlos Fuentes, in conversation with Ramona Koval. When they met recently in Montreal, Carlos Fuentes spoke to Ramona about his most recent book, This I Believe, a personal and idiosyncratic collection of meditative essays on the passions and ideals of his life. [Transcript] Saul Bellow (1915-2005) Broadcast date: 17/04/2005 This week Books & Writing farewells Saul Bellow, one of the finest American writers of the past century, who died last week just shy of his 90th birthday [Transcript] Philosophy vs Storytelling Broadcast date: 10/04/2005 Are there limits to the capacity of stories to provide answers to complex moral problems? Is philosophy too dispassionate and impenetrable for a lay audience? Is Australian society incapable of sustained philosophical thought? Do we look to stories for real meaning or just for emotional and moral appeasement? [Transcript] ZZ Packer Broadcast date: 03/04/2005 The moving voice of American short-story writer ZZ Packer, whose understated observations of human nature have the power to get under a reader’s radar. Packer’s stories, in her collection titled Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, are set across a range of black communities in the US. Yet these stories defy colour, race, religion and gender, stripping away layers until what’s left are small, fragile human moments that are jarringly familiar and poignantly slight. [Transcript] March 2005 Gail Jones Broadcast date: 27/03/2005 We enter the lyrical and image-laden world of Sixty Lights. This is the latest novel from Western Australian writer and academic Gail Jones, and it’s a tale, resplendent in colour and imagery, set across two worlds – the constrained and stilted world of Victorian England, and the chaotic danger and abandon of India. [Transcript] Transforming Scholarly Writing Broadcast date: 20/03/2005 How do you make academic writing readable and accessible to a wide audience? [Transcript] Dr David Suzuki - The Tale Of A Tree Broadcast date: 13/03/2005 This week we look at a book that challenges one of the fundamental taboos of science - thou shalt not anthropomorphise! It is a sacred rule, in the pursuit of objective research, that scientists should not use human analogies in descriptions of the broader biological world. However, in a new book co-authored by Canadian environmentalist, geneticist, writer and broadcaster Dr David Suzuki, we have exactly that, a fictional tale which attempts to imagine the life-cycle of a tree … a 500-year-old Douglas fir. [Transcript] Alice Munro Broadcast date: 06/03/2005 Alice Munro has been described by Jonathan Franzen as arguably the finest fiction writer working in North America. She has a formidable reputation for crafting beautiful but unsettling stories. Described as 'the new Chekhov', she sets all her tales in the small rural townships of the Canadian Shield, but these are tales that describe and speak to us all ... and in an Alice Munro story, there are no happy endings! [Transcript] February 2005 Steven Berkoff + Arnold Zable Broadcast date: 27/02/2005 We are drawn into the nefarious and wicked world of Shakespeare's villains. English actor Steven Berkoff tells Ramona Koval about the many and varied, flawed and evil characters that emanated from the Bard's imagination, and he says that the language is more than strong enough for the actor to rely on ... without props and without gimmicks. [Transcript] David Mitchell Broadcast date: 20/02/2005 We enter the complex, but beautifully engineered, world of English short-story writer David Mitchell. With his latest, elegant collection titled Cloud Atlas, Mitchell plays with the story form, breaking narratives up and spreading the parts throughout the book. He writes across a range of styles, periods and ways of speaking, exploring the evolution of language, but never losing his desire to deliver a satisfying and readable work. [Transcript] January 2005 Susan Sontag Broadcast date: 30/01/2005 This week we mark the passing of one of the great writers and intellectuals of the past 50 years, Susan Sontag, who died four weeks ago at the age of 71. [Transcript] Summer Season - David Homel Broadcast date: 23/01/2005 In Books & Writing's Summer Season this week, we return to the Balkan war zones of the 1990s and view the disfiguring implications of conflict through Serbian eyes. Montreal-based writer David Homel speaks to Ramona Koval about his latest novel The Speaking Cure, a tale of truth, deception and psychosis - as revealed in the confessions of soldiers returning from the front - and the delusions of Serbian citizens trying to cling to normality. [Transcript] Summer Season - 2004 Colin Simpson Lecture Hilary McPhee - 'Writers in the Global Australian Village' Broadcast date: 16/01/2005 In Books & Writing's Summer Season this week, a challenge to writers to wake up to a dramatically changing