Final Draft
Monday 7:00pm - 7:30pm
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's
too dark to read.
Groucho Marx
Final Draft is a weekly stroll in the world of books, writing, ideas and language. It's also a space on the air where the big names of arts and culture sit cheek-by-jowl with those just beginning to make their mark. Produced in the hope of inspiring generous, open-minded reading and
conversation, the show has a distinct flavour of Sydney, as well as generous sprinkles of guests and goodies from around Australia and the world too.
Each week we serve up a mix of interviews with writers and industry figures, reviews of new, classic and cult titles, readings of original work, short features and documentaries, and news about literary events, trends, prizes and publishing opportunities.
Past guests include novelists, film-makers, journalists, historians, illustrators, scientists, publishers, critics, poets and producers. A few examples: Vikram Chandra, Tom Griffiths, Tristan Clark, Jennifer Mills, Ira Glass, Luke Davies, Richard J Frankland, Alice Pung, L K Holt, Max Barry, Bernadette Brennan, Don Watson, Jane Gleeson-White, Alan Parkinson, Maria Tumarkin, Frank Moorhouse, Susanna Lobez, Alex Miller, John Hirst, Naldo Rei, Chloe Hooper, David Stratton, Tina Matthews, Samantha Faulkner, Ben Garcia, Joe Bageant, Lollie Barr, Jonathan Balcombe, Heather O'Neill, Jeanette Hoorn, Najaf Mazari, Robert Hillman, etc, etc.
Click here for audio-on-demand, RSS feeds and podcasts
ANNOUNCING THE FINAL DRAFT LISTENERS' BOOK CLUB!
If you’ve got a book that’s particularly close to your heart and you’d like to share you thoughts and feelings about it with a wider audience, then we’ve got the ticket for you. Write us an email - finaldraft@2ser.com - telling us about the book and why it’s important to you. We’ll take a look at it and if floats our boat too we’ll invite you to come in to the studio with a couple of final drafters to have a chat about it. You can bring a friend if you like. We’ll provide the scones and tea, and when we’re done we’ll polish up the tape and broadcast the best of the conversation. The book can be anything you like – fiction, nonfiction, poems, a kids book, whatever. It can be a new release, a classic, a cult title. If you love it, we want to hear about it.
Our theme music:
'Trouble' by Price and Logan performed by Stanley Turrentine, from his
1963 album,'Never Let Me Go' (Blue Note).
Past shows, guests, books discussed, links etc:
21 July: The Heart of the Matter
This week we're getting to the heart of how we get to the heart of things. Law, fiction, history, journalism. Each claims to speak of the truth in its own fashion, using different tools and ideas. Yet given the same stories, each often comes to dramatically different conclusions. Journalist Chloe Hooper joins us to discuss the difficulties getting to the heart of the tragic events of recent years on Palm Island. We'll also explore about the fruitful possibilities opened up when the imagination is given full play in the telling of history, with the wonderful Frank Moorhouse. Bruce Williams is back too, with another story getting at the heart of the matters close to the hearts of Cumbersome Lovers. Also, we announce a special new project: the Final Draft Book Club!
Chloe Hooper, The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island, Penguin
Frank Moorhouse, H C Coombes Creative Arts Fellow, Australian National University
Bruce Williams, 'Success', Love at Cumbersome Corner (part 4)
14 July: And that's a Fact...
Facts. Ronald Regan called them 'stupid things', while commedian Will Rogers
declared he didn't tell jokes, he just watched the government and reported the
facts. Facts, it seems are in the eye of the beholder. This week in trying to
get to grips with the slipperiness of facts we meet poet and printer Alan Loney,
the author of a book about a very special book about nothing, which turns out
not to exist - and yet which is full to the brim of fascinating facts. We follow
novelist Gerard Windsor, in search of some very personal facts, a search that takes him deep into the nature of biography and
poetry. And we'll also hear all about some astonishing facts unearthed by
academic and former gang-leader, Sidhur Venkatesh, using a very unorthodox
research method.
