Fully Lit

What do we owe to the people we love? And how do we carry each other’s stories through time? In this episode of Fully Lit, Chinese-Australian writer Isabelle Li joins acclaimed novelist Gail Jones to discuss The Northern Tomb, a sweeping and deeply humane novel about family, memory, obligation and belonging. Set in northern China and spanning decades of personal and political history, the novel follows an ageing former government official, his family, and Sister Fu, the quiet carer whose compassion and attention bring their stories into focus. Together, Li and Jones explore kinship, care, ageing, grief, friendship and the responsibilities we hold towards one another. They discuss the power of storytelling, the role of memory in shaping identity, and the ways literature can deepen our understanding of lives beyond our own experience. At the centre of it all is a simple but profound question: how do we learn to care for one another? This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at Gleebooks on Gadigal land in Sydney. Voices Isabelle Li is a Chinese Australian writer and translator whose works include the short story collection A Chinese Affair and the novel The Northern Tomb. Gail Jones is one of Australia’s most acclaimed novelists, the author of eleven novels, whose work has been translated widely and recognised with numerous major literary awards. Credits This episode was recorded on Gadigal land at Sydney's Gleebooks - for more literary events like this one, see the Gleebooks events page. Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros. Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang. Recorded by Gleebooks. Mixed by Regina Botros. Further Reading The Northern Tomb by Isabelle Li (Puncher & Wattman, 2026) A Chinese Affair by Isabelle Li (Margaret River Press, 2016) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez The Selected Stories of Lu Xun Gail Jones' latest novel is The Name of the Sister (Text, 2025) For more conversations about fiction, storytelling and contemporary Australian writing, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.

What makes a literary reputation endure, and why do some writers disappear from view despite once standing at the centre of a nation's culture? In this episode biographer Susan Lever joins poet and critic Peter Kirkpatrick to discuss her major new biography, A.D. Hope, tracing the life of a writer whose career spanned almost the entire twentieth century. From rural Tasmania and Sydney University to Oxford, Canberra and the centre of Australian literary life, the conversation examines Hope's poetry, criticism and public intellectual role, as well as the literary debates that shaped his reputation. Along the way, Lever explores Hope's relationships with figures including James McAuley, Patrick White and Manning Clark, his attitudes to modernism, censorship and religion, and the tensions between his public persona and private life. The discussion also considers Hope's place in Australian literary history today. This conversation coincides with the publication of a review of Susan Lever’s A.D. Hope in the Sydney Review of Books, offering another perspective on Hope’s life, work and legacy. This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at Gleebooks on Gadigal land in Sydney. Voices Susan Lever is one of Australia’s leading literary critics and biographers, whose books include studies of Australian fiction and the acclaimed biography A.D. Hope. Peter Kirkpatrick is a poet, literary historian and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, whose work explores Australian poetry, popular culture and literary history. Credits This episode was recorded on Gadigal land at Sydney's Gleebooks - for more literary events like this one, see the Gleebooks events page. Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros. Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang. Recorded by Gleebooks. Mixed by Regina Botros. Further Reading A.D. Hope by Susan Lever Damian Maher reviews Susan Lever’s biography of A.D. Hope, published in the Sydney Review of Books The Wandering Islands by A.D. Hope Collected Poems 1930–1970 by A.D. Hope The Cave and the Spring: Essays on Poetry by A.D. Hope The Best Australian Poems of A.D. Hope, edited by David Brooks The Wild Reciter: Poetry and Popular Culture in Australia, 1890–2020 by Peter Kirkpatrick

