Episodios

  • Emily Lighezzolo’s Life Drawing

    Emily Lighezzolo’s Life Drawing
    Apr 10 2026
    The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Emily Lighezzolo is a publishing industry professional. She has won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards and is joining us today with her debut novel, Life Drawing. Charlie’s moved to Brisbane for uni. He barely knows anyone and it’s not helping that one of his new housemates is the model he’s been sketching in his life drawing class. Maisie’s the heart of the house. People like to think they know her. Maybe too many people think they know her too well. But the parts Maisie keeps hidden are so deep most don’t even suspect they’re there. As Maisie and Charlie circle each other’s worlds they will try to understand whether, hypothetically, they might go well together… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.
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    35 m
  • Book Club - Liz Allen’s In Bloom

    Book Club - Liz Allen’s In Bloom
    Apr 5 2026
    Dr Liz Allan is an Australian writer and teacher living in the United Kingdom. Her debut novel is IN BLOOM. Content note for references of sexual assault… In coastal Australian towns around the country tourists come and go every summer, often oblivious to the locals and their lives outside their two week picture perfect holidays. The Bastards disagree with this halcyon view of their home town. Vincent is a place to escape and winning the Battle of the Bands is the way to do it. They were on track to do it too, until their lead singer Lily quit the band and accuses their music teacher of sexual assault. The Bastards know it can’t be true though. They’ve got a list of suspects a mile long. Their main job is to narrow down which of the likely culprits really did it. As summer holidays end and the Battle of the Bands approaches The Bastards will sacrifice everything; school, family, friendships to find the truth. They know this is their big shot and nothing can stop them taking it. You think you know the story of The Bastards. I did. Moreover you hope you know the story of The Bastards because if you’re wrong the alternative is almost too horrible to contemplate. Liz Allen’s In Bloom takes the familiar coming of age, artist shooting for the big time then darkens the edges. The Bastards are so named because each of the girls comes from a single mother family. The girls openly disdain their mothers and the men that come and go in the role of ‘father’ in their life. As a group they have committed to escape and music seems like the best way. Set in the early nineties, In Bloom makes full use of the rise of grunge and its associated cultural nihilism. The Bastards recognise their dearth of talent. Lily is the only one who can sing. They see this as a strength and frequently invoke their idols' approach to music and appeal to a kind of artistic purity in their commitment and drive. That this is a thin hope is revealed before the novel’s opening. Lily’s departure from the band leaves The Bastards scrambling. They fear their dreams may be over and it’s telling that the girls turn against Lily rather than seek to understand what she is going through. In Bloom is cleverly and disconcertingly crafted around the chorused voices of The Bastards. Each chapter chimes with their shared voice creating a surreal sense of hive mind. The girls are so in sync they need only their band name and their vision. Thought and action blur as the group’s attempts to escape become increasingly desperate but also subsumed within the collective, with no one person seemingly taking any of the actions. In Bloom will hook you before you realise that the story might just be spiraling. While you think you are investigating a mystery, the journey towards the truth creeps achingly slowly towards you. The Bastards never doubt their friend has been hurt and their seeming indifference to her plight is telling. I won’t say any more, other than to note the overall devastation In Bloom wreaks even as it draws you into its darkness. This is an incredibly effective look into a terrible subject and well worth your time in the reading. 1800RESPECT - 1800 732 732
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    4 m
  • Gary Lonesborough’s Good Young Men

    Gary Lonesborough’s Good Young Men
    Apr 1 2026
    The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin writer, whose young adult novels, The Boy from the Mish, We Didn't Think It Through, and I'm Not Really Here have been shortlisted for numerous awards. Gary’s joining us today with his new novel Good Young Men. Four Aboriginal boys growing up together on the same street in a coastal village. It’s a ready made friendship group. Fast forward eight years and the boys are staring down the end of high school. Kallum’s been expelled from his fancy Sydney boarding school and lost his football scholarship. Jordy’s happier since he’s come out but that doesn’t mean his whole life is easy. Dylan’s struggling. He was the only witness when Brandon was shot and killed by police. He’s missing his mate and scared to death of what it might mean if he testifies. ⁠Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠ Want more great conversations with Australian authors? ⁠Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week⁠.
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    37 m
  • Book Club - Maria van Neerven's Two Tongues

    Book Club - Maria van Neerven's Two Tongues
    Mar 29 2026
    Maria van Neerven reads from her acclaimed debut collection Two Tongues. Maria van Neerven is a Mununjali poet from the Yugambeh nation living in Meanjin. Maria was the winner of the David Unaipon Award in 2023 and was a Next Chapter Fellow in 2024. Two Tongues is her first poetry collection.
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    3 m
  • Penny Tangey’s What Rhymes With Murder

    Penny Tangey’s What Rhymes With Murder
    Mar 25 2026
    The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Penny Tangey is a librarian, mother and former stand-up comedian living in East Melbourne. What Rhymes with Murder? is Penny’s first novel for adults. Libraries are quiet respectful places full of avid readers, dedicated students, and occasional shushes. They certainly aren’t the place for crying babies, and absolutely not an appropriate place for a murder. And yet here Frida finds herself, trying to deal with both. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.
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    32 m
  • Book Club - Ian Kemish’s Two Islands

