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9 May 2003
Alex Miller and The Stone Country
Alex Miller's latest novel, Journey To The Stone Country is the story of Annabelle, an academic, and Bo, an Aboriginal stockman. The novel addresses themes of inter-racial relationships, the continuing legacy of colonial violence, and black-and-white reconciliation.
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9 October 2002
Xanana Gusmao: President Poet
Get a unique insight into the heart and mind of East Timor's President, as Xanana Gusmao reads his poetry and speaks with Robyn Ravlich from Radio National's Poetica.
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13 June 2002
Philip McLaren
After three unconventional thrillers - some of the very first in the Aboriginal thriller genre - Philip McLaren took a different direction for his latest novel, 'There’ll Be New Dreams'. In this mosaic of stories, spanning over 30 thousand years and following Aborigines and others here and abroad, McLaren lets the characters construct the plot. The result is a complex and entertaining web, completely stereotype-free. He talked to Mireille Vignol.
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20 February 2002
Doris Pilkington: Reunions
Doris Pilkington first came into the writing spotlight winning the prestigious David Unaipon Award for her work 'Caprice - A Stockman's Daughter'. In 1996 she released the second of her biographical books, 'Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence' - now the basis for Phil Noyce's latest film.
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14 February 2002
Sappho: The 10th Muse
For two and a half thousand years, Sappho, the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, has fascinated writers and readers. Although only fragments of her passionate writings have survived, Sappho has been an almost mythological figure, whose life and loves have been reworked for almost every age. Julie Copeland interviews authors Peter Green and Margaret Reynolds, tracing the many manifestations of Sappho.
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24 January 2002
PEN Lecture: Delivered by A L Kennedy
"I am an author of fiction, I lie for a living, I am paid to perpetuate a habit I picked up in childhood; the one which leads me to tell stories which are not true." Scottish author A L Kennedy delivered the annual PEN Lecture at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. She argued passionately that the writer's power can transcend even the most dire of situations.
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24 December 2001
Hay, Hell and Booligal
Mike Ladd from Audio Arts and Radio National's Poetica reflects on the past and present on his way to produce a program about iconic locations in Australian poetry.
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20 December 2001
Lost Classics: Michael Ondaatje and David Malouf Talk
Canadian poet, novelist and editor Michael Ondaatje, and Australian novelist and poet David Malouf talk about books they have loved and lost, which have had a lasting impact. They discuss the books that shaped them and the books made them writers.
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13 December 2001
Dingoes, Names and B. Wongar
B. Wongar is a unique figure in Australian literature. B. Wongar has published novels, short stories and poems dealing with the relationship between black and white Australians. Widely published overseas, Wongar has been translated into many languages, yet in Australia he's virtually unknown.
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28 November 2001
Gore Vidal and the Mind of the Terrorist
Gore Vidal has been called a philosopher and radical reformer of the American republic. Ramona Koval spoke to Gore Vidal at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2001, about what drives the mind of a terrorist.
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21 September 2001
Nick Hornby: About a Boy
Nick Hornby is a man that maybe eight or so years ago, was teaching English at his local British school. I'm sure he was a damn good teacher but what he really wanted to do was become a writer. He'd been burrowing away for years writing things but hadn't had too much luck getting stuff published. So he went back and decided to write about the one thing he knew best... football.
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20 September 2001
Digitial Liaisons: Linda Jaivin
Linda Jaivin, author of 'Confessions of an S & M Virgin' (1997), 'Rock n Roll Babes from Outerspace' (1996), 'Eat Me' (1995).
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20 September 2001
Digitial Liaisons: Ramona Koval
Ramona Koval presents Books and Writing on Radio National.
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20 September 2001
Leviathan: A City's Life
"It seems a bit of a toss to use the word 'biography' when you're talking about a whole city"... even if John Birmingham does say so himself, that's the choice he made when he wrote Leviathan - the unauthorised biography of Sydney. So what does it take to write the life of a city?
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19 September 2001
Digitial Liaisons: Nick Earls
Meet Nick Earls, author of Headgames (1999), Bachelor Kisses (1998), and Zigzag Street (1996).
