Fully Lit

In this episode, we’re bringing you a story from our friends at History Lab.Historical novelist Sienna Brown brings to life the story of Nellie Small, a trailblazing performer whose life challenged the boundaries of race, gender, and identity in early 20th-century Australia. You'll hear actor Zahra Newman as Nellie, and an interview with playwright Alana Valentina, for whom Nellie has been a rich source of writerly inspiration. Head to History Lab and subscribe to hear all four episodes of this special series, Caribbean Echoes - and much more. History Lab is an Impact Studios podcast, made in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Public History. VoicesAlana Valentine is a librettist, playwright, and director who is an expert at working with real life subjects and stories, dramatizing them with respect. She has three plays on the NSW HSC Syllabus: Parramatta Girls, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, and Cyberbile. Her play, Letters to Lindy, has seen hundreds of amateur and school productions. Valentine is particularly distinguished in her skills as a co-collaborator, notably with Barbara and the Camp Dogs, which won the 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score. She has chronicled her practice in Bowerbird and published the memoir Wed By The Wayside. Professor Cassandra Pybus FAHA specializes historical narratives about people who have been marginalized, forgotten or written out of history. An award-winning author she has published 13 books including Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers and the bestselling biography, Truganini. She has held research professorships at the University of Sydney, Georgetown University in Washington DC, the University of Texas and King's College London. She is descended from a colonist who received the largest free land grant on Truganini's traditional country of Bruny Island. Vanessa Cassin is Education Manager at Society of Australian Genealogists with extensive experience in providing training and assessment in the trustee industry, both as an in-house trainer for the NSW Trustee & Guardian and as an assessor for Western Sydney University the College’s Registered Training Organisation. Vanessa holds a Diploma in Family Historical Studies from the Society of Australian Genealogists and has been researching her own family history for over 20 years. Zahra Newman was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and moved to Australia at age 14. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Newman has an extensive list of credits in theatre, television, and film. Her notable works include her performance as Nabalungi in the original Australian cast of The Book of Mormon, and her lead role in the play The Hate Race and in the film Long Story Short. She has received a Green Room Award, a Sydney Theatre Award, and multiple Helpmann Award nominations. Newman played all 23 characters in the Sydney Theatre Company’s recent one-person production of Dracula. Graeme Rhodes’ acting career spans over 30 years and includes numerous theatre, film, television and radio credits. Most recently he has been working as a writer and director for Forum theatre based Industrial safety programs. When he’s not acting he sings with a jazz trio and builds electronic noise making machines. Credits This series was produced on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eeora Nation and Burramatagal people of the Dharug nation. Narrator, writer, and producer: Sienna Brown Sound recordist, writer, and producer: Ben Etherington Supervising producer: Jane Curtis, UTS Impact StudiosExecutive producer: Sarah Gilbert, UTS Impact StudiosSound designer and engineer: John Jacobs SupportThe research for this series was funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Creole Voices in the Caribbean and Australia: Poetics and Decolonisation (DP220101256). We are also grateful to the Writing and Society Research Centre and School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University for their generous support in the production of this series. More reading about Nellie SmallNellie Small on WikipediaNellie Small: the trailblazing, cross-dressing cabaret star who Australia forgot The Guardian AustraliaFrom the Archives: The great live music war of 1954 Sydney Morning HeraldZoe Coombs Marr on Queerstralia Sydney Morning Herald A letter to the editor about soup Sydney Morning HeraldSend for Nellie in the 2024 Sydney Festival and article by Alana Valentine on the State Library of NSW website

Explore the poetic, philosophical, and genre-defying world of Gail Jones’s latest novel, The Name of the Sister, in this episode of Fully Lit Live. In conversation with fellow author Debra Adelaide, Jones reflects on the difference between a crime novel and a novel with a crime in it, and asks how a novel might bear witness to suffering, honouring rather than exploiting it. Jones's work - always deeply visual, filled with images that linger in the mind's eye - invites listeners to consider how literature shapes our inner worlds. In this episode, she reminds us that we are made up of all we have read. The Name of the Sister is Gail Jones' 11th novel, and it was published this year by Text.  This episode is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Gleebooks. Head to the Gleebooks events page to discover more great literary events featuring some of Australia’s best and best known authors. GuestsGail Jones is a celebrated and prolific Australian writer, as well as a researcher and academic. Debra Adelaide is the author or editor of 17 books, including novels, nonfiction, and reference works. CreditsFully Lit is made by Impact Studios, a media production house based on Gadigal land at UTS, Sydney. This episode was recorded at Sydney's Gleebooks, also on Gadigal land. Fully Lit is made by producer Regina Botros and its executive producers are Sarah Gilbert of UTS Impact Studios, and James Jiang, editor of the Sydney Review of Books.