Gerard Windsor, 'Chasing My Own Real Me', State Library of NSW
forum on Fact and Fiction
Sidhur Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day, Penguin
Alan Loney, The Printing of a Masterpiece, Black Pepper Publishing (for more info about Alan Loney's fine press, click here)
7 July: Memory Lane
Tom Stoppard, the British playwright once wrote: 'We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke and a presumption that once our eyes watered.' This week we're off down Memory Lane, in search of that smoke. We hear two stories from two very different women, both though, looking over their shoulders, trying to make sense of the view. We also discover how books sometimes preserve traces of the lives and thoughts of their readers, as well as their authors, and we take in some more reminiscences from Cumbersome Corner with Bruce Williams.
Mira Crouch, War Fare: Sustenance in Time of Fear and Want, Gavemer Publishing
Jennifer Robertson, 'Heat'
Bruce Williams, 'Meeting', Love at Cumbersome Corner (part 3)
Richard Walsh 'Found in Books', AbeBooks
30 June: Canon Fodder
The big guns get wheeled out this week to have another shot at the old chestnuts: what makes a good book? Can we still speak of a canon? And why do we read in the first place? We sit ring-side as journalist and critic Peter Craven and academic Ken Gelder battle it out and ask whether its better to love the treasure even as you enjoy the trash or, to let the trash into the treasure chest? We sing the praises of Colin Thubron, a writer who put the 'literature' back into travel lit, and we follow one man's attempt to get the late 'Butcher of the Balkans', Slobodan Milosovic, to just read the 'right books'.
Peter Craven and Ken Gelder, Overland Debate: The Future of Australian Fiction, Sydney Writers Festival, 23 May
Colin Thubron, Shadow of the Silk Road, Vintage
Benjamen Walker, 'Remedial Theory' - check out Benjamen's website for more of his work
23 June: Glocalisation
We're going 'glocal' this week - exploring the ways in which our own backyards are connected to the big, wide world. We take a fresh look at the assimilation policy after the second world war and its consequences for millions of refugees and Aboriginal Australians, with historian Anna Haebich. We find out how the quintessential technology of globalisation is advancing research into very local concerns at the State Library, and we listen in to another episode in the life of the local lovers at Cumbersome Corner. Also, in the wake of the Sydney Writers' Festival, with the big names from overseas gone, we give some of the 80 000 readers who turned up a chance to have their say too.
Anna Haebich, Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia, 1950-1970, Fremantle Press
Regina Sutton, State Librarian and Chief Executive, NSW State Library
Bruce Williams, 'Love and Death', Love at Cumbersome Corner (part 2)
16 June: Crossing Borders
This week is all about crossing borders – about leaving behind a world that's familiar and taking those first steps into the great unknown. New Zealand author Laurence Fearnley discusses her new novel about two characters reaching across the generation divide to form a deep and unlikely bond. Alice Pung drops by to chat to us about what it means to grow up Asian in Australia. And Holly Hill tells us what was behind her decision to place an online ad for a toyboy.
Laurence Fearnley, Edwin + Matilda, Penguin
Alice Pung, Growing up Asian in Australia, Black Inc
Holly Hill, Toyboy, Random House
9 June: Boys and Their Toys
'Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men,' the great American cartoonist Kin Hubbard once sagely said. And each will have their toys, or as Benjamin Franklin put it: 'Old boys have their playthings as well as the young ones; the only difference is in the price.' With these truths in our ears, this week on Final Draft it's all about boys, and the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things they get up to with their toys. We catch the turbulence of life through the eye of an adolescent boy in the early fiction of the American Dominican writer Junot Diaz, we find out what happens when boys get drunk on Kung Fu and borrowed language, and we get our hands on the nifty new toy that turns spoken words into written texts. Also, the first installment in a special new series from a real Final Draft old boy.
Junot Diaz, Drown, Faber
The Ventriloquist Band, 'I Know Kung Fu,' Going Down Swinging, #26 (watch the music video too)
Bruce Williams, 'Autumn', Love at Cumbersome Corner (part 1)
Publication and prize opportunities mentioned:
- Going Down Swinging: accepting submissions of short fiction, poetry, graphic and comic art, and spoken word; closes 30 June
- Australian Book Review: $1000 for best 800 word review of any book originally published since January 2006; closes 30 June
- Page Seventeen: cash and publication prizes for short stories and poetry; closes 30 June
2 June: Everyday Superwomen
A paean of praise to all the everyday superwomen out there, this week: stories of ordinary women and girls doing the most extraordinary things, all the time. Canadian writer Heather O'Neill drops by to about her latest novel, a dark and beautiful tale of one girl growing up tough in Montreal. Dolla Merrillees helps us put the myth of the wicked stepmother in its place. And local writer Erin Gough treats us to a reading of one of her stories about being a real everyday superhero.
