Irma and Karen chat about the upcoming Ubud Readers & Writers Festival at which they will be recording interviews with several international writers, as well as some of the books they've been reading recently.

Then both Karen and Irma chat to Craig Cormick about the pros and cons of big versus small publishers, how he’s got author gigs on cruise ships and what they’ve involved, how he’s managed to be such a prolific writer while having a full-time job as a science communicator and responsibilities as a carer, the ways he’s seen the publishing landscape change over the last three decades, how to prevent the shiny new idea from derailing your current project, advice for writers wanting to include First Nations characters in their books and how to go about it the right way, the industry differences between writing for adults and kids, how he has landed multiple Antarctica residencies, and why the highest moment of his career was also his lowest.

ABOUT CRAIG

Dr Craig Cormick is an award-winning author and science communicator. He writes books for children and adults, and stopped counting them somewhere after 30, but by our count he’s published 46 over the last xxx years. He is drawn to stories of people whose voices have been hidden from history, and his most recent book is Warra Warra Wai: How Indigenous Australians Discovered Captain Cook and What they Tell about the Coming of the Ghost People, which is co-written with Gunditjmara - Gunai-kurnai author Darren Rix.

Irma and Karen chat about small regional writers’ festivals.

Then Karen talks to Emily Maguire about how a high school teacher initially crashed her dreams of becoming a writer, how she became a feminist without realising it, how she avoids putting her own opinions into the heads of her characters, how she has learned to focus her anger when writing about feminist issues, how much joy she gains from teaching creative writing, the impact of AI on the writing world, and some very important lifestyle questions you should consider if you want to be a fulltime writer.

About Emily

Emily Maguire is the author of seven novels and three non-fiction books. Her novel An Isolated Incident, published in 2016, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her 2022 novel Love Objects and latest book Rapture have also been shortlisted or long listed for several awards. Emily has a Master of Arts in literature, and works as a mentor to young and emerging writers.

Irma and Karen talk about copyright, and the productivity commission’s recent recommendations regarding AI. Then Karen talks to Pip Williams about how she shifted from academic research to writing novels, how COVID lockdown inadvertently boosted sales of The Dictionary of Lost Words, how a genius promotions idea for The Bookbinder of Jericho turned into stunning window displays in bookshops, the process of watching her book become a stage play, how writing might be easier than reading for people with dyslexia, how parents can support the writing of children with dyslexia, and how mentorship from other writers has supported her creative journey.

About Pip

Pip Williams first book was a memoir, One Italian Summer, and her first novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, was one of Australia’s most successful debuts. It became a New York Times bestseller and was the first Australian novel to be selected for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club. It also won several major Australian literary awards and was shortlisted for the international Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Her second novel The Bookbinder of Jericho was also very successful.