Poetry month has been and gone, but we have plenty more to say about poetry and poetry criticism!So we're bringing you a 2024 episode of 'Poetry Says,' wherein host Alice Allan reflects on Ben Etherington's 2015 essay 'The Poet Tasters' - a forensic and statistical critique of Australian poetry that brought Alice's career as a poetry reviewer to an abrupt stop. What kind of critical culture do you get when most critics are also poets? And how can the reviewer not break out into a cold sweat when appraising the work of friends and colleagues?FeaturingAlice Allan is a Melbourne writer and editor who brought her show, 'Poetry Says' to a close earlier this year, with its 300th episode. Further reading and listeningRead 'The Poet Tasters', Ben Etherington's 2015 essay in the Sydney Review of Books, Then read 'The Poet Eaters' - Alice Allan and James Jiang on poetry reviewing ten years after ‘The Poet Tasters.’'Poetry Says' was published from 2016 to early 2025.CreditsRegina Botros - producerSarah Gilbert and James Jiang - executive producersFully Lit is brought to you by UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books.

This special edition of Fully Lit Live was recorded at the Abercrombie Hotel in Sydney, on beautiful Gadigal land. It was a night of celebration, conversation, and creative sparks, as we launched the podcast with a vibrant discussion on the power of audio as a medium for literary criticism - one where the critique is embodied, voiced and felt, and built in conversation with one another and with you, our listeners, in mind. Sophie Gee of the Secret Life of Books was there to host a conversation with Lynda Ng and Ben Etherington, then Delia Falconer, of the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, introduced our friendly crowd to Eda Gunaydin, the 2025 UTS-Copyright Agency writer in residence. Then we ate cake!Further readingEda Gunaydin is the author of Root and Branch (2022, New South), a collection of essays. You can read many of her published essays via her website. You can find Eileen Chong's poem, 'We Speak of Flowers,' about launching a book here, thanks to Kill Your Darlings. CreditsThis live event was recorded by Simon Branthwaite, who also did sound design on this episode. Fully Lit is an Impact Studios podcast, made in collaboration with the Sydney Review of Books. Its producer is Regina Botros. Executive producers are Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

In an engaging, though-provoking and moving conversation, Winnie Dunn, Julie Janson and Siang Lu - all shortlisted for the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award - discuss their nominated works, the ideas that shaped them, and the questions they raise about Australian life, literature and identity today, with writer and broadcaster Sunil Badami.  The Miles Franklin Literary Award is Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, awarded each year to a novel of the highest literary merit that presents Australian life in any of its phases. This special episode of Fully Lit is presented by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and Gleebooks, Sydney’s premier literary events program. Head to Gleebooks' events page to discover more great literary events featuring some of Australia’s best and best known authors. GuestsWinnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. Her debut novel is Dirt Poor Islanders, published by Hachette. Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman of the Darug Aboriginal nation NSW. She is a novelist, playwright, and poet. Her novel Compassion is published by Magabala Books. Her career as a playwright resulted in ten productions at various theatres including Belvoir and Sydney Opera House. As a poet she is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize 2016 and winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2019. Her Indigenous crime novel Madukka the River Serpent was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023. Benevolence, an Indigenous historical novel published by Magabala in 2020, and later published by Harper Collins in the USA and UK, was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award 2022 and the Voss Literary Prize. Her shortlisted novel Compassion is a sequel to Benevolence A gripping historical novel set in colonial NSW, charting resistance, survival, and legacy through the life of a Darug woman outlaw. Siang Lu is the author of Ghost Cities, published by University of Queensland Press.  His first book The Whitewash won the ABIA Audiobook of the Year in 2023. Ghost Cities has been shortlisted for five literary awards, including the 2025 Russell Prize for Humour Writing, the VPLA John Clarke Humour Award, the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize and The University of Queensland Fiction Book Award and The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award at the Queensland Literary Awards. In 2023 Siang was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 Asian-Australians at the Asian-Australian Leadership Awards. CreditsFully Lit is is a podcast by Impact Studios, a media production house based on Gadigal land at UTS, Sydney. This episode was recorded at Gleebooks, at an event hosted by Sunil Badami. Sound engineering by Simon Branthwaite. Executive producer, Sarah Gilbert.

