About this episode
What is the Australian novel today? Is it even a novel? And what remains of the idea of a national literature once we eschew nationalistic clichés of Aussieness? Writers Mykaela Saunders and Yumna Kassab join Lynda Ng to tackle these questions. With readings from Australian fiction that reveals a literature deeply engaged with the world and with writing beyond our shores.Dr Mykaela SaundersDr Mykaela Saunders is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, critic and editor. Mykaela’s debut speculative fiction collection ALWAYS WILL BE (UQP 2024) won the David Unaipon Award, was longlisted for The Stella Prize and was highly commended for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing. Mykaela is the editor of THIS ALL COME BACK NOW (UQP 2022), the world’s first anthology of blackfella spec fic, which won an Aurealis Award, and was highly commended for the Small Press Network Book of The Year and the Booktopia Favourite Australian Book Award. Mykaela has won other prizes for fiction, poetry, life writing and research, including the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize. Mykaela is a postdoctoral research fellow at Macquarie University, working on the project LAYING DOWN THE LORE: a survey of First Nations speculative, visionary and imaginative fiction. Yumna KassabYumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, The Lovers and Politica. Her latest book, The Theory of Everything, is available from Ultimo Press. Her books have been listed for a number of prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature. Dr Lynda NgDr Lynda Ng is a