Heather O'Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals, Quercus
Dolla Merrillees, The Woodcutter's Wife: A Step-Mother's Tale, Halstead Press
Erin Gough, 'My Life as a Freeze-Framed Action Hero'
26 May: Suffer the Little Children
'Suffer the little children' said a certain bloke in the bible. And this week on Final Draft the relationship between childhood and suffering is our subject. With East Timorese former child soldier Naldo Rei and Australian novelist Charlotte Wood, we're asking how each shapes the other and finding out how each lingers long after wounds have healed and children have grown. Also, how to stop suffering in the kitchen, with dietician, Caron Milham.
nb the Charlotte Wood interview is repeated in this episode due to a technical problem during the original broadcast
Naldo Rei, Resistance: A Childhood Fighting for East Timor, University of Queensland Press
Charlotte Wood, The Children, Allen and Unwin
Caron Milham, The Australian Healthy Cooking Guide, Random House
19 May: Dancing Skeletons
'If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.' So said George Bernard Shaw, and this week on Final Draft, the skeletons are getting their groove on, courtesy of two very exciting novelists, Charlotte Wood and David Brooks. We're talking strange reunions, festering, not-quite forgotten secrets, and the deep and fierce love only found in families. Also, an intriguing experiment in bridging the print and digital worlds with poet and Cyber Studies academic, Jason Nelson.
Charlotte Wood, The Children, Allen and Unwin
David Brooks, The Fern Tattoo, University of Queensland Press
Jason Nelson, 'NetPoetics'
(apologies for the technical hiccough during broadcast; the Charlotte Wood interview will be re-broadcast in the coming weeks)
12 May: The Mystery Theme
Taking the idea of devouring a good book to unusual lengths, and the time the streets of Melbourne ran red with forgotten blood: just two of the odd tales in store this week, along with the latest goodies from Helen Garner, and Going Down Swinging, and a real treat from the independent producer Gregory Whitehead. Plus a mystery theme - work it out if you can!
Helen Garner, The Spare Room, Text Publishing; for details of Garner's appearances at the Sydney Writers Festival, click [HERE]
Adam Ford, 'The Battle of Clarendon Street', Going Down Swinging No.26 - you can find an animated version of this track at his website [HERE]
Gregory Whitehead, 'Mind, Body, Soul', from his series, Talk to Sleep
5 May: Keeping Faith
Now known as 'The Bone Man of Kokoda', Kokichi Nishmura made a fateful promise to his dying comrades in PNG during the Second World War. Keeping up his end of the bargain meant spending 25 years alone in the jungle digging for bones. This week on Final Draft it's all about keeping faith. We talk about Nishimura's pact with his biographer, Charles Happell; we follow Barack Obama's attempts to keep faith with his unusual family history and we unpick the consequences of a promise made to the future in Monica McInerney's latest novel.
Charles Happell, The Bone Man of Kokoda, PanMacmillan
Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father, Text Publishing
Monica McInerney, Those Faraday Girls, Penguin
28 April: Life Stories
The lives of remarkable writers and the writing of remarkable lives are our subjects this week on Final Draft. We catch up with Luke Davies, and talk about his new novel, 'The God of Speed', in which an elderly Howard Hughes sits in a hotel room in London, unfolding his story of sex, money, speed and obsession. Najaf Mazari, an Afghan refugee and rugmaker, drops by with his friend, the Austalian writer, Robert Hillman, to talk about their new book, 'The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif', which tells Najaf's story of resilience and goodwill. And we learn how a very famous writer is at pains to have the last word on how his life's tales are remembered.
Luke Davies, The God of Speed, Allen and Unwin
J M Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year, Text Publishing
Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman, The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif, Insight Publications
For more information about Najaf Mazari's Mazar Development Fund, click [HERE]
21 April 2008: Women/History
Women and history this week – women writing about it, making it, remembering it, and hiding it. Anna Clark reports the good, the bad and the unexpected from the chalkface about the way Aussie kids are being taught their history; we learn all about the elusive, enigmatic anthropologist Daisy Bates, and we dive into the hidden secrets in the pasts of both people and houses in Anne De Lisle's new novel.
