Miles Franklin Award winner, Shankari Chandran takes Cath to Cinnamon Gardens, an aged care home established by Tamil refugees and now run by their daughter. It’s run with love and dignity and has become an oasis for its culturally diverse residents…but the tensions of past wars and the prejudices of present day Australia which have long remained at a simmer ultimately boil over. + Associate Professor Lisa Bennett shares her passion for stories soaked in mist and old magic with “Storyland”;...

Poetry seems a solitary pursuit but not for well knownAustralian poets Peter Bakowski and Ken Bolton - they recently released two new collections ‘On Luck Street’ and ‘Waldo’s Game’ in which they have collaborated from afar, co-telling stories using  a ’call and respond’ writing technique. And former ABC broadcaster Mike Ladd has made a career as a poet and also helped put poetry on the map with the long running radio program ‘Poetica’ - he makes the case for why poetry should matter to us...

Molly Schmidt’s Salt River Road is a searing account of grief and redemption set in the big sky/small town landscapes of south west WA..Racism, poverty and country town politics are all part of life in country Western Australia in the 1970’s. But for the Tetley family all that matters is that they have lost their beloved mother Elena, and they are all falling apart…and in danger of losing the farm that is their livelihood.Through the eyes of teenage siblings Rose and Frank the reader...

Three writers walk into a room...and somehow manage to work together. Not these three writers, necessarily. But in theory, that's how collaboration works. Welcome to the final Word Docs of the season, where Sean, Alex and Amy are in fizzy spirits thanks to acute cases of over-caffeination (or in Sean's case, too much hot chocolate). What's the secret to a good collaboration? Talk talk talk. Pizza. Precious puppet masks. And the supreme act of Veto. Unfortunately, none of the Word Docs have...

Sean tests Alex and Amy's knowledge of action and pacing this week (ding ding ding!). What are the pitfalls of pacing an action sequence? We've got all the answers - get your fast bits right and your slow bits even righter. Is righter a word? It is now! Get some classic Word Docs wisdom about character, theme, and how to control the story. There may also be a lot of references to John Wick and some random sportsball chatter that contains no wisdom at all. But stick with it until the reversal,...

Celia appears to have it all and her life is running like clockwork - and so it should because she has it planned down to the very last minute - but then along comes a challenge that could be her undoing! Celia is thrust into a process equal parts amusing and heartbreaking as she shakily charts a new path. + From falling for the boy next door to romancing a minotaur - occupational therapist turned  successful romance novelist Davina Stone talks us through the many forms that modern romance...

Hello from the sickbed... Alex is calling in from home, where he's down with COVID; Sean is suffering from post-COVID brain fog; and Amy is infuriatingly healthy. Today the Word Docs are answering the most annoying questions people ask writers: Will you read my manuscript? If I give you an idea, will you write it, and we can split the profits? Can I have a free book? The answers range from 'No', to 'Hell, no', with the odd 'Amy is not a mule' thrown in, to spice things up. There's also some...

Join Sean, Amy and...uh...Alex?...for this week's episode of Word Docs. Our usual Alex is out with COVID so this week we're welcoming a substitute Alex, in the form of our friend and colleague Dr Alex Cothren, who sidles up to the mic to talk satire, short stories and writing challenges. By the end of this one we'll all love Alex Cothren, fear Sean, and wonder if Amy might be missing next week...   #WordDocs #Writing #SeanWilliams #AmyBarry #AmyTMatthews #AlexCothren #FlindersUniversity...

The Word Docs have written a masterpiece. No, really...it’s great. It’s alright. Look, it’s not bad. Together, Amy, Sean and Alex have devised the ultimate romance. Don’t Touch My Dad should be coming to a bookshop near you, but probably won’t be.   #MorePeccable #ImmanuelCollege #Style #Plot #TheCorpseofanAuthor #Audience #JumpingAhead #MalandJeanette #Genre #HappilyEverAfterAgain #SomeoneElsesBucketList #MadFather #SaneSon #FathersandDaughters #ExtendedFamilies #AlexHasSpoken #Tropes...

He has finally done his homework! Alex has come to the table with trees to shake and pots to stir. Can Sean and Amy handle their sugar addled friend? Will they withstand his jittery scrutiny? The host is juiced up...and he has calories to burn. #AlexVickeryHowe #SeanWilliams #AmyTMatthews #PinkDrink #Caffeine #DifficultMaterial #MassagingTricks #EndoftheNightGirl #TheBookofMormon #JeanetteVickeryHowe #Tone #PostColonialism #MattandTrey #PunchingUp #Comedy #Metafiction #Simon&Schuster...

Cath has admired the work of Paddy O’Reilly for some time but with her shortlisting for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, “Other Houses” looks sure to win O’Reilly many new admirers. It’s a tale of class, aspiration and the boundaries we will cross for love. + Michaela has an Anne of Green Gables doll that her mother bought on a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island in the ‘80s. She asks Associate Professors Lisa Bennett and Kylie Cardell to reveal their ‘Green’ credentials and discuss LM...

And the golden statue goes to... There are some trophies you don’t mount on your bookshelf (pun intended) but they colour your career nonetheless. The Word Docs have gleefully unearthed the worst of the Bad Sex Awards to explore the act of love in print. With lots of laughter and a little light vomit, Amy, Sean and Alex will discuss the whos, the whys, and the oh-dear-god-nos of these explicit encounters.   Warning: This episode contains weird swearing, confusing anatomy and icky...

