Best of the Festivals

Jan 16 2025 47 ep. 52 mins 22
Best of the Festivals Podcast artwork

From feisty debates and discussion from major writers festivals, to folk and hip hop from some of the past year’s great musical events. An RN summer season program.

  Society & Culture
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Why local news matters: a discussion from the Williamstown Literary Festival

Jan 16 2025 51 mins  
Who's watching your local council, keeping you abreast of issues in your neighbourhood, and celebrating your community's achievements? That used to be the role of your local newspaper, but now many of us don't have one. A discussion about why local news matters from the Williamstown Literary Festival in Victoria. Guests: Alice Pung, author and adjunct professor in the School of

Dirty laundry -- what are the consequences of bringing the personal into the public realm?

Jan 15 2025 46 mins  
At the 2024 Sydney Writers Festival, host George Haddad is on stage with three memoirists who have mined their family's experiences in their professional lives: comedian Rhys Nicholson, writer and presenter Benjamin Law, and author and academic Dr Amy Thunig.

At the Byron Writers Festival: Indian born activist, poet and novelist Menna Kandasamy

Jan 14 2025 53 mins  
At the Byron Writers Festival, Radio National’s Claire Nichols spoke with Menna Kandasamy about her life growing up in a house of academics and rebels, the challenge of being an activist, and why she continues despite the threats.

Author and poet Nam Le and his new book -- 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem

Jan 13 2025 52 mins  
At the 2024 Sorrento Writers Festival in Victoria, Australian author and poet Nam Le, speaking with Radio National’s Sarah L'Estrange about his latest literary offering 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem.

Translators are the publishing industry’s unsung heroes

Jan 12 2025 51 mins  
At the 2024 Sydney Writers Festival, Jemma Birrell speaks with three award-winning translators who have introduced anglophone audiences to some of the most celebrated writers in French, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian. Guests: Authors Jennifer Croft, Daniel Hahn and Stephanie Smee with Jemma Birrell, the Head of Writing at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Two panels of big thinkers, exploring new frontiers for ocean exploitation — and inspiration

Jan 09 2025 51 mins  
From deep sea mining to illegal fishing on the high seas, who is the boss of the ocean? And why are scientists-turned-entrepreneurs singing the praises of seaweed? Natasha Mitchell and guests at the 2024 Ocean Lovers Festival in Bondi.

Bringing the past to life with historical fiction, at the 2024 Sydney Writers Festival

Jan 08 2025 50 mins  
At the 2024 Sydney Writers Festival, a conversation with three authors of historical fiction: Francesca de Tores author of Saltblood, Mirandi Riwoe author of Sunbirds and Abraham Verghese author of The Covenant of Water.

Chigozie Obioma chronicles Biafran War in Nigeria in his book The Road to the Country

Jan 07 2025 53 mins  
US based Nigerian born author Chigozie Obioma speaks with Radio National’s Claire Nichols about his third novel The Road to the Country, which chronicles the Biafran War that tore through Nigeria from 1967 to 1970.

Jonathan Lethem talks about his book Brooklyn Crime Novel

Jan 06 2025 54 mins  
At Adelaide Writers Week, Radio National’s Sarah L’Estrange is in conversation with author Jonathan Lethem about his book Brooklyn Crime Novel -- a portrait of Brooklyn and how it's been affected by race, class and gentrification.

Abdulrazak Gurnah talks about his tenth novel Afterlives

Jan 05 2025 50 mins  
At the 2024 Sydney Writers Festival a conversation between writer Sisonke Msimang and Nobel Prize winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah about Afterlives – an intergenerational portrait of love and loss under German occupation in East Africa.