What remains after loss? How do we carry the people, places and versions of ourselves that are gone? And can art help us make sense of what endures? In this episode of Fully Lit, writer and broadcaster Sarah Runcie is joined by poet Vaughn Upward Garcia, musician Helen Franzmann, and writer and artist Judith Nangala Crispin for a wide-ranging conversation about grief, creativity and survival. Garcia reflects on recovery, reinvention and the journey behind his debut collection Poems from the Afterlife. Franzmann discusses the making of Jay Marie, Comfort Me, an album shaped by the death of her sister and the search for comfort in grief. And Crispin explores death, Country, memory and belonging through her remarkable verse novel Dingo’s Noctuary. Together, they consider what remains after loss, how art helps us navigate absence, and why love and grief are often inseparable. Along the way, they discuss sobriety, family, music, landscape, First Nations knowledge, and the stories we carry from one life into the next. At its heart, this is a conversation about transformation, and the ways creativity can help us make meaning from what endures. This episode was recorded live at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival. Voices Sarah Runcie is a writer, broadcaster and arts journalist whose work spans literature, music, theatre and cultural commentary. Judith Nangala Crispin is an award-winning poet, visual artist and conservationist, and the author of the verse novel Dingo’s Noctuary. Helen Franzmann is a singer-songwriter, musician and member of Mess Esque, whose work blends intimate lyricism with dreamlike, atmospheric soundscapes. Vaughn Upward Garcia is a Queanbeyan-based poet and performer whose debut collection, Poems from the Afterlife, explores class, recovery, mortality and belonging. Credits This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival on Gadigal land in Sydney. Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros. Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang. Recorded and mixed by Daniel Wiggins Further Reading Poems from the Afterlife by Vaughn Upward Garcia Dingo’s Noctuary by Judith Nangala Crispin Jay Marie, Comfort Me by Mess Esque For more conversations on poetry, storytelling and contemporary Australian literature, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.

In conversation with Amy Sambrooke, Angela O’Keeffe discusses a book that asks an unusual and beguiling question: what if a book could think, feel and observe the world around it? Partly narrated by a sentient novel, Phantom Days follows a book as it moves between readers, witnessing intimate lives and uncovering secrets that its human characters cannot see. Along the way, the novel explores motherhood, memory, longing, truth and the strange relationship between writers, readers and the stories that connect them. O’Keeffe reflects on the novel’s origins, the challenge of writing from a book’s perspective, and the experience of returning to the manuscript after a cancer diagnosis and treatment. The conversation also touches on Virginia Woolf, Dostoevsky, Mark Rothko, faith, creativity and the mystery of where stories come from. Phantom Days is a novel about what survives after we let things go, and the lives books continue to live long after they leave their authors behind. This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at Gleebooks on Gadigal land in Sydney. Voices Angela O’Keeffe is the author of Night Blue, The Sitter and Phantom Days, novels that blend art, imagination and storytelling in strikingly original ways. Amy Sambrooke is CEO of Varuna, the National Writers’ House, and a passionate advocate for Australian writers and literature Credits This episode was recorded on Gadigal land at Sydney's Gleebooks - for more literary events like this one, see the Gleebooks events page. Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros. Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang. Further Reading Phantom Days by Angela O’Keeffe The Sitter by Angela O’Keeffe Night Blue by Angela O’Keeffe Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Selected writings of Virginia Woolf Works by Mark Rothko referenced throughout the discussion.

In this episode of Fully Lit, we bring you a live recording from the Sydney Writers’ Festival in Parramatta. Hosted by James Jiang, editor of the Sydney Review of Books, the panel brings together Maxine Beneba Clarke, Yumna Kassab and Eda Gunaydin for a wide-ranging conversation on what makes a writer. From early reading habits and first attempts at writing, to questions of craft, the discussion moves across the genres of fiction, memoir and poetry — exploring how writers navigate the realities of sustaining a writing life on and off the page. Fittingly, given its setting, the conversation also centres Western Sydney as both place and influence. Thoughtful, candid and often funny, this is a rich discussion about storytelling and the impulses behind writing itself. Voices Maxine Beneba Clark is an award-winning writer, poet and artist whose work explores race, identity, family and belonging. Yumna Kassab is a writer whose fiction explores memory, migration, identity and the complexities of human connection. Eda Gunaydin is a writer, critic and researcher whose sharp, insightful work examining class, culture, migration and identity in contemporary Australia. James Jiang is a writer, editor and critic, and the editor of the Sydney Review of Books Credits This episode of Fully Lit was made on Gadigal land in Sydney. Fully Lit podcast is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros. Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang. Recorded by the City of Parramatta