The Word Docs are perusing expert recommendations and dissecting them at length. Amy is unwell and trying to keep the train moving, Alex is stuck on a constant delay...and Sean wants to kidnap a dog. This week we learn about Einstein’s epic battle with Hitler, the importance of supportive desk chairs and the dark secret of Mount Everest.   #HiPluto #Limp #ZooCam #JoanneHarris #FiveThoughts #WorkSpace #AReallyGoodDeskChair #ClimbingMountains #ThePhysio #VoidofMyOwnMind #JohnMajor...

This week the Word Docs are responding to a listener question and exploring immortality. Would you want to live forever? Would you want your work to live forever? Would you want to spend eternity inside a giant spider? Is that even an option? Sugared up on chocolate, this is Word Docs at their most rambunctious. Sean reads palms, and Amy finds she doesn't seem to have a lifeline, while Alex frets that he might be taken to a farm up state when his time is up. By the end of this one you'll feel...

Sean and Alex are sickly and disgusting (in that order), but Amy is here to save the day with research and cogent thoughts. This week, the Docs explore the wisdom of Betsy Lerner and unpack the various writer archetypes Lerner describes. Who among them is the Natural? The Ambivalent Writer? The Wicked Child? Well, some things are painfully obvious... join the gang as they embark on free, unqualified therapy!   #FeelingGood #OnTheCouch #BetsyLerner #PostGrads #ComplexProblems #Research...

Sarah Smith has been successfully writing for popular TV shows such as “McLeod’s Daughters”, “All Saints” and “Love Child” for years. Now, she’s turned her hand to fiction creating a clever and quirky murder mystery set in the Los Angeles fast lane and narrated by a young, vibrant (albeit dead) woman, hellbent on finding her killer. + Mireille Vignol is a renowned literary translator who has taken the work of Australian greats such as Kate Grenville and Kenneth Cook to French speaking...

A promise delivered! Bookmark this. The Word Docs are back with the second half of their self-diagnoses, once again working from Betsy Lerner’s examples to whittle away at their artistry and categorise their quirky habits. Maybe this week they’ll each discover what kind of writers they really are. Along the way they’ll explore rejections, chutzpah, sportsball and poor old Missus Heartwig...   #LonelyCorner #CancelledPilot #SixKindsofWriters #TheForestFortheTrees #BetsyLerner...

The doctors are in the house. Or rather two of the doctors are sick and stuck at home. This week the Word Docs are recording from home and everything's a bit looser than normal (which is saying something). But on the plus side, they get to practice clapping again, preferably in time to Amy's playlist for Someone Else's Bucket List. Sean boycotts clapping to The Cranberries and Alex is determined to flirt with copyright infringements as he sings along. This episode is about playlists,...

Trent Dalton’s new novel Lola in the Mirror travels to the dark heart of homelessness and domestic violence and yet is a love story and a love letter to his home town Brisbane. Lola has no name when this story begins. For 16 years she and her mother have been on the run through Brisbane’s underbelly, dodging dangerous men. Sit down with journalist and novelist Trent Dalton and hear him talk about the city that saved his mum, finding the dark places in order to hold on to light, and why if he...

This week Amy leads us through using beat sheets to plan and/or fix a story. Alex and Sean join in from where they recline eating salty gold Irish chocolate. It's the middle of teaching and everyone's pinch points are more pinchy than usual, but it's nothing gold-plated chocolate can't fix. If you're curious about how story experts like Michael Hauge, Blake Snyder, Larry Brooks and Jami Gold deal with planning Acts One to Three, this is the ep for you. There are sportsball metaphors, car...

There is a secret to writing a bestseller and it is...nah, kidding...nobody knows. But the Word Docs will keep asking people anyway. This week, the dysfunctional trio bend their knees at the altar of the great men who...nah, kidding...Sean has sorted through the rules of the blokey gasbags who’ve come before and now Amy and Alex are trying to decide who wrote what. Join the party as Vonnegut, Heinlein, Leonard and Lewis are meticulously poked, prodded and dissected for the edification of...

“The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard” is loosely based on the life of Mitzah Bricard,  a woman the world remembers as the outrageous muse of Christian Dior but who was, in fact, his First Assistant Designer and enormously talented in her own right. What follows is a compelling tale of glamour, desire and intrigue. + “Summer of Blood” is set in 1960s California where two Australian detectives arrive in search of a missing man, only to find themselves immersed in the world of music, free...

Leaving the world of academia when creativity came knocking has paid off for Pip Williams. She's the bestselling author of "The Dictionary of Lost Words" and "The Bookbinder of Jericho", and speaks with Sarah about the ideas that light her up and inspire her to write. In this conversation, Pip mentions two books that were references for her writing: "The Surgeon of Crowthorne" by Simon Winchester and "Testament of Youth" by Vera BrittainAlso written by Pip Williams, "One Italian Summer".Pip...

In Cronin’s “The Ferryman” the world’s elite enjoy eternal youth and deep personal satisfaction on the archipelago of Prospera but all is not as it seems and unrest is fomenting on both sides of the social divide. + Georgia Nicholls has been writing romance since she was 14 and penned a fan fiction tale about One Direction’s Harry Styles…her writing has come a long way since then but she still loves it when they live happily ever after. + Eve gives a brief review of “The Mother” by Jane...