About Us
The Book Show is ABC Radio National's home for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. This daily program will explore the many worlds in which we find readers and writers, publishers and booksellers, playwrights and lyricists, bloggers and journalists, book illustrators and type designers -- all working with words and the medium of language.
Peter Mares
Peter Mares is standing in for Ramona Koval while she is on leave. Peter is presenter of Radio National's The National Interest. Ramona will be back on Tuesday 27 January 2009.
Ramona Koval
Ramona Koval has made long interviews with significant writers her signature. She is familiar to ABC Radio audiences through her long and varied career on air. Listeners will remember her as the presenter of the RN Drive program and as the morning presenter on Melbourne's 3LO (now 774 ABC Melbourne) through the late 1980s and early 1990s. She became a fixture in the literary world after joining ABC Radio National's Books and Writing in 1994. Ramona now presents The Book Show, introduced by ABC Radio National in 2006 to consolidate its various book programs.
A writer herself, Ramona has published several books, including a novel, Samovar, and a cookbook Jewish Cooking, Jewish Cooks. She has written for many newspapers and international journals, and her interviews have been published in book form. Her latest collection of Radio National interviews is Tasting Life Twice: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, published by ABC Books.
Ramona has travelled overseas extensively and brought home fascinating conversations with some of the most exciting and respected authors writing in English, and she has made several radio documentaries. She is an active participant in the various Australian literary festivals, and has been invited to take part in the Edinburgh International Book Festival for the last 7 years, and Montreal's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival for the past 3 years.
In 1995 Ramona won the Order of Australia Media Award.
Ramona has served on the board of Australian Book Review, and has served on the Victorian Premier's Literary Award Advisory Committee, and the Asialink Awards Literary Committee. She has judged the radio section of the Walkley Awards twice, and been a judge of non-fiction for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards twice, once as chair of the committee. Her interviews are regularly published in transcript in Australian Book Review, among other publications, and on the Web.
In 2006 ABC Radio National pooled its considerable literary expertise to create The Book Show and asked Ramona to be the presenter. The program is broadcast each weekday at 10am.
Michael Shirrefs - producer
As previous producer of Books and Writing and immediate past EP of
Sarah L'Estrange - producer
Sarah studied anthropology and international development and now, moving with the 21st century, is doing her masters in applied media. She has had a varied career doing research in health and social sciences and has worked in community development. Before coming to Radio National, Sarah worked on Roomers magazine, which features the writing of people living in rooming houses. She comes to The Book Show after working as a producer on Radio National's The Deep End and making programs in community radio. Sarah is interested in the culture of books and writing as much as in the books themselves.