    Book Club - Ian Kemish’s Two Islands
    Mar 22 2026
    Today for our book club I’m bringing you an intriguing new work of historical intrigue. Ian Kemish’s Two Islands Ian Kemish AM is a former Australian diplomat. His first book, The Consul, offered a personal perspective on Australia’s foreign affairs challenges. Two Islands is his first work of fiction. The background to the novel are the war crimes trials conducted in the aftermath of The Wars in The Balkans in the 1990’s. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague involved international teams, including many Australians and has been the subject of numerous books exploring their ongoing impacts. Sharp listeners may recall Gretchen Shirm’s Out of the Woods last year which explored circumstances around the trials. The Two Islands of the title are Skarnsey and Thorkil’s Isle in Scotland’s Hebrides. It is there that Niko has fled on a desperate whim. There the residents are not unwelcoming of visitors and it is a world away from the violence he has seen and which he was due to testify about at the International Criminal Tribunal. Only now the past is threatening to catch up with Niko and he fears if he doesn’t run the violence will continue to threaten himself and his family. Into this setting we meet Ronnie and the other villagers in Lamhraig. There is also Fergus, another stranger to the islands and seeking refuge from a different kind of threat; the one he fears he poses to himself and others. A world away Anita has returned to Australia to see her dying father. She fears she’s neglecting her role as an investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal, but also what may happen if she fails to see her father. The setup is deceptively simple; can Anita and the Tribunal find Niko before more sinister forces do, and will he be willing to continue to testify against the violence that continues to plague him. Into this story we have the dueling narratives of Ronnie, Fergua and Niko. Each has seen war close up; Ronnie on the battlefields of the second world war, Fergus in Northern Ireland and Niko as a boy in his home town. Each must find a way to go on and it is through the narrative we are offered a glimpse of what that may be. In all honesty I came to Two Islands for the scenic vistas of The Hebrides. The book evokes the peace of the islands and the way of life of the locals. It also takes pains not to romanticize it, even as it threatens to shatter the sense of isolation and peace in pursuit of Niko. The novel does well to show us these parallel stories of war as brutal encroachments on the lives of these three men, and the toll they will carry through their lives. I might have liked to hear more of each, particularly Ronnie, to better understand and to counter the thriller aspect as a horrific consequence of ongoing tensions. As we watch war in our world and look to how it touches our lives it can be helpful to explore narratives such as Two Islands. The Wars in the Balkans we mere decades ago and their impacts are still felt. We may hope to never feel the close up effects of conflict but must acknowledge that they are part of the world we live in. Two Islands shows us something of what that means
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    4 m
  • Shailee Thompson’s How To Kill a Guy in Ten Dates

    Shailee Thompson’s How To Kill a Guy in Ten Dates
    Mar 18 2026
    The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Shailee Thompson is a writer and educator based in Brisbane, Australia. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is her debut novel. Content Warning or Trigger Notes Let’s put a content warning on our chat Shailee because How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is a slasher slash rom-com and all sorts of messed up stuff happens in both love and murder… Jamie needs a break from her PhD thesis, so she and her best friend Jamie are going to a speed dating event at a local nightclub. Dating is hell and the apps are cooked but this should be a laugh. At least each ‘date’ is only ten minutes. It’s all going so-so, a few sparks from aesthetically pleasing partners when the lights go out. When they return, Jamie finds her current date slashed ear to ear as she is thrown into a fight for her life! Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week.
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    37 m
  • Book Club - Emily Lighezzolo’s Life Drawing

    Book Club - Emily Lighezzolo’s Life Drawing
    Mar 15 2026
    Starting with a shout out to Emily who is a publishing industry professional. I have had the chance to work with Emily setting up interviews for authors and I’m very happy to be talking about her first book. Emily won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards and her debut novel, Life Drawing. Charlie’s moved to Brisbane for uni. He feels out of place crashing on his cousin’s couch and barely knows anyone in town. He’s trying to put himself out there with uni mixers and through taking a life drawing class. Maisie’s the heart of the house. People like to think they know her. Maybe too many people think they know her too well. But the parts Maisie keeps hidden are so deep most don’t even suspect they’re there. As Maisie and Charlie circle each other’s worlds they will try to understand whether, hypothetically, they might go well together… Life Drawing is the story of Charlie and Maisie. It’s also the story of Maisie and Maisie. When they find themselves in the same sharehouse Charlie feels awkward; this is the girl he was drawing naked just a few weeks ago. Maisie’s not bothered though. On the surface she’s all cool indifference. To the world she has a great body and is completely comfortable in her own skin. Maybe if she can wear that mask for long enough she might even start to believe in it. Share house life is a recipe for implosion though, so maybe Charlie and Maisie weren’t meant to be. Except that life and the internet insist on drawing them back towards each other’s orbit. Life Drawing is driven by the ebb and flow of Charlie and Maisie as they try to discover their own grand romance. They will continue to stumble though as Charlie struggles to be ‘not all men’, while Maisie works to love herself half as much as she pretends. The heart of the novel is Maisie’s journey through body image and self esteem. As a cis-het male I’d be disingenuous if I pretended I was watching this part of the story as anything other than an outsider. Maisie’s struggles are unique but also part of a world where women are compelled into devil’s bargains for their own sense of worth and achievement. Growing through the years we watch on as Maisie and Charlie try to shape lives together and apart. From the first moment Charlie tries to capture Maisie on paper we can see that who they are and how they see each other are complex entities and prone to illusion and misalignment. Maisie’s own story is similarly fraught with confusion and miscommunication. Knowing yourself is not a foregone conclusion of living a life and Maisie must make herself in her own image, not just through the eyes of others.
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    4 m