Anna Clark, History's Children: History Wars in the Classroom, UNSW Press
Susanna De Vries, Desert Queen: The Many Lives and Loves of Daisy Bates, Harper Collins
Anne De Lisle, The Swim Club, Random House
14 April 2008: Colourful Characters
Ever heard of book pirates? No? Well tune into Final Draft this week, me hearties, and learn all about it. Plus: the latest from the 'Queen of the Airport Novel', and a repeat of our interview with Don Watson from last week (a technical problem meant that broadcast listeners missed it first time round).
Don Watson, American Journeys, Random House
Judy Nunn, Floodtide, Random House
7 April 2008: Gentlemen
Join us as we talk with couple of charming veterans of Australian arts and letters. David Stratton reflects on a rich life lived in the cinema, recounted in his new memoir, and Don Watson joins us to talk about the marvellous paradoxes of the United States. We also find out about a charming idea: the PEN poem relay, a potent symbol of international co-operation in the name of freedom of expression, running parallel to the Olympic torch relay.
nb Due to a technical problem with the original broadcast of this edition of the show, the Don Watson interview will be re-broadcast on 14 April
David Stratton, I Peed on Fellini, Random House
Don Watson, American Journeys, Random House
31 May 2008: Adventures
Whether you agree with the famous Norweigan explorer, Roald Amundsen, who said that 'adventure is just bad planning' or you side with the British novelist, G K Chesterton, who claimed 'adventure is just inconvenience rightly considered', there's no denying the symbiotic relationship between writing and adventure. And this week on Final Draft, we get adventurous in all sorts of ways: we get up-to-date with the revamped version of Enid Blyton's five famous adventurers, with Dr Sue Page from the University of South Australia; we follow Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte on a series of military and artistic adventures, and we listen into to an excerpt of Rachel Le Rossignol's adventure in fantasy.
Arturo Perez-Reverto, The Painter of Battles, Orion Publishing
Rachel Le Rosignol, 'Dream Players'
24 March 2008: Unsettling Stereotypes
Joe Bageant calls himself a 'socialist redneck'. With 'a foot in each ditch' he's written a fierce, funny, erudite and surprising book about life for the working poor in the United States. 'Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches From America's Class War' is a rollicking read and is a useful reminder that stereotypes are best checked at the door. And this week on Final Draft, we're all about unsettling stereotypes. We chat to Joe; inspired by Ursula Le Guin and Michael Chabon we lance the snobby distinction between 'literature' and 'genre fiction'; and the Sydney writer, Aden Rolfe, drops by to treat us to a reading of one of his intriguing new prose-poems.
Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting With Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War, Scribe Publications
Ursula Le Guin, 'On Serious Literature'
Aden Rolfe, 'Precipitations'
17 March 2008: The Power of Words
'Words, words ... mere words,' said Polonius. Well, the silly old codger clearly didn't know what he was talking about. Words are full of power, as this week's Final Draft testifies. We meet Dylan Peek, a remarkable young author who demonstrates the power of words to change one life ... all ten years of it. With academic Bernadette Brennan, we chat about the power of words to carry the fight for justice and social change. We go to war with Charlie Wilson to find out how words can capture the workings of raw power, and we get to grips with the power of words to live on, and on, in the hearts of their readers.
Dylan Peek, X-Box Goes Crazy, Starlight Foundation (for information about how to obtain purchase Dylan's book, click here)
Bernadette Brennan, Just Words: Australian Authors Writing for Justice, University of Queensland Press
George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War, Atlantic Monthly Press
10 March 2008: Globe-Trotting
Like Shakespeare's Puck, we throw a girdle around the world. As we go a-globe-trotting, we stop off in the underworld of Bombay with Vikram Chandler, we delve in the shadows, secrecy and espionage in ... Canberra, with Christopher Koch, and we touch base in New York to talk about the best new nonfiction coming out of the United States with Ira Glass.
Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games, Harper Collins
Christoper Koch, The Memory Hole, Random House
Ira Glass (ed), The New Kings of Nonfiction, Penguin
Final Draft
Books, publishing and writing
Final Draft is 2ser’s weekly half-hour talks program concerning books, writing and publishing.
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