York Stories: The York Festival Podcast

Kirsty Murray is a multi-award-winning author of more than 20 books for children and young adults. Based in Melbourne, she is passionate about Australian stories. Her work is published internationally and includes eleven novels as well as non-fiction, junior fiction, historical fiction, speculative fiction and picture books.  Kirsty is also a Director on the board of the Australian Society of Authors and the Copyright Agency. It is this important work which provides the chief topic for a lively and wide-ranging conversation with Writing WA Chair Lesley Reece AM.

This week, join us on Podstreet as host Will Yeoman catches up with WA author Brendan Ritchie, whose latest novel Eta Draconis, winner of the prestigious 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, has just been published by UWAP. "Eta Draconis is a road novel set in a world besieged by a long and destructive meteor shower. The story follows two sisters as they journey from their small coastal town to the city ahead of the coming semester. The relationship between the sisters is fractured and fading. Turned upside down by the meteorites that arrived at the start of their adolescence and the strange world they have inhabited since. As the showering intensifies and their way forward becomes threatened, the sisters are forced to confront their problems and recalibrate their hopes for the future." This manuscript was born out of my own road trips between home and university. Eight hours of silent, shifting landscape to ponder my place within the world as it finally began to open up in front of me. And out of an endless fascination with the universe - creation and destruction resting so vividly above. Brendan Ritchie

For the first in our occasional series which focuses on the staff right here at Writing WA, host Will Yeoman talks to Laurie Steed. Laurie is a much-loved WA author; but he is also Partnerships & Development Manager, Writing WA. We chat about his new role with the organisation; but also about inspiration, creativity and writing with your heart while still keeping an eye on the bank balance. 

Flash fiction is small but carries a big stick. Night Parrot Press is small but carries a big stick. It's a match made in heaven. Especially when the two team up with Writing WA and Raine Square for Flashscapes! The Love to Read Local Flash competition, now in its fourth year.  Join Night Parrot Press's co-publishers and editors Laura Keenan and Linda Martin in conversation with Writing WA CEO Will Yeoman as they discuss the flash phenomenon, the competition, the joys and challenges of starting a small press and their favourite books.

The West Australian's Stephen Scourfield has twice been voted Australia’s Best Travel Writer and has a United Nations Media Award for fairness in publishing. But he is also an award-winning writer of novels, novellas and essays, as well as an accomplished spoken word performer. Here, he chats with former colleague and Writing WA CEO Will Yeoman about a life in writing, the differences between writing for the page and for the stage and how a tour itinerary can also be a form of narrative storytelling.

Bestselling WA author Sara Foster has just seen her 2019 novel You Don't Know Me serialised as a podcast by LiSTNR. She talks to Writing WA's Will Yeoman about the experience. This sparks a broader conversation about the portrayal of mothers in literature, the joys and pains of being a writer and the freedoms and restraints of language.  And much more besides. Including what are some of Sara's favourite books of all time.

York's River Conservation Society is proactive in seeking funding for a continuing program of flora and fauna surveys and revegetation projects. It is actively engaged with the local community to encourage interest, to educate, and to promote awareness of the threats faced by the Avon River and its riparian zones and remnant bushland reserves and roadsides. It also encourages a scientific understanding of the bioecology of riverine systems and will be active in encouraging relationships with Universities and established scientific groups. The River Conservation Society sees all river systems and all remnant bushland as having high ecological value. These areas are important for the conservation of flora and fauna, to provide wildlife habitat and corridors and to protect natural landforms. 

Among the numerous historic buildings lining York's main street, Avon Terrace,  isthe Old Fire Station, built in 1897 and originally the York Municipal Chambers. It is now home to Barclay Books, owned and operated by York residents Clayton and Barbara Smith. It is well worth a visit. Not only has the building been beautifully restored; the interiors have a distinctly Dickensian feel, the shelves spilling over with books on every conceivable subject; moreover, the antiquarian volumes, the dog-eared preloved paperbacks and the sparkling new books fresh off the press sit side by side. To browse these shelves, and to chat with Clayton in his bright, airy office, is one of York's great pleasures. As you will hear from this episode!

Come on a fascinating tour of York's Residency Museum with Curator Annie Q Medley and hear the stories of the past brought to life!

 Dr Marion Kickett is a Noongar woman from the Ballardong language group. Born in the wheatbelt town of York, Marion spent her early years living on the York Reserve. She completed Year 10 at York District High School and enrolled in Nurses training at Narrogin Regional Hospital. After the death of her father, she came home to York and worked locally at both Northam and York Hospitals. She left York to further her education, completing two bachelor’s degrees, one with Honours.  Marion completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia on “Resilience” from an Aboriginal perspective, using an Aboriginal methodology.  Marion strongly believes education is the key to a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s and the way forward for all Australians is education.   Marion will be conducting workshops and cultural tours throughout the two weeks of The York Festival 2022.

 John Kinsella is the author of over forty books. His many awards include the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry, the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry, the John Bray Award for Poetry, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Poetry and the Western Australian Premier’s Award for Poetry (three times). His latest books are Lucida Intervalla and The Collected Poems of Christopher Brennan (UWA Publishing, 2018 and 2019); On the Outskirts (UQP, 2017), and Drowning in Wheat: Selected Poems (Picador, 2016). He is a a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, and Professor of Literature and Environment at Curtin University, Western Australia. He lives on Ballardong Noongar land at Jam Tree Gully in the Western Australian wheatbelt. In 2007 he received the Christopher Brennan Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.