What is the Australian novel today? Is it even a novel?

And what remains of the idea of a national literature once we eschew nationalistic clichés of Aussieness?

How do readings from old and new classics reveal an Australian novel that is deeply engaged with the world and writing beyond our shores?

Writers Mykaela Saunders and Yumna Kassab join Lynda Ng to wrestle with these questions.

Dr Mykaela Saunders is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, critic and editor. Mykaela’s debut speculative fiction collection ALWAYS WILL BE (UQP 2024) won the David Unaipon Award, was longlisted for The Stella Prize and was highly commended for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing.

Mykaela is the editor of THIS ALL COME BACK NOW (UQP 2022), the world’s first anthology of blackfella spec fic, which won an Aurealis Award, and was highly commended for the Small Press Network Book of The Year and the Booktopia Favourite Australian Book Award. Mykaela has won other prizes for fiction, poetry, life writing and research, including the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize. Mykaela is a postdoctoral research fellow at Macquarie University, working on the project LAYING DOWN THE LORE: a survey of First Nations speculative, visionary and imaginative fiction.

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, The Lovers and Politica. Her latest book, The Theory of Everything, is available from Ultimo Press.

Her books have been listed for a number of prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature.

Dr Lynda Ng is a Lecturer in World Literature (including Australian Literature) at The University of Melbourne. She is the editor of Indigenous Transnationalism: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria (2018), and is the recipient of an ARC Discovery Grant for a collaborative project on J. M. Coetzee and the Margaret Church Memorial Prize for the best essay published in MFS: Modern Fiction Studies.

Her research frequently considers Australian literature within a transnational paradigm, touching on the intersection between economics and literature as well as the environmental humanities. She is currently completing a project on Chinese diasporic writing.

What makes a novel uniquely Australian? How do our stories stack up on the world stage?

Writer, critic and former diplomat Nick Jose joins Lynda Ng—Oz Lit scholar and literary critic—for a deep dive into the Australian novel and its shifting place in global literature.

Through powerful readings from literary giants like Patrick White, Peter Carey, Alexis Wright, and Christina Stead, we ask:

How has fiction shaped the idea of ‘Australia'?

How has that idea changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth century?

Nicolas Jose is a novelist, essayist and playwright, whose thirteen books include the novels Paper Nautilus, Avenue of Eternal Peace (shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award), The Custodians (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize) and Original Face; two short story collections; a volume of essays, Chinese Whispers; and the memoir Black Sheep.

Dr Lynda Ng is a Lecturer in World Literature (including Australian Literature) at The University of Melbourne. She is the editor of Indigenous Transnationalism: Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria(2018), and is the recipient of an ARC Discovery Grant for a collaborative project on J. M. Coetzee and the Margaret Church Memorial Prize for the best essay published in MFS: Modern Fiction Studies.

Her research frequently considers Australian literature within a transnational paradigm, touching on the intersection between economics and literature as well as the environmental humanities. She is currently completing a project on Chinese diasporic writing.

An Australian Girl by Catherine Martin, read by Regina Botros

For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke, read by Tug Dumbly

The Tree of Man by Patrick White, read by Humphrey Bower (with thanks to Audible)

The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning, read by Glen Phillips

For Love Alone by Christina Stead,...

What is Australian literature today? How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? And where is it headed?

Welcome, or welcome back, to the Sydney Review of Books podcast - now known as Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, presented by Anna Funder.

Over eight episodes, you'll hear from John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Leane, Anita Heiss and other luminaries of Australian letters as they dissect the work of Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Patrick White, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Christina Stead and many more.

Fully Lit is brought to you by the Sydney Review of Books, Impact Studios, and the UTS Writing and Publishing program.

On this episode Teela Reid and Merinda Dutton, the co-founders of Blackfulla Bookclub,

talk about the online community they’ve built around First Nations storytelling and discuss their experiences of reading Fire Front, an anthology of poetry and essays curated by Alison Whittaker. It’s about seeing, and hearing, and reading the world through powerful First Nations perspectives. Listen up.

* Please note that this episode contains names and references to deceased persons*

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You can find Blackfulla Bookclub on Instagram @blackfulla_bookclub

Merinda Dutton is on Twitter and Instagram @min_dutton

Teela Reid is on Twitter and Instagram @teelareid

Fire Front: First Nations poetry And Power Today was curated by Alison Whittaker and published by UQP.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

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Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

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We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In recent years there’s been a trend of writers publicly giving away prize money to charity or sharing it with other shortlisted writers.

But when novelist Laura Elizabeth Woollett was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, she was working in a call centre. The $80,000 prize would have utterly changed her life and bought her literally years of time to write.

We’re suspicious of romantic notions about starving artists here at the SRB. We asked Andrew Brooks to talk to Laura about her essay ‘Award Rate’ and the complex relationship between writing, money, work, and prizes.

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Read Laura’s Writers at Work essay ‘Award Rate’ on the SRB website

Laura’s website is lauraelizabethwoollett.com
She’s on Instagram @lauraelizabethwoollett.

Andrew Brooks is one half of the critical art collective Snack Syndicate and part of the Rosa Press collective.

Our producer is Allison Chan. Sound design and mixing by Elina Godwin.

Visit sydneyreviewofbooks.com/podcast for show notes.

- - - -

Our website is sydneyreviewofbooks.com

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @SydReviewBooks

Follow us on Facebook

- - - -

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work, the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands this digital platform reaches.

Support the SRB: https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.