In December 2023, the Sydney Review of Books and Western Sydney University's Writing and Society Research Centre were delighted to announce renowned fiction writer, Yumna Kassab, as the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature, a program delivered in partnership with the City of Parramatta.

The program, now in its second iteration, recognises the unique and vital work of writers as contributors to narratives of place – through storying, remembering histories, and shaping a creative vision for our shared future.

As the inaugural Laureate, Kassab has composed Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory. She writes in the introduction to her work: 'It was my idea that a dictionary could tell the story of a person (me) in connection with a place (Parramatta) with enough flexibility to take in detours, digressions, musings, and general quirkiness. I knew at the outset that the entries would be placed under titles and it would be fragmentary in spirit.'

Extracts from the Parramatta Dictionary are free to read on the Sydney Review of Books website.

Author note:

Yumna Kassab is a Parramatta-based novelist and short fiction writer, a high school teacher, and a staunch supporter of the Western Sydney Wanderers.

The Lovers (2023) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, and the Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction. She has also authored The House of Youssef (2019), Australiana (2022), Politica (2024), and Theory of Everything (2025).

Guests

Host: Kate Fagan - Director of the Writing and Society Research Centre Western Sydney University

Interviewer: James Jiang - Editor at The Sydney Review of Books

Credits

Recording engineer Sevan Dermelkonian recorded this episode on the 30th October, 2025 at PHIVE, Active Wellness Studios, Parramatta.

Fully Lit is a collaboration between Impact Studios, UTS, and the Sydney Review of Books. Its producer is Regina Botros, and its executive producers are Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

In this episode, we’re bringing you a story from our friends at History Lab.

Historical novelist Sienna Brown brings to life the story of Nellie Small, a trailblazing performer whose life challenged the boundaries of race, gender, and identity in early 20th-century Australia. You'll hear actor Zahra Newman as Nellie, and an interview with playwright Alana Valentina, for whom Nellie has been a rich source of writerly inspiration.

Head to History Lab and subscribe to hear all four episodes of this special series, Caribbean Echoes - and much more.

History Lab is an Impact Studios podcast, made in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Public History.

Alana Valentine is a librettist, playwright, and director who is an expert at working with real life subjects and stories, dramatizing them with respect. She has three plays on the NSW HSC Syllabus: Parramatta Girls, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, and Cyberbile. Her play, Letters to Lindy, has seen hundreds of amateur and school productions. Valentine is particularly distinguished in her skills as a co-collaborator, notably with Barbara and the Camp Dogs, which won the 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Musical and Best Original Score. She has chronicled her practice in Bowerbird and published the memoir Wed By The Wayside.

Professor Cassandra Pybus FAHA specializes historical narratives about people who have been marginalized, forgotten or written out of history. An award-winning author she has published 13 books including Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers and the bestselling biography, Truganini. She has held research professorships at the University of Sydney, Georgetown University in Washington DC, the University of Texas and King's College London. She is descended from a colonist who received the largest free land grant on Truganini's traditional country of Bruny Island.

Vanessa Cassin is Education Manager at Society of Australian Genealogists with extensive experience in providing training and assessment in the trustee industry, both as an in-house trainer for the NSW Trustee & Guardian and as an assessor for Western Sydney University the College’s Registered Training Organisation. Vanessa holds a Diploma in Family Historical Studies from the Society of Australian Genealogists and has been researching her own family history for over 20 years.

Zahra Newman was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and moved to Australia at age 14. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Newman has an extensive list of credits in theatre, television, and film. Her notable works include her performance as Nabalungi in the original Australian cast of The Book of Mormon, and her lead role in the play The Hate Race and in the film Long Story Short. She has received a Green Room Award, a Sydney Theatre Award, and multiple Helpmann Award nominations. Newman played all 23 characters in the Sydney...

In this special live episode of Fully Lit, we head to Parramatta for The Poets Speak, an evening of powerful readings and conversation presented by Giramondo Publishing.

Recorded as part of Parramatta’s Lit Festival and the Sydney Fringe Festival, the event features acclaimed poets Eunice Andrada (Kontra), Kate Fagan (Song in the Grass), Hasib Hourani (rock flight), Šime Knežević (In Your Dreams), and Suneeta Peres da Costa (The Prodigal). With host Giramondo Publisher Ivor Indyk, the poets share their work and reflect on its origins, themes, and provocations.

Eunice Andrada's first poetry collection, Flood Damages, won the Anne Elder Award and was a finalist for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Dame Mary Gilmore Award. Her second collection, TAKE CARE, was a finalist for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, Stella Prize, Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, and two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her third volume, KONTRA, will be published in October 2025.

Kate Fagan is a writer, musician and scholar. Her book First Light was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Age Book of the Year Award. Kate is an internationally esteemed songwriter, and is currently Director of the WSU Writing and Society Research Centre. Her most recent book is Song in the Grass.

Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, arts worker and educator. His work has been published in Meanjin, Overland, Australian Poetry and Cordite, among others. He is a 2020 recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Scheme. His debut book is rock flight.

Šime Knežević is a poet and playwright from Sydney with Croatian heritage. His poems have been published widely in Australian and international literary journals. His first book-length poetry collection is In Your Dreams.