cultural landscape and to start creating some effective survival strategies for a global world. In the 2004 Colin Simpson Lecture, Hilary McPhee says our cultural mindset and policies are 30 years out of date and need some serious attention. [Transcript] Summer Season - Andrew Lindsay Broadcast date: 09/01/2005 This week Books & Writing's Summer Season heads to the town of Salvation to meet Ernie The Slapping Man, who bestows a sense of wellbeing on all who pay to slap his jaw. Ernie is a man who is blessed, or cursed, with a magnificent set of mandibles, and Ramona Koval speaks to Ernie's creator, Andrew Lindsay, about his book The Slapping Man, about his fascination with the freakish and the grotesque and about the apparent universal need for scapegoats. [Transcript] Summer Season - Etgar Keret Broadcast date: 02/01/2005 In Books & Writing's Summer Season this week, the marvellously quirky Israeli writer Etgar Keret speaks to Ramona Koval about his short, sharp observations of the absurd. [Transcript] December 2004 Summer Season - Paul Wilson Translating Modern Czech Writers Broadcast date: 26/12/2004 This week in Books & Writing's Summer Season, the man who made modern Czech writing accessible to an English-speaking audience. Paul Wilson speaks to Ramona Koval at the recent Blue Metropolis Literary Festival about the importance of translating the works of Vaclav Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Ivan Klima and Josef Skvorecky. [Transcript] Li Cunxin Broadcast date: 19/12/2004 Can stories change your life? On Books & Writing this week, we witness a destiny shaped and a life propelled forward by simple tales heard in childhood. Li Cunxin, author of Mao's Last Dancer, describes the improbability of being plucked out of a world of peasant poverty in northern China and being set on the path to becoming China's greatest ballet dancer. He was finally launched on the world stage with the Houston Ballet and eventually became principal dancer with the Australian Ballet. [Transcript] Jackie Kay Broadcast date: 12/12/2004 On Books & Writing this week, we hear Scottish poet, novelist and short-story writer Jackie Kay as she reads a hysterical tale about the demise of a long-time lesbian relationship, a tragedy that she can only attribute to the literary hand of Martin Amis. And if this isn't entertaining enough, for an encore she delivers a poem in the voice of a donkey. [Transcript] John Pilger Broadcast date: 05/12/2004 This week on Books & Writing ... what constitutes good investigative journalism? Ramona Koval talks to a man who triggers floods of vitriol every time he opens his mouth or puts pen to paper, and yet who commands respect around the world for his dogged forthrightness. John Pilger has just edited a collection of some of the most influential and courageous acts of journalism from the past century, titled Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism And Its Triumphs ... from Martha Gellhorne's eyewitness report of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp and Wilfrid Burchett's reporting of the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima, through to civilian accounts of the reality on the ground in Iraq as the recent war unfolded. This is journalism that works to the dictum News is something someone somewhere doesn't want published - all the rest is advertising. [Transcript] November 2004 The Fate of Fiction Broadcast date: 28/11/2004 Are people reading more non-fiction these days and if so why? Recently writers, editors and publishers both in Australia and around the world have expressed increasing concern about the future of quality literary fiction, as non-fiction books – biography, politics, memoir, travel, gardening and so on – dominate sales and media attention. So how can independent publishers make sure that the most talented and important Australian voices in both fiction and non-fiction are nurtured, published and read? [Transcript] Jon Ronson and The Men Who Stare At Goats Broadcast date: 14/11/2004 Two years ago, English author and journalist Jon Ronson published Them: Adventures With Extremists, a tour of some of the most 'out-there' political, religious and para-military groups on the world's fringes. It was full of conspiracies and bizarre people, it proved the 'truth is stranger than fiction' maxim and it was impossible to imagine stories getting any more odd. [Transcript] Edinburgh 2004 - Alexander McCall Smith + Dame Muriel Spark + Robyn Rowland Broadcast date: 07/11/2004 This week on Books & Writing, a hysterical tale from the pen of Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, who (wisely or unwisely) accepted the invitation to write a serialised novel for The Scotsman newspaper. [Transcript] October 2004 Edinburgh 2004 - James Kelman Broadcast date: 31/10/2004 Ramona Koval talks to the angry man