The Secret Life of Writers by Tablo

Latest Episodes:

Anna Funder on the magic curtain of language, her life in writing, 'Stasiland' thirty years after the Berlin Wall fell and what she’s working on now. Jun 24, 2020

Show notes

Anna Funder is one of Australia’s most acclaimed and celebrated writers. Her multi-award winning novel All That I Am wasan homage to four extraordinary German anti-Hitler activists in exile in London in the 1930s. It won the Miles Franklin Prize, spent over one and a half years on the bestseller list, and is being made into a feature film. Anna’s Stasiland tells true stories of people who heroically resisted the communist dictatorship of East Germany, and of people who worked for the Stasi. A contemporary classic, Stasiland won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize for best non-fiction in English. Tom Hanks called it ‘fascinating, entertaining, hilarious, horrifying and very important’. Both books are international bestsellers, published in over 24 countries. In 2016 Anna published The Girl with the Dogs, a poignantly beautiful short story inspired by Chekhov’s The Lady with the Dogs. Anna is a former DAAD Fellow in Berlin, Australia Council Fellow, and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. She lives in Sydney.

Leanne Shapton on where it all began, jealousy and ghosts, living in New York as a writer and artist, and the weirdest book so far. Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

Leanne is an extraordinary artist and writer. She is the author of 'Was She Pretty' which looks at jealousy and how we fixate on our partner’s exes; 'Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry' which tells the demise of a relationship in a way no one else would think of; 'Native Trees of Canada'; 'Swimming Studies' which won the National Book Critic's Circle Award Award; and 'Women in Clothes' that Leanne wrote with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits. Her latest is 'Guestbook', a book about ghosts that isn’t just about ghosts. Leanne’s also written a picture book called 'Toys Talking', and she’s done many other things – art director of the New York Times op ed page, cover designer, co-founder of the publisher J&L Books and judge of The Booker Prize. And she’s a mum to Tomasina. Leanne’s Canadian but has lived in New York for many years.

You can find Leanne's work here: http://www.leanneshapton.com

Julia Baird on savouring life, growing in the dark and finding solace in the natural world. Jun 10, 2020

Show notes

Featuring the bestselling Phosphorescence, forest therapy and moonbows, Rachel Carson on wonder, the rafts that keep you afloat, love of cuttlefish and a mother’s grace.

Michael Christie on going from pro-skater to award-winning writer Jun 04, 2020

Show notes

http://www.michaelchristie.net

Ceridwen Dovey on hustling to survive, exploring outer space and the compulsion of writing. May 28, 2020

Show notes

Featuring the invisible work of mothering, the dark and light of creativity, unhooking reality, Kangaroo Island post-fires, audio firsts, experimentation and expressing your inner weird. As well as writing prize-winning fiction, Ceridwen Dovey writes thought-provoking essays and profiles which have appeared in publications like Wired and The New Yorker. She has written a collection of short stories, Only the Animals, and the novels Blood Kin, In the Garden of the Fugitives and Life After Truth. A selection of her profiles were published in the collection Inner Worlds Outer Spaces and she has written a literary biography of J.M.Coetzee that’s also a memoir of sorts. Her recent audio-only novel, Once More with Feeling, is now available on Audible. www.ceridwendovey.com Subscribe to The Secret Life of Writers for new episodes every second Thursday. Hosted by Jemma Birrell, and presented by Tablo Publishing.

Luke Davies on going from starving poet to one of the most in-demand scriptwriters in Hollywood May 21, 2020

Show notes

Featuring filming Catch 22 in Italy, the allure of Paris, how Lion was career-changing, a dinner with Philip Seymour Hoffman, how not to be pigeonholed and working with Woody Harrelson on The Most Dangerous Man in America. Luke Davies, poet, novelist and screenwriter, adapted his semi-autobiographical novel Candy for the screen in 2006. His other novels are Isabelle the Navigator and God of Speed which was inspired by the life of Howard Hughes. He’s written five volumes of poetry, the latest, Interferon Palms, won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in 2012. Luke has written screenplays for film and television in both the US and Australia. His feature films include Life, Beautiful Boy, Angel of Mine and Lion, which went on to win BAFTA and AACTA awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Luke is also the creator of TV series Catch-22 and is currently working on The Most Dangerous Man in America. It was recently announced that Luke will write the next script for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin, adapting Colum McCann’s novel Apeirogon (this was one of the things we couldn't talk about at the time the episode went to air).