In skilled hands, historical fiction brings the past to life in surprising ways. It also helps us make sense of our present, and even offers foreknowledge of the future. Hear from some of the country’s finest writers of historical novels – Geraldine Brooks (Horse), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho) and emerging talent Sally Colin-James (One Illumined Thread) – as they discuss the past as prologue and how they convincingly intertwine fact and fiction in their work. Hosted by ABC RN’s The Bookshelf’s Kate Evans.

Supported by ARA.

This episode was recorded live at the 2023 Sydney Writers’ Festival.  

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
Instagram: @sydwritersfest
Facebook: @SydWritersFest
Twitter: @SydWritersFest
TikTok: @sydwritersfest

In skilled hands, historical fiction brings the past to life in surprising ways. It also helps us make sense of our present, and even offers foreknowledge of the future. Hear from some of the country’s finest writers of historical novels – Geraldine Brooks (Horse), Pip Williams (The Bookbinder of Jericho) and emerging talent Sally Colin-James (One Illumined Thread) – as they discuss the past as prologue and how they convincingly intertwine fact and fiction in their work. Hosted by ABC RN’s The Bookshelf’s Kate Evans.
Supported by ARA.
This episode was recorded live at the 2023 Sydney Writers’ Festival.  
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 
Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 
After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Australia's largest celebration of literature, stories and ideas. Bringing together the world's best authors, leading public intellectuals, scientists, journalists and more. Subscribe to our channel for new releases.

Australia's largest celebration of literature, stories and ideas. Bringing together the world's best authors, leading public intellectuals, scientists, journalists and more. Subscribe to our channel for new releases.

Australia's largest celebration of writing and ideas.

Sydney Writers' Festival

Australia's largest celebration of literature, stories and ideas. Bringing together the world's best authors, leading public intellectuals, scientists, journalists and more.

Bringing the Past to Life

Anti-fatness is a system of oppression, argues Kate Manne, afflicting vulnerable bodies in intersectional ways.

Building on her incisive studies of misogyny and male privilege, the Melbourne-born feminist philosopher’s latest book, Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia, unpicks the dangerous virtues associated with dieting and deprivation, using a blend of first-hand stories and trenchant analysis. 

Praised by US writer Roxane Gay as “required reading”, this timely intervention calls for a radical re-evaluation of who our bodies exist for –  ourselves and no one else.

Learn from an acclaimed, accessible new voice in moral philosophy, in conversation with host Maeve Marsden.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
Instagram: @sydwritersfest
Facebook: @SydWritersFest
X (Twitter): @SydWritersFest
TikTok: @sydwritersfest

Anti-fatness is a system of oppression, argues Kate Manne, afflicting vulnerable bodies in intersectional ways.
Building on her incisive studies of misogyny and male privilege, the Melbourne-born feminist philosopher’s latest book, Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia, unpicks the dangerous virtues associated with dieting and deprivation, using a blend of first-hand stories and trenchant analysis. 
Praised by US writer Roxane Gay as “required reading”, this timely intervention calls for a radical re-evaluation of who our bodies exist for –  ourselves and no one else.
Learn from an acclaimed, accessible new voice in moral philosophy, in conversation with host Maeve Marsden.
This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 
Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 
After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> X (Twitter): <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Kate Manne: Fighting Fatphobia

At 18, Abdulrazak Gurnah arrived in England as a refugee from the Zanzibar Revolution. Receiving the Nobel Prize more than 50 years later, he reflected that the “prolonged period of poverty and alienation” he experienced made him a writer.

From the contemporary immigrant experience in his debut, Memory of Departure, to colonial wartime conscription in Booker Prize shortlisted Paradise, Abdulrazak’s unflinching yet humane oeuvre interrogates the legacies of empire, centring that which is often too marginalised. 

Listen as he and writer Sisonke Msimang discuss his tenth novel, Afterlives – an intergenerational portrait of love and loss under German occupation in East Africa.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
Instagram: @sydwritersfest
Facebook: @SydWritersFest
X (Twitter): @SydWritersFest
TikTok: @sydwritersfest

At 18, Abdulrazak Gurnah arrived in England as a refugee from the Zanzibar Revolution. Receiving the Nobel Prize more than 50 years later, he reflected that the “prolonged period of poverty and alienation” he experienced made him a writer. From the contemporary immigrant experience in his debut, Memory of Departure, to colonial wartime conscription in Booker Prize shortlisted Paradise, Abdulrazak’s unflinching yet humane oeuvre interrogates the legacies of empire, centring that which is often too marginalised. Listen as he and writer Sisonke Msimang discuss his tenth novel, Afterlives – an intergenerational portrait of love and loss under German occupation in East Africa.
This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 
Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 
After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> X (Twitter): <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Abdulrazak Gurnah: Afterlives

How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? And what is the Baroque anyway? 

Enter art historian and curator Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men, a response to E.H. Gombrich’s classic chronicle, The Story of Art, first published in 1950, which was recently updated to include... one woman. 

Katy’s revisionist history builds on her popular podcast and Instagram account, The Great Women Artists, where her fresh approach has garnered fans worldwide and earned her a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. 

Overturn art history as you know it with Katy, in conversation with curator Beatrice Gralton.

This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 

Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 

After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media:
Instagram: @sydwritersfest
Facebook: @SydWritersFest
X (Twitter): @SydWritersFest
TikTok: @sydwritersfest

How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? And what is the Baroque anyway? Enter art historian and curator Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men, a response to E.H. Gombrich’s classic chronicle, The Story of Art, first published in 1950, which was recently updated to include... one woman. Katy’s revisionist history builds on her popular podcast and Instagram account, The Great Women Artists, where her fresh approach has garnered fans worldwide and earned her a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. Overturn art history as you know it with Katy, in conversation with curator Beatrice Gralton.
This episode was recorded live in May at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival.
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. 
Sydney Writers’ Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms. 
After more? Follow Sydney Writers’ Festival on social media: Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sydwritersfest/">@sydwritersfest</a> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> X (Twitter): <a href="https://twitter.com/SydWritersFest">@SydWritersFest</a> TikTok: <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sydwritersfest">@sydwritersfest</a>

Bringing the Past to Life

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