of Scottish Literature, James Kelman. This Glaswegian Booker prize-winner has been a major, influential and controversial figure in the Scottish literary renaissance. And he’s particularly known for his original and uncompromising use of the Scottish vernacular, as well as his outspoken political opinions on things such as workers rights and Kurdish Nationalism. James Kelman’s new novel You Have To Be Careful In The Land Of The Free, paints a picture of a Scot living in the US, but marked by his accent and his ‘otherness’, he finds the US a difficult place for an immigrant to truly settle and belong. [Transcript] Gerard Windsor Broadcast date: 24/10/2004 This week Ramona Koval enters the priesthood with Australian Author Gerard Windsor as her guide. The latest novel from writer and literary critic Windsor is titled I Have Kissed Your Lips and it tells the tale of a young priest negotiating the taboos of the church and the trials of the world outside when he decides to leave the confines of his Catholic calling. [Transcript] Steven Carroll Broadcast date: 17/10/2004 On Books & Writing this week, as we slip into another endless summer of crisp whites and baggy greens, we hear about cricket as focus of boyish dreams in the suburbs, and as a language for life in Australia. The Gift Of Speed is the latest novel from the pen of author Steven Carroll. [Transcript] Lord William Deedes - The Original Scoop Broadcast date: 10/10/2004 This week, Books & Writing returns to a favourite character, the archetype of the foreign correspondent, WF Deedes - now Lord Deedes - whose real-life exploits inspired Evelyn Waugh to pen Scoop, a riotous tale of journalistic chaos in faraway places. [Transcript] Edinburgh 2004 - AL Kennedy Broadcast date: 03/10/2004 This week on Books & Writing, the inimitable and irrepressible AL Kennedy, whose darkly funny new novel Paradise charts the wilful descent of an alcoholic woman into oblivion. Reading from her book and talking to Ramona Koval, Alison Kennedy paints a blurry picture of a woman who wants to feel nothing and who has a particular love for the bottle. [Transcript] September 2004 Edinburgh 2004 - Charles Allen & The Prize Of Tibet Broadcast date: 26/09/2004 On Books & Writing this week, we hear why Tibet was the goal of all self-respecting 19th century explorers and why it remains such a contested prize. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival, eminent writer and specialist on all things pertaining to the British Raj in India and Tibet, Charles Allen spoke to Ramona Koval about the Younghusband expedition to Lhasa. The expedition was sent to ward off a non-existent threat from the Russians and was the west's first successful venture into the high and holy plateau of Tibet. [Transcript] Edinburgh 2004 - The Writer's Life - Helen Dunmore + Jim Crace Broadcast date: 19/09/2004 Have you ever wondered what the writer's life is really like? On Books & Writing this week, we hear a wonderful conversation about the trials and tribulations, the motivations and the obstacles that face writers. At the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival, Ramona Koval spoke to two authors, Helen Dunmore and Jim Crace about what happens when they are confronted with a blank computer screen, or when faced with the job of reading poetry to a pub full of drunk and indifferent punters. [Transcript] Literary Copyright & The Estate Of James Joyce Broadcast date: 12/09/2004 This week Books & Writing teams up with Radio National's Law Report to examine the strange and often fraught world of literary copyright. While the Law Report will investigate the legal landscape, Books & Writing looks at one of the most controversial contests over access to a writer's material ... that of the Irish author James Joyce. [Transcript] Edinburgh 2004 - Justin Cartwright Broadcast date: 05/09/2004 On Books & Writing this week, the second offering from the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival ... South African-born, London-based novelist, journalist and television producer Justin Cartwright. Winner of the 1998 Whitbread Novel Prize and a frequently shortlisted for both the Whitbread and the Booker prizes, Cartwright talks to Ramona Koval about his latest book, The Promise of Happiness, the tale of a family trying to cope with the jailing of a daughter for art fraud and, in the process, having to confront some of life's big dilemmas. [Transcript] August 2004 Edinburgh 2004 - Howard Jacobson Broadcast date: 29/08/2004 Books & Writing this week begins broadcasting from the world's largest gathering of writers and publishers, the Edinburgh International Book Festival. And to begin this year's events, Ramona Koval is in conversation with the English writer Howard Jacobson, whose extremely funny and poignant novels leave us in no doubt that life is simply one