The Readers & Writers Podcast
By Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival
The Readers & Writers PodcastJun 30, 2021
Readers & Writers Podcast with Dave Warner
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by author, musician and screenwriter Dave Warner, to talk about his new gripping crime fiction Summer of Blood.
Two Australian police officers travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles in the summer of 1967 in search of a missing young man, only to find themselves fully immersed in the world of music, free love, drugs and hippie counterculture. They soon realise this isn’t just any ordinary missing person investigation. A big gig is the perfect place to get away with murder, and their search becomes a thrilling journey through the seamy side of the 1960s counterculture.
Published by Fremantle Press
Find out more about Dave Warner
Wendy Harmer on Curtin Radio
Author Wendy Harmer joined Curtin Radio’s Jenny Seaton for a lovely long chat about her memoir ‘Lies My Mirror Told Me’.
Wendy Harmer will be appearing at The Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival 2024.
For more information on her sessions and the full Festiva program head to MRRWFestival.com
Readers & Writers Podcast with Graham Akhurst
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Graham Akhurst, to talk about his debut YA novel Borderland.
Borderland is a modern-day exploration of race, identity, and self-discovery with a suspenseful undertone of Australian Gothic. The story follows Jono on an epic quest to find himself in the face of unbelievable challenges and grips you from start to finish.
Published by UWAP
Find out more about Graham Akhurst
Readers & Writers Podcast with Gareth Brown
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Gareth Brown, to talk about his novel The Book of Doors.
Addictive, brilliantly written and utterly irresistible, The Book of Doors is the spell-binding, mind-bending, heart-pounding new adventure that is perfect for fans of The Binding, The Midnight Library and A Discovery of Witches . . .
Published by Penguin
Find out more about Gareth Brown
Readers & Writers Podcast with Lisa Collyer
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by poet Lisa Collyer, to talk about her new poetry collection How to Order Eggs Sunny Side.
The collection is a conversation in poems on the taboo and abject bodies of women. Collyer disrupts selflessness, tackling the disquieting dilemmas of feminine space with erotic and comic freedom.
How to Order Eggs Sunny Side Up was shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett Award for an unpublished manuscript.
Published by Life Before Man
Find out more about Lisa Collyer
Readers & Writers Podcast with Emma Young
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Emma Young, author of the new novel, The Disorganisation of Celia Stone.
An engaging snapshot of the contemporary experience that has become all too familiar for many young women.
Published by Fremantle Press
Find out more about Emma Young
Readers & Writers Podcast with Kate Mildenhall
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Kate Mildenhall, author of the spellbinding and genre-defying novel, The Hummingbird Effect.
An epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories, from the acclaimed author of The Mother Fault.
Published by Simon and Schuster
Find out more about Kate Mildenhall
Readers & Writers Podcast with Jill Griffith and Matthew Evans
In this episode we are joined by highly acclaimed science and environmental writer, Jill Griffiths to launch her timely new book, What’s for Dinner? Our food, our choice, our planet.
What’s for Dinner? delves into the way our food is grown and our responsibilities as eaters. Weaving together science, history and lived experience, What’s for Dinner? takes readers on a journey to meet the plants, animals and people who put the food on our plates.
It’s a book for anyone who eats.
Jill is joined in conversation by fellow author and farmer Matthew Evans.
This episode was recorded live at Nala Bardip Mia as part of the Regenerative Agriculture Conference 2023.
Published by Thames & Hudson
Find out more about Jill Griffiths
Readers & Writers Podcast with Molly Schmidt
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Molly Schmidt, winner of the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award for her debut novel Salt River Road.
Salt River Road is a compelling coming-of-age novel about grief and healing set in a small town in the 1970s. It's a poignant exploration of healing and resilience, small-town racism and the power of human connection.
Published by Fremantle Press
Find out more about Molly Schmidt
Readers & Writers Podcast with Steven Hawke
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Steven Hawke, author of The Brothers Wolfe, a family saga about loyalty, love, risk, redemption and the ties that bind.
Meet the Brothers Wolfe. Elliot Wolfe- ambitious, ruthless and living for the thrill of the deal. Athol Wolfe- a young man trying to find a place outside his big brother's shadow. Include a maiden aunt with a long memory, a mild-mannered father reluctant to bring the family menswear business into the modern world.
Published by Fremantle Press
Find out more about Steven Hawke
Readers & Writers Podcast with Kathy George
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Australian Gothic novelist Kathy George, to talk about her new book Estella.
Estella is a haunting and darkly beautiful retelling of Dicken's Great Expectations, in which the icily enigmatic anti-hero, Estella, tells her own story ... and changes the ending in this beguiling feminist take on a classic.