Suneeta Peres da Costa was born in Sydney and is of Goan heritage. She writes fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry. Her novella Saudade was shortlisted for the 2019 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Her first book of poetry, The Prodigal, was published in 2024.

Presented by Giramondo Publishing.

This event was recorded live on September 25, 2025.

Explore the poetic, philosophical, and genre-defying world of Gail Jones’s latest novel, The Name of the Sister, in this episode of Fully Lit Live.

In conversation with fellow author Debra Adelaide, Jones reflects on the difference between a crime novel and a novel with a crime in it, and asks how a novel might bear witness to suffering, honouring rather than exploiting it.

Jones's work - always deeply visual, filled with images that linger in the mind's eye - invites listeners to consider how literature shapes our inner worlds. In this episode, she reminds us that we are made up of all we have read.

The Name of the Sister is Gail Jones' 11th novel, and it was published this year by Text.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Gleebooks. Head to the Gleebooks events page to discover more great literary events featuring some of Australia’s best and best known authors.

Gail Jones is a celebrated and prolific Australian writer, as well as a researcher and academic.

Debra Adelaide is the author or editor of 17 books, including novels, nonfiction, and reference works.

Fully Lit is made by Impact Studios, a media production house based on Gadigal land at UTS, Sydney.

This episode was recorded at Sydney's Gleebooks, also on Gadigal land.

Fully Lit is made by producer Regina Botros and its executive producers are Sarah Gilbert of UTS Impact Studios, and James Jiang, editor of the Sydney Review of Books.

In this spirited discussion, three critics—Max Easton, Eda Gunaydin, and Lucy Van—join Sydney Review of Books editor, James Jiang, to explore the evolving role of the critic. Together, they delve into how they each came to criticism, the influences that shaped their voices, the ethics and implications of writing negative reviews, and whether we are truly living in a post-literate culture.

This episode was recorded live as part of the Parramatta Lit Festival, held within the Sydney Fringe Festival on 6 September 2025 at Western Sydney University – Parramatta City Campus.

Host: James Jiang — Editor, Sydney Review of Books

Panelists: Max Easton, Eda Gunaydin, Lucy Van

Recording Engineer: Sevan Dermelkonian

Poetry month has been and gone, but we have plenty more to say about poetry and poetry criticism!

So we're bringing you a 2024 episode of 'Poetry Says,' wherein host Alice Allan reflects on Ben Etherington's 2015 essay 'The Poet Tasters' - a forensic and statistical critique of Australian poetry that brought Alice's career as a poetry reviewer to an abrupt stop.

What kind of critical culture do you get when most critics are also poets? And how can the reviewer not break out into a cold sweat when appraising the work of friends and colleagues?

Featuring

Alice Allan is a Melbourne writer and editor who brought her show, 'Poetry Says' to a close earlier this year, with its 300th episode.

Further reading and listening

Read 'The Poet Tasters', Ben Etherington's 2015 essay in the Sydney Review of Books,

Then read 'The Poet Eaters' - Alice Allan and James Jiang on poetry reviewing ten years after ‘The Poet Tasters.’

'Poetry Says' was published from 2016 to early 2025.

Credits

Regina Botros - producer

Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang - executive producers

Fully Lit is brought to you by UTS Impact Studios and the Sydney Review of Books.

Hear what poet and critic Sarah Holland-Batt has to say about Australia's as-yet-uncrowned Poet Laureate. She takes a close look at the tradition and explores poetry's relationship to power, highlighting the potential pitfalls and possible benefits of such a figure.

Can a poet laureate bring poetry back in Australia, where it's long been an afterthought for cultural policymakers? How might such a person engage our politics? And can we (shall we?) build the infrastructure to support poetic careers—not just poetic moments?

And, most urgently, how long will it take before someone dubs the be-laureled bard Australia's Poet Lorikeet?

Further reading

For the written version of this address, see The Poet in the Public Arena by Sarah Holland-Batt, published in Sydney Review of Books.

To learn more about her work, visit Sarah Holland-Batt.

CREDITS

Fully Lit is brought to you by UTS Impact Studios, the Sydney Review of Books and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program.

Executive producers, Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Producer Regina Botros.

This special edition of Fully Lit Live was recorded at the Abercrombie Hotel in Sydney, on beautiful Gadigal land.

It was a night of celebration, conversation, and creative sparks, as we launched the podcast with a vibrant discussion on the power of audio as a medium for literary criticism - one where the critique is embodied, voiced and felt, and built in conversation with one another and with you, our listeners, in mind.

Sophie Gee of the Secret Life of Books was there to host a conversation with Lynda Ng and Ben Etherington, then Delia Falconer, of the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, introduced our friendly crowd to Eda Gunaydin, the 2025 UTS-Copyright Agency writer in residence.

Then we ate cake!

Further reading

Eda Gunaydin is the author of Root and Branch (2022, New South), a collection of essays. You can read many of her published essays via her website.

You can find Eileen Chong's poem, 'We Speak of Flowers,' about launching a book here, thanks to Kill Your Darlings.

Credits

This live event was recorded by Simon Branthwaite, who also did sound design on this episode.

Fully Lit is an Impact Studios podcast, made in collaboration with the Sydney Review of Books.

Its producer is Regina Botros.

Executive producers are Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.