long series of embarrassments and humiliations. [Transcript] Thea Astley + Steven Galloway Broadcast date: 22/08/2004 This week, Books and Writing pays homage to one of our most beloved authors, Thea Astley, who sadly passed away this week. Donna McLachlan brings us a recording of Thea's last public engagement, a reading she gave at the recent Byron Bay Writers' Festival, so full of life and humour, and a fitting way to celebrate a marvellous life. [Transcript] Blaise Pascal Broadcast date: 15/08/2004 On Books & Writing this week, we celebrate the life and work of one of France's greatest writers and philosophers, Blaise Pascal ... an extraordinary 17th century mind whose journey traversed the secular and the religious; the scientific and the metaphysical. [Transcript] George Sand Broadcast date: 08/08/2004 This week Books & Writing celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Aurore Dupin, better known to us as the French author George Sand. In a colourful life that included a relationship with composer Frédéric Chopin, this novelist, feminist and socialist finally abandoned provincialism, marriage and a conventional life by moving to Paris ... and having a pretty good time. Mireille Vignol speaks to writer Martine Reid, author of several books on George Sand, and then visits Sand's family house at Nohant. [Transcript] Paula Fox Broadcast date: 01/08/2004 On Books & Writing this week, a wonderful conversation with a completely gorgeous woman, Paula Fox ... born in Brooklyn in the 1920s into a world of hardship and neglect, she developed a love of storytelling, eventually finding a literary voice. She published adult and children's novels, but fell into obscurity, only to be discovered recently by Jonathon Franzen. Franzen arranged for her books to be re-published and has ranked Paula Fox above the likes of Roth, Bellow and Updike. Others have compared her with Kafka, Chekhov and Flaubert. [Transcript] July 2004 Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame Broadcast date: 25/07/2004 As we well know, the writer's life is all beer and skittles, answerable to no-one, making vast fortunes from every stroke of the pen ... and those fabulous public engagements, reading to masses of adoring fans. Well in an astonishing revelation, Robin Robertson, poet, author and editor, suggests that none of this is true ... not even the skittles!! [Transcript] Malcolm Knox Broadcast date: 18/07/2004 On Books & Writing this week ... Australian writer and journalist Malcolm Knox, whose latest novel A Private Man continues his exploration of class, and then takes a very timely plunge into the depths of the male mind, dealing with entrenched behaviour and attitudes toward women. [Transcript] Dementia In Fiction Broadcast date: 11/07/2004 This week, Books & Writing sets out to discover the increasing fascination that fiction writers are showing for the topic of dementia. Zulfikar Abbany probes the minds of authors Will Self and Miles Hitchcock, to see if fiction can function as a gateway to understanding the decline of the senses. [Transcript] Eva Sallis Broadcast date: 04/07/2004 This week on Books & Writing, Ramona Koval in conversation with Australian author Eva Sallis about her latest novel Fire Fire. The story traces the disturbing trajectory of a family in the 1960s, responding to the prevailing mood of fear at that time by closing in on itself. The tale has strong resonances in Eva Sallis’s own life ... a world of home-schooling, prodigious talent and claustrophobic expectation. [Transcript] June 2004 Carmel Bird Broadcast date: 27/06/2004 On Books & Writing this week, an intersection between past and present ... fact and fairytale. Australian author Carmel Bird talks to Ramona Koval about her latest novel, the final in her trilogy of innocence and evil and charismatic leaders, which started with the White Garden and Red Shoes and is now completed with Cape Grimm. It's a tale that emanates from Van Diemen’s Land and resonates beyond place and through time. [Transcript] Louis de Bernieres Broadcast date: 20/06/2004 On Books & Writing this week, a conversation with the creator of immensely popular Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres. His upcoming novel Birds Without Wings is another tale of a small town, this time in south-west Turkey, dealing with the impact of the First World War. It’s a depiction of pluralistic and tolerant communities fractured on the whim of powerful and manipulative people, far, far away. [Transcript] Alexei Sayle Broadcast date: 13/06/2004 This week on Books & Writing, English writer and comedian Alexei Sayle wrestles with Ramona Koval for control of one of the most entertaining sessions of this year's Sydney Writers' Festival. [Transcript] David Homel Broadcast date: 06/06/2004 On Books & Writing this week, we return to the Balkan war zones