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19 September 2001
Sex, Lies and Violations
Lloyd Jones is a New Zealand writer and journalist with eight books to his name. His 1991 collection of short stories, 'Swimming to Australia' was short-listed for New Zealand's major literary awards. His internationally noted travel book 'Biografi: An Albanian Quest' made it to the 1994 New York Times Best Books List, and was controversially received in some quarters for its mixture of fact and fiction.
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20 August 2001
Classical Cats: The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Cat
Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilisations hide an amazing political and cultural history of cats. Over the centuries, the feline has proved itself far more than a household pet and has apparently been instrumental in the fall of civilisations and the health of nations.
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1 May 2001
Martin Amis at Forty-nine
Books and Writing's Ramona Koval, in conversation with English novelist, short story writer and literary journalist, Martin Amis. The son of celebrated comic writer Kingsley Amis, who became a difficult alcoholic eccentric, Martin Amis at forty-nine has made his own reputation for acerbic witty novels that deal with the grotesqueries of modern life and the monsters that it makes of people.
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1 March 2001
Matthew Curlewis: Real Eye-Witness Accounts
A biography of/by Australian artist Matthew Curlewis.
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25 February 2001
The Truth of a Character: Shakespeare on Chatwin
Fiction writer Nicholas Shakespeare spent eight years writing Chatwin, the biography of cult English travel writer Bruce Chatwin. Shakespeare liked and admired Chatwin, and was also a friend of his. So how difficult was it for him to get so close to his subject's life and to unearth "the truth of his character"?
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16 February 2001
Why Bother with Patrick White?
In-depth website exploring the life and work of one of Australia's most prominent authors.
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20 September 2000
Norman Mailer and the American Way
Norman Mailer speaks with a very loud voice on American life in the 20th Century through his journalism, opinions and writing on politics, history and popular culture.
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1 January 2000
Jeanette Winterson: Second Hand Pleasures
Award winning author Jeannette Winterson is best known for her novels 'The Passion', 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' and 'Written on the Body'.
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1 January 2000
John Berger: A Dog's Life
In his new novel 'King - A Street Story', John Berger tackles homelessness through a story told by either a dog, or someone very similar to a dog. Books and Writing's Ramona Koval finds out more about this dog's-eye-view.
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17 December 1999
Closing Time with Joseph Heller
Since Catch 22 his first published work, Heller has written several more darkly comic novels, including, 'Closing Time'. This book charts the progress of Yossarian and the evil Milo minder bender and all the cast of the first novel, as they make their way in the inferno that is post-war America, New York to be precise.
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16 October 1999
Blah Blah Da Da Zaum
Peter Conrad explores the early 20th century crisis of confidence in language that overtook many artists, composers and writers.
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1 June 1999
The Origins of Writing
Author Richard Rudgely challenges the accepted view that writing was invented a mere 5,000 years ago, arguing instead that it's origins lie in the Stone Age.
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12 March 1999
The Last Mortal Generation
Radio National's Ramona Koval trips through time with accomplished science fiction writer, cultural theorist and science communicator, Damien Broderick. His book 'The Last Mortal Generation' tells of the efforts being made towards immortality in today's laboratories and speculates on what kind of tomorrow we can expect.
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20 February 1999
The Cult of Philippe Djian
Philippe Djian is seen in France as a cult author, who started writing against the more affected style of his literary contemporaries. Since the publication in 1981 of his first collection of short stories, called '50 to 1', written while he was working night shift in a freeway toll booth (with very little traffic). With 14 novels and short story collections behind him, the only book of his to be translated into English is 'Betty Blue'. For Philippe Djian, limited access to his work is frustrating, but it's nothing compared with the frustration of being known through the film based on the book: Jean Jacques Beineix's 'Betty Blue'. He explains why to Radio National's Mireille Vignol.
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20 March 1998
Morris West
Morris West has had many honours bestowed upon him for his services to literature. He's very much the grand old man of Australian literature.
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