Recorded Live - Join Gina Chick, the inaugural winner of Alone Australia for the Margaret River launch of her dazzling memoir, We Are the Stars.
After surviving 67 days of unforgettable moments of searing vulnerability, Gina was the last person standing and won both Alone Australia and the nation’s heart with her combination of grit, warmth, and preference for going barefoot wherever possible.
A rewilding facilitator, adventurer, dancer, writer and speaker, Gina has always blazed her own trail in life from the hidden world of 90’s Sydney nightlife to fleeing to the wilderness under the whirling silence of stars, to find healing in the wisdom of the body.
Now, Gina tells the story of her extraordinary, indomitable life in one of the most powerful, moving memoirs you will ever read.
If you’re ready to get lost in jungles, wander into wolf-dens, sing with storms, rescue orphaned animals, dive to the depths, dance ’til your knees wobble, fall in love, find yourself by losing it all, and most of all be real; this book is for you.
We Are the Stars is a magic carpet ride through the exquisite mystery of the human heart.
You’ve never read anything like it.
In conversation with Bri Lee recorded live as part of the Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival 2024 out-of-season events.
Multi-award-winning author, academic, and activist Bri Lee joins host Gillian O’Shaughnessy to launch her new book The Work.
A stunning debut novel about art, power, love and money from the acclaimed and bestselling author of Eggshell Skull.
The Work is an ambitious and meticulously modern fable about art, sex, money, power and the perils of self-curation.
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Siang Lu to talk about his new novel, the allegorical and imaginative, Ghost Cities.
Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn’t speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work.
Published by UQP
Find out more about Siang Lu
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by Kirsty Iltners to talk about her debut novel Depth of Field.
Told through alternating perspectives, Kirsty Iltners’ debut novel examines the lives of two isolated individuals to reveal the fragility of life and the fallibility of our memories.
Winner of the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award, Depth of Field is a gripping novel where the mechanisms of photography are allowed to falter just enough to expose how selective and unreliable our memories are, especially when parts of the truth are left out of the frame.
Published by UWAP
Find out more about Kirsty Iltners
In this episode, Jen Bowden is joined by crime author and Fremantle local, David Whish-Wilson, to talk about his new novel I Am Already Dead .
Trainee private investigator Lee Southern finds himself drawn into a web of danger and deceit as he investigates a series of bribery attempts targeting a wealthy entrepreneur. Under the expert tutelage of retiring PI Frank Swann, Lee uses all of his developing skills, instincts and cunning to get to the heart of a sordid mystery. As Lee delves deeper into the case and questions the intentions of those he’s working for, he finds himself the target of increasingly ominous threats and several attempts on his life.
Published by Fremantle Press
Find out more about David Whish-Wilson
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.