of the 1990s and view the disfiguring implications of conflict through Serbian eyes. Montreal-based writer David Homel speaks to Ramona Koval about his latest novel The Speaking Cure, a tale of truth, deception and psychosis - as revealed in the confessions of soldiers returning from the front - and the delusions of Serbian citizens trying to cling to normality. [Transcript] May 2004 Colm Tóibín Broadcast date: 30/05/2004 This week on Books & Writing, Irish writer Colm Tóibín expresses his love for the work of Henry James, the subject of his latest novel titled 'The Master'. Tóibín explains to Ramona Koval his audacious decision to write himself into the character of Henry James. [Transcript] Thor Kunkel Broadcast date: 23/05/2004 Is fiction an effective place to challenge cultural blind-spots? Should novelists take responsibility when their works of fiction cause disturbances in the 'real world'? These questions loom large this week on Books & Writing as journalist Zulfikar Abbany examines the controversy surrounding the new novel from German author Thor Kunkel called Endstufe or Final Stage. [Transcript] Amanda Lohrey Broadcast date: 16/05/2004 On Books & Writing this week, Australian novelist and essayist Amanda Lohrey explains to Ramona Koval the thinking behind her latest work The Philosopher's Doll. This book blends weighty philosophical traditions with a certain domestic ordinariness ... somehow managing to take the reader on a journey from sex, dogs and food, through to Descartes and precision flying. [Transcript] Chava Rosenfarb + Alberto Manguel Broadcast date: 09/05/2004 On Books & Writing this week, you'll hear from Chava Rosenfarb, a writer of stories of survivors of concentration camps who have to work out ways to live, and also from Alberto Manguel who, as a 16-year-old boy, read to the great blind Argentinean writer, Jorge Luis Borges. [Transcript] Paul Wilson - Translating Modern Czech Writers Broadcast date: 02/05/2004 This week on Books & Writing, the man who made modern Czech writing accessible to an English-speaking audience. Paul Wilson speaks to Ramona Koval at the recent Blue Metropolis Literary Festival about the importance of translating the works of Vaclav Havel, Bohumil Hrabal, Ivan Klima and Josef Skvorecky. [Transcript] April 2004 Douglas Glover Broadcast date: 25/04/2004 On Books & Writing this week, you'll be introduced to Douglas Glover, a wonderful Canadian short-story writer and multi-awarded novelist. He writes about dazed and confused human beings, he gives breath to historical figures in the great Canadian landscape and he can even make you cry with his tale of the last two dinosaurs on Earth. [Transcript] 2004 Colin Simpson Lecture Hilary McPhee - 'Writers in the Global Australian Village' Broadcast date: 18/04/2004 On Books & Writing this week, a challenge to writers to wake up to a dramatically changing cultural landscape and to start creating some effective survival strategies for a global world. In the 2004 Colin Simpson Lecture, Hilary McPhee says our cultural mindset and policies are 30 years out of date and need some serious attention. [Transcript] March 2004 Alex Miller Broadcast date: 14/03/2004 Are writers born with The Gift of writing? On this week's Books & Writing, author Alex Miller might well convince you otherwise. A one-time stockman and twice a winner of the Miles Franklin Award, most recently with his book Journey To The Stone Country, Alex Miller has very down-to-earth views about the act of writing. [Transcript] January 2004 Susan Sontag Broadcast date: 25/01/2004 In the final program of the Books & Writing Summer Season ... Susan Sontag is in conversation with Ramona Koval. [Transcript] Mario Vargas Llosa Broadcast date: 18/01/2004 This week in Books & Writing's Summer Season, Ramona Koval is joined by the wonderful Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa to talk about his most recent book The Feast of the Goat. The book describes the last days of a dictator, Rafael Trujillo, whose grip on power in the Dominican Republic came to a bloody end in 1961, plunging the country into chaos and violence. [Transcript] December 2003 The History of Reportage Broadcast date: 07/12/2003 On Books and Writing this week ... the long tradition of reportage. It is one of ironies of conflict, that while a country might win a war of weapons abroad, it could just as easily lose the war of words at home. The flow of information in times of national stress can become heavily contested and contentious, with the machinery of propaganda attempting to undermine, intimidate or block the engines of independent journalism. [Transcript] September 2003 Edinburgh 2003 - Jane Lapotaire Broadcast date: 21/09/2003 Books & Writing this week presents a very special conversation with English actress Jane Lapotaire whose busy life on the stage was