Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. 

In this episode we’re talking to Rawah Arja about her debut young adult novel The F Team, a funny and authentic story about what it means to grow up in Australia today. 

‘I always say to the kids that I teach, and the kids that I mentor in schools, I never want to be in a room where everybody looks and sounds like me. I believe growth and learning in life is about mixing with people that are different to you...  I think everybody has the right to tell their own story. For a long time in publishing, I got used to being comfortable with the back of the line. And I thought that was where I should be... I should be happy that at least I'm even in the line. And then you grow up and you realise that no, I have every right to be at the front of the line, because my story is just as amazing as everybody else's.’

The F Team is out now through Giramondo.

Take Home Reading is a new short-form audio series for readers and writers – shining a spotlight on Australian writers with recently released books. In each instalment, you’ll be introduced to a writer, learn a little about what they’ve been reading lately, and hear a short reading from their latest work. 

In this episode we’re talking to Georgina Young about her debut novel, Loner.

Loner is a fresh and honest novel from the winner of the 2019 Text Prize. Smart, funny and deeply compassionate, it is a coming-of-age tale about the paths we take to find out what we want to do with our lives.

Loner is out now through Text Publishing.

Melissa Keil and Dhonielle Clayton at the Wheeler Centre

In a response to a reader’s letter, YA author Malinda Lo once wrote, ‘Diversity is not important. Diversity is reality. Human beings are not all the same.’ If books function as tools of empathy, what happens when we never see ourselves in them, let alone at the centre of a story? How can we support and encourage real representation in our literature, especially for younger readers?

Dhonielle Clayton is a bestselling author of YA fiction, including The Belles and The Everlasting Rose. She’s a former teacher and librarian. And she’s the COO of We Need Diverse Books, the US-based campaign for a more inclusive and representative literary milieu. The movement began as a hashtag, went viral, then formalised into a non-profit in order to methodically press for progress.

Clayton joins host Melissa Keil to talk about her writing, as well as the importance of Own Voices stories, and some of the problems with traditional publishing models. She highlights ways these models can shift while still retaining the crucial ability to connect with readers, and considers how we can create a more equitable and exciting literary culture.