In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, lawyer and author Sam Elkin chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Sam’s thought process behind structuring the memoir as a chronological legal saga intertwining his gender transition with pivotal moments in Australia’s LGBTQ+ rights movement.
• How he found a warm, conversational writing voice beyond his legal training, shedding formal jargon to connect with readers on a personal level.
• Why he infused dark humour into serious moments and how laughter helped him cope with pain while keeping the story human and relatable.
• The raw vulnerability he chose to share, from detailing gender-affirming surgeries to admitting moments of self-doubt.
• How Sam navigated tough ethical choices in sharing his story, balancing unvarnished honesty with respect for others’ privacy while weighing the risks of being so candid.
• Sam’s reflections on the double-edged sword of visibility as a trans man: how being seen can be empowering yet perilous and how he portrays that tension in Detachable Penis.
• How including stories from his community law work and marginalised queer folks broadened Detachable Penis into a portrait of activism, community struggles and hope.
• Insights into Sam’s writing journey: how he expanded short personal essays into a cohesive memoir.
• How Sam practised self-care during tough chapters and how the process deepened his self-understanding.

Nathan Hobby shares his choices while crafting The Red Witch; A Biography of Katharine Susannah Prichard. Here’s what you’ll discover:

• Katharine Susannah Prichard’s significance as a trailblazing Australian novelist and political figure who co-founded the Australian Communist Party
• How Pritchard’s ground-breaking novels reflected her social ideals
• Nathan’s extensive research process, from scouring archives to retracing Prichard’s footsteps
• The book’s structure and narrative style
• The difficulties of dealing with unreliable or biased source material
• The challenging decisions involved in narrowing the biographical scope given the trove of source material
• How Nathan used novelistic techniques to enliven the biography
• The role of a biographer.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, multi-award-winning biographer Megan Marshall chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why a renowned biographer turned the lens on herself, blending memoir with biography after decades of writing about other people.
• How writing about her partner’s illness and loss and heartbreak made Megan a more empathetic biographer.
• Megan’s bold decision to step out from behind the scenes and become a character in her own book.
• The touching reason Megan put her mother’s self-portrait on the cover.
• How decades of exploring other people’s lives taught Megan surprising lessons about living her own life.
• What Megan means by ‘the mysteries of the human heart’ and why some questions about a life will always remain unanswered.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, multi-award-winning journalist and author Kate Legge chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Kindred: A Cradle Mountain Love Story.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• The remarkable true love story of Gustav Weindorfer (an Austrian immigrant) and Kate Cowle (a trailblazing Tasmanian mountaineer), and how their shared passion for Cradle Mountain ignited one of Australia’s earliest conservation movements.
• How Legge braided biography, nature writing and love story to seamlessly intertwine Gustav and Kate’s romance with their love of Tasmania’s wilderness, making the landscape a vivid character in the narrative.
• How Kindred is structured, with each chapter covering a stage of Kate and Gustav’s journey.
• The novelistic storytelling techniques Legge used to bring history alive.
• Kate Legge’s reflections on humanity’s relationship with nature while crafting Kindred.
• The resonant parallels between the Weindorfers’ era and today, echoing contemporary themes of sustainability, women’s agency and equality.
• A moving epilogue to their story: in 2024, Kate’s ashes were finally laid to rest beside Gustav’s in Cradle Valley, reuniting them at last and underscoring the enduring legacy of their love and vision.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, eminent sociologist and author Dr Nikos Papastergiadis chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting John Berger and Me.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• How Nikos’s habit of writing from memory each morning during COVID lockdowns helped shape John Berger and Me.
• The power of memory in storytelling and how writing purely from recollection unearthed unexpected links between John Berger’s life and Nikos’s.
• How Nikos wove his parents’ migrant journey from war-torn Greece into John Berger and Me.
• Why Nikos blended biography with memoir: combining John’s story with his own allowed him to tell a richer, more personal tale.
• The responsibility of writing about a friend who’s no longer here. Nikos reveals how he portrayed John with honesty and love to honour his legacy.
• The creative choices behind the book’s structure, from balancing timelines and themes to weaving two life stories into one seamless narrative.
• How Nikos found the right narrative voice for John Berger and Me. By choosing a warm, first-person style over a scholarly tone, he made the book feel personal and alive.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, 2025 National Biography Award winner Abbas El-Zein chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting Bullet, Paper, Rock.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Abbas shared his story in a series of short snapshots instead of one continuous timeline. This unconventional structure mirrors the way our memories surface, in vivid, fragmented moments.
• How Abbas wove moments of humour and affection into a story set amid war and chaos, showing that everyday laughter and love can survive even in the darkest times.
• The inspiring role of his Abbas’s family, especially the women who found ways to weave hope into even the toughest times. Abbas reflects on how their quiet strength shaped his outlook and helped him endure the turmoil.
• How growing up fluent in Arabic and French, and later adopting English, shaped the way Abbas thinks and writes. He describes how each language brings out a different side of him, and how he brought that multicultural experience into Bullet, Paper, Rock.
• How Abbas researched historical details and sifted through personal memories.
• How Abbas coped with reliving painful moments and decided which stories to include.
• What it means to truly survive chaos and loss. From almost drowning in the sea to losing loved ones in war, Abbas reflects on how those experiences taught him about resilience and carrying grief forward.
• Abbas reflects on life in the Lebanese diaspora and how leaving his homeland shaped his perspective. He explains how years of living abroad, from Europe to Australia, gave him both clarity and longing when writing about where he came from.
• Abbas leaves us with a moving reflection on the power of memory and storytelling.
• He shares what he hopes readers and listeners will take away from his journey, reminding us that even amid loss and upheaval, hope and the human spirit endure in everyday life.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, historian and author Dr Yves Rees chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about the choices they made while crafting Travelling to Tomorrow: The Modern Women Who Sparked Australia’s Romance with America.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• How a group of 10 pioneering women in the early 20th century dared to dream and defy convention by venturing into uncharted territories, breaking down barriers and shaping the cultural and intellectual landscape of both Australia and the US
• The evidence Yves Rees used to inform how they filled gaps in the historical record by speculating about the women’s inner lives and reasons for their decisions
• Why Yves weaved the women’s stories throughout the narrative rather than presenting them one by one or chronologically
• Yves’s belief that international relations involves much more than formal diplomacy between officials and nation states and that relations between nations are made in the realm of culture, travel and ideas
• How the 10 women influenced the relationship between Australia and America.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Dr Anna Beer, the author of five acclaimed biographies and a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College in Oxford, chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature. Eve Bites Back includes biographical sketches and reappraisals of eight talented female authors who lived, wrote and published between the 14th and 19th centuries.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Anna Beer chose the title Eve Bites Back
• Why Anna opened Eve Bites Back with a feisty outline of the obstacles female authors have faced throughout history that have consigned them to literary silence
• Anna’s rigorous research strategy given that women were usually invisible in pre 20th century archives
• How the characters of the eight authors drove the plot of each biographical sketch and the shape of Eve Bites Back
• How Anna balanced life writing and literary analysis
• The literary devices Anna employed to craft captivating narrative
• How Anna balanced authenticity and authoritativeness with wittiness, irony, questioning and righteous indignation.