brought to a sudden halt by a massive brain haemorrhage. [Transcript] John Mortimer & Elliot Perlman Broadcast date: 14/09/2003 This week Books & Writing dons its wig and gown and speaks to two lawyers who just happen to be writers. [Transcript] Edinburgh 2003 - PD James Broadcast date: 07/09/2003  Attending the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival to talk about her new novel 'The Murder Room', Baroness Phyllis Dorothy James of Holland Park, creator of the poet-detective Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, spoke to Ramona Koval about the precision, the obsession, the gory neatness of writing about murder ... the importance of delivering a difficult, but fair puzzle to the readers ... and which type of pet you should own if you're planning a killing. [Transcript] August 2003 Edinburgh 2003 - Susan Sontag Broadcast date: 31/08/2003 From the Edinburgh International Book Festival Susan Sontag reads from her last novel In America, and then settles into a conversation with Ramona Koval about writing and acting, novels and essays ... and why she rejects the notion of the 'public intellectual', especially when applied to herself. [Transcript] Edinburgh 2003 - Mario Vargas Llosa Broadcast date: 24/08/2003 This week Ramona is joined by the wonderful Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, to talk about his most recent book The Feast of the Goat. The book describes the last days of a dictator, Rafael Trujillo, whose grip on power in the Dominican Republic comes to a bloody end in 1961, plunging the country into chaos and violence. [Transcript] June 2003 Tom Keneally Broadcast date: 29/06/2003 This week on Books and Writing, a conversation between Ramona Koval and one of Australia's most important and best-loved authors, Tom Keneally, whose latest book, The Tyrant's Novel, is being released this week. [Transcript] The History of Reportage Broadcast date: 22/06/2003 On Books and Writing this week ... the long tradition of reportage. It is one of ironies of conflict, that while a country might win a war of weapons abroad, it could just as easily lose the war of words at home. The flow of information in times of national stress can become heavily contested and contentious, with the machinery of propaganda attempting to undermine, intimidate or block the engines of independent journalism. [Transcript] January 2003 The Ants That Ate Plutarch Broadcast date: 26/01/2003 They say music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, but it was the writings of Plutarch, Aristotle and Henry James that was sent to tame the Northern Territory town of Borroloola - a bush town 60 kilometres from the sea on the South-west Gulf of Carpentaria - on the north coast of Australia. Books and Writing presents a Jan Wositzky documentary feature about the Borroloola library. As part of the Summer Series, this is a repeat of the program originally broadcast in June last year. Jan spoke to songwriter Ted Egan, historian Peter Forrest and writer Nicholas Jose. From the archives he brings us the quintessential Borroloola character, Roger Jose, interviewed by David Attenborough in his 1963 film The Hermits of Borroloola, as well as some vintage Bill Harney. [Transcript] Joyce Carol Oates Broadcast date: 12/01/2003 America's unacknowledged fictional historian, Joyce Carol Oates is believed by Ramona Koval to be a greater artist than Mailer, Vidal, Updike and Bellow. As part of Books & Writing's Summer Series, the repeat of an interview recorded at last year's Edinburgh Festival. [Transcript] Amos Oz Broadcast date: 05/01/2003 Another opportunity to hear leading Israeli novelist, essayist and political activist Amos Oz speak to Ramona Koval at last year's Edinburgh Festival. Oz talks about writing fiction, his beloved Hebrew language and his view of politics in the Middle East. [Transcript] December 2002 Ian McEwan Broadcast date: 29/12/2002 One of the finest English writers alive, Ian McEwan speaks to Ramona Koval about writing, morality, science and love. This is the repeat of an interview recorded at this year's Edinburgh Festival. [Transcript] Harold Pinter Broadcast date: 22/12/2002 In the first of our Summer Series of repeats, legendary British writer, director and political activist Harold Pinter speaks to Ramona Koval at the Edinburgh International Book Festival earlier this year. He talks about his recent fight against cancer, how it has influenced his work and discusses the possible origins of his outspoken and controversial nature. [Transcript] October 2002 Joyce Carol Oates Broadcast date: 20/10/2002 America's unacknowledged fictional historian, Joyce Carol Oates is believed by Ramona Koval to be a greater artist than Mailer, Vidal, Updike and Bellow. [Transcript] September 2002 The Sinfulness of Literature? Broadcast date: 29/09/2002 Irish writer Edna O'Brien