Anita Heiss, Wiradjuri woman, author and editor at large at Bundyi, a First Nations imprint at Simon & Schuster, shares her insights into the Australian publishing industry with Alice Grundy, managing editor at Australia Institute Press. They take a close look at the way First Nations writing has affected and been affected by the prevailing practices in the industry, from author-editor relationships to marketing. What would sovereign publishing look like for First Nations writers in Australia? Alice Grundy is Managing Editor of Australia Institute Press and a Research Manager at The Australia Institute. She worked in book publishing for over a decade before researching a PhD on editing and publishing history, the first half of which was published as a minigraph by Cambridge University Press.  Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of 25 books across genres. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central NSW, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Her adult fiction includes Manhattan Dreaming, Paris Dreaming and Tiddas which she adapted for the stage. Her novel Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms was shortlisted for the QLD Literary Awards and longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Prize. Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing, was shortlisted for the 2021 HNSA ARA Historical Novel (Adult Category) and longlisted for the 2022 Stella Prize. In 2023, Anita released a children’s book Bidhi Galing (Big Rain) illustrated by Samantha Campbell, and became Publisher of her own imprint, Bundyi Publishing (Simon & Schuster). In 2024, she released the historical novel Dirrayawadha (Rise Up). Anita’s latest novel is Red Dust Running. Further reading  ‘Dhuuluu-Yala (To Talk Straight): Publishing Aboriginal Literature,’  Dirrayawadha Don't Take Your Love To Town My Place 'Just How White is the Book Industry?' 'Unliterary History: Toni Morrison, The Black Book, and 'Real Black Publishing'CreditsFully Lit is presented by Anna Funder. The podcast series is produced, edited and sound designed by Regina Botros. Sound engineering by Simon Branthwaite. Executive producers are James Jiang and Sarah Gilbert. Fully Lit is a co-production between UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books, with support from the UTS Writing and Publishing Program. To cite this episode:  Impact Studios, Botros, R., Gilbert, S., & Jiang, J. (2025, May 15). Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, Ep 7, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15421502 

How can poetry act upon the world? Hear John Kinsella hold up a bulldozer with a poem, and take a tour through his life as a reader, poet and activist as he and Lisa Gorton delve into the people and poets who influenced him. They discuss the challenges and responsibilities of being a poet, reflecting on the growing threats to our ecosystems and long-postponed colonial reckonings. In this context, what can poetry do, and what are the possibilities and limitations of a future Australian poet laureate? Lisa Gorton writes poetry, fiction and essays. Her awards include the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal, the Prime Minister's Prize for Fiction, the NSW Premier's People's Choice Award for Fiction, the Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, and the Wesley Michel Wright Poetry Prize. Lisa studied at the universities of Melbourne and Oxford, with a Masters in Renaissance Literature and a Doctorate on John Donne's poetry and prose. She has contributed poems to Izabela Pluta's artist's book Figures of Slippage and Oscillation (Perimeter Press) and to exhibitions such as This is a Poem at Buxton Contemporary Art Museum. Lisa's fifth and most recent poetry collection is the limited-edition chapbook Mirror Landscape (Life Before Man, 2024), written with the support of a Creative Australia BR Whiting residency in Rome. John Kinsella is the author of over forty books. His many awards include the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry, the John Bray Poetry Award, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Poetry and the Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for Poetry (three times). His latest books are the three volumes of his collected poems, The Ascension of Sheep (UWAP, 2022), Harsh Hakea (UWAP, 2023) and Spirals (UWAP, 2024), and the story collection Beam of Light (Transit Lounge, 2024). He is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, and Emeritus Professor of Literature and Environment at Curtin University, Western Australia. He lives on Ballardong Noongar land at ‘Jam Tree Gully’ in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. In 2007 he received the Christopher Brennan Award for lifetime achievement in poetry and in 2024 he was inducted into the Western Australian Writers Hall of Fame. Readings 'Paradise Lost' by John Milton, excerpt read by John Kinsella 'Bulldozer' read by its author, John Kinsella 'Indexing' read by its author, John Kinsella Further reading: An essay by Sarah Holland-Batt about an Australian Poet Laureate  John Kinsella’s thoughts about the same. CreditsFully Lit is presented by Anna Funder. The podcast series is produced, edited and sound designed by Regina Botros. Sound engineering by Simon Branthwaite. Executive producers are James Jiang and Sarah Gilbert. Fully Lit is a co-production between UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books, with support from the UTS Writing and Publishing Program. To cite this episode:  Impact Studios, Botros, R., Gilbert, S., & Jiang, J. (2025, May 15). Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, Ep 5, Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15421502