Estella is published by Harper Collins
Find out more about Kathy George
Readers & Writers Podcast with Laurie Steed
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Australian novelist and short story writer, Laurie Steed to talk about his new book Love, Dad: Confessions of An Anxious Father.
The father of two young boys, Laurie reflects on how his own experiences have defined the kind of man he is and the kind of parent he would like to become.
A must-read for all new parents, Love, Dad: Confessions of An Anxious Father explores what it means to be a father in the twenty-first century.
Love, Dad: is published by Fremantle Press
You can find out more about Laurie Steed here.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Josh Kemp
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Josh Kemp. Josh is an author of Australian gothic fiction and his novel Banjawarn was joint winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and is his debut novel.
Unsettling and darkly funny, Banjawarn explores love, friendship and how hope is often found in the strangest places.
Banjawarn is published by UWAP
Find out more about Josh Kemp
Readers & Writers Podcast with Carrie Cox
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Australian journalist and author, Carrie Cox to talk about her new book Storylines.
Deeply moving and sharply funny, Storylines is a novel about how we see ourselves in an age of distortion.
Storylines is published by Affirm Press
You can find out more about Carrie Cox here.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Matthew Spencer
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by debut crime writer, Matthew Spencer to talk about his book Black River.
Black River is a taut, suspenseful and utterly compelling thriller that will keep you guessing to the final pages.
A long, burning summer in Sydney. A young woman is found murdered in the deserted grounds of an elite boarding school. A serial killer preying on victims along the banks of the Parramatta River. A city on edge.
Black River is published by Allen & Unwin
You can find out more about Matthew Spencer here.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Michelle Upton
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by fellow Brit Michelle Upton, author of Terms of Inheritance, a funny, moving and brilliantly observed story about letting go of the past.
Four sisters. A vast fortune. And a mother who thinks she knows best ...Where there's a will, there's a way!
Terms of Inheritance is published by Harper Collins.
You can find out more about Michelle Upton and her writing here.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Chris Flynn - Part Deux
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Chris Flynn, author of Here Be Leviathans. A dazzling collection of funny, brilliant, boundary-pushing stories from the bestselling author of Mammoth.
The stories in Here Be Leviathans take us from the storm drains under Las Vegas to the Alaskan wilderness; the rainforests of Queensland to the Chilean coastline. Narrated in Chris Flynn’s unique and hilarious style by animals, places, objects and even the (very) odd human, these short fictions push the boundaries of the form by examining human behaviour from the perspective of the outsider.
Here Be Leviathans is published by UQP
Readers & Writers Podcast with Chris Hammer
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with Shelley Burr
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Shelley Burr, author of WAKE.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO YOUNG EVIE McCREERY? A searing debut crime novel where the grief and guilt surrounding an unsolved disappearance still haunt a small farming community . . . and will ultimately lead to a reckoning.
Compulsively readable, with an unforgettable setting and cast of characters, WAKE is a powerful, unsparing story of how trauma ripples outward when people’s private tragedies become public property, and how it’s never too late for the truth to set things right.
WAKE is published by Hachette.
https://www.hachette.com.au/shelley-burr/wake
Readers & Writers Podcast with Holden Sheppard
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with Sharron Booth
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/
Readers & Writers Podcast with Chris Flynn
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with Alan Carter
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/
Readers & Writers Podcast with Charlotte McConaghy
In this episode we are joined by Charlotte McConaghy author of the international bestseller Migrations to talk about her latest book Once We Were Wolves, a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.
Propulsive and spellbinding, Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable tale of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves. Part thriller, part redemptive love story, Charlotte McConaghy’s profoundly affecting novel will stay with you forever.
And our host is the one and only...Jen Bowden.
Once We Were Wolves is published by Penguin.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Graeme Macrae Burnet
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.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Michael Trant
Wild Dogs is a page-turning action thriller set in the WA outback, introducing Australia’s answer to Jack Reacher.
Michael is a WA country boy now residing in Perth after a variety of careers ranging from farmer, marine draftsman, pastoralist and FIFO pot washer. He still works on farms as a tractor driver, mainly to annoy those teachers who claimed no one would pay him to stare out a window all day.
Hosted by our very own ‘Crime Queen’, Jen Bowden.
Wild Dogs is published by Penguin.
MRRWF 2021 In conversation with Bob Brown hosted at Voyager Estate
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with Lyn Yeowart
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.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Martha Hall Kelly
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with Donna Mazza
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with Chris Flynn
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
Readers & Writers Podcast with B.Michael Radburn
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/
MRRWF x The Quiet Carriage - Episode 1
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.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Deborah Rodriguez
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.
Readers & Writers Podcast with Irma Gold
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
MRRWF 2019 Clare Bowditch in conversation with Constance Hall
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.