The Readers & Writers Podcast

In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Chris Hammer, author of THE TILT.

Gripping and atmospheric, The Tilt is a stunning multi-layered novel by the acclaimed and award-winning author of the international bestsellers Scrublands, Silver, Trust and Treasure & Dirt.

THE TILT is published by Allen & Unwin.

https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Chris-Hammer-Tilt-9781761067419

In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Holden Sheppard, author of The Brink.

A group of school-leavers: free at last, ready to party, expectations high.
A remote island on the Western Australian coast wasn’t exactly the plan, but they’re not going to let that hold them back.
Whoever survives the week will never be the same again.

The Brink is a raw, powerful novel that pulls no punches in its authentic exploration of masculinity, sexuality, mental health, drug and alcohol use, relationships and sex. 

The Brink is published by Text Publishing.

https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-brink

In this episode, we are joined by Sharron Booth author of The Silence of Water.

It’s the turn of the century when Fan’s mother, Agnes, announces the family is moving to Western Australia to take care of Agnes’s father – a man they’ve never spoken of before now. Fan finds herself a stranger in a new town living in a home whose currents and tensions she cannot read or understand.

Resentful of her mother’s decision to move, Fan forms an alliance with her grandfather, Edwin Salt, a convict transported to Australia in 1861. As she listens to memories of his former life in England, Fan starts snooping around the house, riffling through Edwin’s belongings in an attempt to fill the gaps in his stories. But the secrets Fan uncovers will test the family’s fragile bonds forever, and force Edwin into a final reckoning with the brutality of his past.

And our host Jen Bowden.

The Silence of Water is published by Fremantle Press.

https://fremantlepress.com.au/books/the-silence-of-water/

In this episode we are joined by Chris Flynn, author of Mammoth which has just been re-released in a B-format.

Narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct mammoth, this is the (mostly) true story of how a collection of prehistoric creatures came to be on sale at a natural history auction in New York in 2007. By tracing how and when these fossils were unearthed, Mammoth leads us on a funny and fascinating journey from the Pleistocene epoch to nineteenth-century America and beyond, revealing how ideas about science and religion have shaped our world.

Mammoth is published by UQP

https://www.uqp.com.au/books/mammoth-1

In this episode, we are joined by Alan Carter author of Cato’ Kwong novels to talk about his latest book Crocodile Tears, an unputdownable thriller and is the fifth (and final?) book in the series.

Detective Philip ‘Cato’ Kwong is investigating the death of a retiree found hacked to pieces in his suburban Perth home. The trail leads to Timor-Leste, with its recent blood-soaked history. There, he reunites with an old frenemy, the spook Rory Driscoll who, in Cato’s experience, has always occupied a hazy moral terrain.

And our host is fellow geordie and crime queen…Jen Bowden.

Crocodile Tears is published by Fremantle Press.

https://fremantlepress.com.au/books/crocodile-tears/

In this episode we are joined by Booker Prize-nominated Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet to talk about his latest book Case Study.

Cast Study is a  cerebral, compulsive psychological novel seething with secrets and teasing questions about the nature of identity itself, an enthralling, playful and layered depiction of 1960s society and the radical psychiatry propounded by R. D. Laing.

And our host is Jen Bowden.

A very special episode recorded live at MRRWF 2021.

Bob Brown is an acclaimed author, photographer, lifelong activist and planet warrior at the forefront of environmental campaigns and green causes. Join our Presenter Jane Caro for this inspirational and intimate event, where Bob will share his stories and reflections from his life in activism and discuss Planet Earth, a book that is both an inspiration and a call to action.

In partnership with the Bob Brown Foundation.

Hosted at Voyager Estate

We met so many amazing authors and storytellers at this years Margaret River Readers & Writers festival including the delightful Lyn Yeowart who joined us on Sunday morning to talk about debut novel, The Silent Listener, which is an unforgettable literary suspense novel set in the dark and gothic heart of rural Australia. It's a cracker.

Lyn was interviewed at the festival by our very own queen of crime, Jen Bowden and the pair hit it off so much that we had to get them back together for this very special festival follow up podcast.