speaks of the critical reaction to her work, her relationship with her homeland and her latest novel, In the Forest. [Transcript] Ian McEwan Broadcast date: 22/09/2002 One of the finest English writers alive, Ian McEwan speaks to Ramona Koval about writing, morality, science and love. This is the third in a series of spotlight interviews recorded at the Edinburgh Festival. [Transcript] Harold Pinter Broadcast date: 15/09/2002 Legendary British writer, director and political activist Harold Pinter reveals his fight against cancer - and how it has influenced his work - to Ramona Koval at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. [Transcript] Amos Oz Broadcast date: 08/09/2002 Leading Israeli novelist, essayist and political activist Amos Oz speaks to Ramona Koval at the Edinburgh Festival. Oz talks about writing fiction, his beloved Hebrew language and his view of politics in the Middle East. [Transcript] June 2002 From the Sydney Writers' Festival Broadcast date: 23/06/2002 Some writers were taken up with the story of what happens when strangers arrive, how nations and communities respond, and what it tells us about who we are and what we are capable of. Norway's grand old man of literature, Oystein Lonn discusses The Necessary Rituals of Maren Gripe, set on a small island community on the coast of Norway. Commonwealth Writers Prize winner Richard Flanagan speaks on Sovereignty and National Identity, and Chinese novelist and filmmaker Dai Sijie talks about his own experience as a stranger in the foreign land of China under Mao's cultural revolution, related in his bestselling novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. [Transcript] The Ants That Ate Plutarch Broadcast date: 16/06/2002 They say music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, but it was the writings of Plutarch, Aristotle and Henry James that was sent to tame the Northern Territory town of Borroloola - a bush town 60 kilometres from the sea on the South-west Gulf of Carpentaria - on the north coast of Australia. Books and Writing presents a Jan Wositzky documentary feature about the Borroloola library. Jan spoke to songwriter Ted Egan, historian Peter Forrest and writer Nicholas Jose. From the archives he brings us the quintessential Borroloola character, Roger Jose, interviewed by David Attenborough in his 1963 film The Hermits of Borroloola, as well as some vintage Bill Harney. [Transcript] Writing Politics Broadcast date: 09/06/2002 Historian, screenwriter, essayist and political speechwriter Don Watson, recorded in conversation with Ramona Koval at the Sydney Writers' Festival. His Recollections of a Bleeding Heart - A Portrait of Paul Keating PM is a milestone in the history of political writing in Australia. Watson talks about the art of speechwriting, how the promise of his writing a book failed to temper the politics in the atmosphere of the most exposed Prime Minister's Office in history, and writing about a flawed but loved friend. And Geoff Page reviews Les Murray's Poems the Size of Photographs. [Transcript] May 2002 The Arthur Upfield Mystery - Bony Broadcast date: 12/05/2002 Meet Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, Bony to his friends... an Aboriginal detective roaming the outback from the 1930's to the 1960's in some thirty novels, from the pen of Arthur Upfield. Talking about his life, work and astounding popularity, Mireille Vignol is joined by journalist and friend Pamela Ruskin, publisher Michael Duffy, researchers Joe Kovess and Travis Lindsey, crime fiction specialist Lucy Sussex, Aboriginal writer Philip McLaren, and American fan Jan Finder. [Transcript] Alan Marshall Broadcast date: 05/05/2002 This week we celebrate the centenary of Alan Marshall's birth. He was born in the Western District Victorian town of Noorat on the 2nd of May 1902 and died in 1984 at the age of 82. He was best known for his book I Can Jump Puddles, which chronicled his childhood, as he got polio at six and walked with crutches from that time on. Writers Paul Jennings and John Embling join Ramona Koval and comment on the spirit and art of Alan Marshall. [Transcript] April 2002 The Power of Observation. Broadcast date: 28/04/2002 American novelist Jonathan Franzen speaks to Ramona Koval about his acclaimed literary and popular success, The Corrections. Jonathan Franzen is now best known for not welcoming Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of The Corrections on her book club, but the novel itself is full of empathy, cruel humour, truth, information, analysis and depth and it looks closely at the question of consciousness and illusion. And English writer Tim Parks shares his admiration for another master of consciousness, the late European philosopher Emil Cioran. [Transcript] To main story index | |
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