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 Ellena Savage about her collection, Blueberries. 

In Blueberries, Savage wields a stirring blend of journalism, poetry, polemic and memoir in her pursuit of human truths: the meaning of power and desire, the decisions that make a life, and one’s place in the world.

‘Blueberries, the book, charts some of my travels and my attempts to make a life for myself that supports writing. And that's often meant me living outside of Melbourne, which is obviously a very expensive place to live if you're not a professional. So the book itself is about mobility in all its connotations, so kind of global mobility, through travel, migration, colonisation. It's about class mobility, social mobility, and also [the] physical mobility of women.’

Ellena was programmed to appear in our Next Big Thing: Here and Gone Edition event, which was unfortunately cancelled as part of our preventative measures to stem the spread of coronavirus COVID-19.

Blueberries is out now through Text Publishing.

Melbourne-based writer Kate Grenville is a long-time favourite among readers. She’s the author of the international bestseller The Secret River, and other novels including Sarah Thornhill, Lilian’s Story, Dark Places and The Idea of Perfection.

Grenville has spent almost a decade focussed on non-fiction. One Life offered an intimate account of her mother’s life; The Case Against Fragrance investigated the allure, affect and health risks of synthetic scents.

A Room Made of Leaves marks the author’s return to the novel form. It’s a work of historical fiction posing as a memoir written by Elizabeth Macarthur – wife of John Macarthur, the notorious Second Fleet settler and wool baron of early Sydney. Moving between fact and fiction, Grenville uses Macarthur’s story to unravel common notions of women of the past – and to delve into the attraction of false stories.

In conversation with Larissa Behrendt, Grenville talks about the book, her writing and her career.

Presented in partnership with Macedon Ranges Shire Council.

'We always talk about daddy issues for women … I think that mommy issues for women is so much bigger, specifically when it comes to desire.'

Lisa Taddeo

'With the #MeToo movement right now, we are finally saying what we don't want as a gender,' Lisa Taddeo has said. 'But we are still not talking about what we do want.' 

Taddeo's bestselling book, Three Women, is all about what women want. It's a work of immersive non-fiction, telling the intimate true stories of three American women, and of how their sexual desires have been shaped, distorted, fulfilled and exploited. 

Described on NPR as 'a work of deep observation, long conversations, and a kind of journalistic alchemy', Three Women took Taddeo eight years to write. She travelled across the country to be near her subjects for months at a time, to learn about their lives and their personal histories. 

With its focus on power, judgement, shame and infatuation, the book has become an international bestseller, sparking impassioned discussion and debate. How do we surprise and disturb others – and ourselves – with what we want? How are our desires deeply idiosyncratic and how are they universal?

In this podcast-only conversation – originally slated to be held in May, in partnership with Sydney Writers' Festival – Taddeo discusses these ideas and more with Sophie Black.

Alex McFadden

Okay, your life is different now – you’ve accepted that. But the question remains: who do I complain to? Do you take this to Twitter? Talk to your family? Say 'fibromyalgia' really loud in a public place, and see who turns around?

Alex McFadden is a writer and performer living with fibromyalgia. We had a chat with them about support networks: where to find them, how to make them, and how to support (and how not to support) your chronically ill friends.

Content warning: this episode includes discussions of severe physical and mental illness, hospitals, medical trauma.

Further reading Alex McFadden's blog
Get in touch

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In this episode

Hosted, produced and edited by Silvi Vann-Wall and Izzie Austin. Writer and performer Alex McFadden is our guest.

Recorded at Studio 757, Melbourne. This series is produced in partnership with the Wheeler Centre's Signal Boost programme. Mentorship and production support from Bec Fary.

Music: 'Dip Dop' by Barrie Gledden; 'Sad Marimba Planet' and 'More on That Later' by Lee Rosevere.

Sound effects sourced from SoundSnap.

Transcript

A transcript of this episode will be available soon.

With entries now open for the third year of The Next Chapter, the Wheeler Centre’s writers’ scheme, join three recipients and their mentors – Arthur Bolkas and Arnold Zable, Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi and Ellen van Neerven, and Jean Bachoura and Maria Tumarkin – to discuss the varied forms support for emerging writers can take, and the unique qualities of writing mentorships. Hosted by Veronica Sullivan.

Veronica Sullivan, Maria Tumarkin and Jean Bachoura

Presented annually, The Next Chapter gives ten outstanding emerging writers the time and space to write, and a 12-month mentorship with an experienced writer. Through these mentorships, tomorrow’s great voices are steered and supported by today’s literary icons.

Presented in partnership with the Emerging Writers’ Festival.