The Silent Listener is published by Penguin Random House.

In this episode, we are joined by Martha Hall Kelly, author of Lilac Girls, the runaway bestseller that spent over a year on the New York Times paperback chart. Martha joins us all the way from Connecticut to talk about her new book Sunflower Sisters.

Inspired by true accounts, Sunflower Sisters provides a vivid look at the Civil War experience, from the barbaric and inhumane plantations to a war-torn New York City to the horrors of the battlefield.

It is a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty.

Martha is joined by our interviewer, Rosi Moore - Fiander.

Sunflower Sisters is published by Penguin.

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/sunflower-sisters-9781760892623

Just before the festival this year we teamed up with our friends at RMR to record a series of interviews with our festival authors.

This episode welcomes Donna Mazza, author of the incredible Fauna, a book about love, motherhood, corporate commodification and the surveillance state. 

How far would you go to save your daughter?

Set seventeen years into a very recognisable future, Fauna is an astonishing psychological drama with an incredible twist: What if the child you are carrying is not entirely human?

Using DNA technology, scientists have started to reverse the extinction of creatures like the mammoth and the Tasmanian Tiger. The benefits of this radical approach could be far-reaching. But how far will they go?

Donna is joined live on air by interviewer Cate Wosley.

Fauna is published by Allen and Unwin

This week we snuggle up with the delightful Chris Flynn, author of the equally delightful and laugh out loud funny, Mammoth. 

An original, unforgettable and thought-provoking new novel that will change how readers understand the world.

This special episode was recorded in partnership with our good pals at Radio Margaret River just before the festival this year.

Our interviewer is Michelle Wright.

Mammoth is published by UQP

https://www.uqp.com.au/books/mammoth

Recorded just before the MRRWF this year, in this episode, we are joined by B. Michael Radburn. 

Radburn is the author of The Crossing (soon to be a feature film), Blackwater Moon, The Falls, Subterranean and his new novel, The Reach.

The Reach is an Australian rural thriller, skilfully weaving a tale of empathetic characters, vividly drawn locations and edge-of-your-seat tension.

Hosted by our very own 'Crime Queen',  Jen Bowden.

The REACH is published by Pantera Press.

https://www.panterapress.com.au/product/the-reach/

Join host Paul J Laverty for this special collaboration between MRRWF and The Quiet Carriage, recorded live at MRRWF 2021.

Episode 1

Tune in to hear former Green’s leader Bob Brown talk about his new work with Bob’s Foundation. We chat to Tasmanian & Pakana writer Adam Thompson read from his short story collection, Born Into This (UQP) and Festival Director Sian Baker pops into the podcast room to tell us what makes the Margaret River Readers & Writers festival so special.

We chat to the multi-award-winning and best selling author, Deborah Rodriguez about her new book  The Moroccan Daughter.
Following the lives of four women, from the twisted alleyways of the ancient medina of Fès to a marriage festival high in the Atlas Mountains, Deborah Rodriguez's entrancing new bestseller is a modern story of forbidden love set in the sensual landscape of North Africa.

Hosted by Rosi Moore-Fiander

The Moroccan Daughter is published by Penguin Random House.

We chat to Irma Gold, author of her extraordinary debut novel, The Breaking.

Sharply observed and richly vivid, Irma Gold delivers an intensely moving story about the magnetic bond between two young women – friendship, companionship, falling in love – and the enduring cost of animal exploitation.

Hosted by Jen Bowden.

The Breaking is published by MidnightSun Publishing

Speaking Frankly - Clare Bowditch in Coversation with Constance Hall
Clare Bowditch has always had a knack for telling stories and has touched hundreds of thousands of lives through her music. But what of the stories she used to tell herself? That 'real life' only begins once you're thin or beautiful, that good things only happen to other people. ARIA Award-winning singer and actress Clare Bowditch joins writer & blogger Constance Hall in Margaret River to discuss memoir, music and what it means to tell your inner critic where to go. Warning: contains strong language.