Alexis Wright’s novels are often thought of as “difficult,” but this episode of Fully Lit Live challenges that label, and asks what that word is really doing.

Critic Geordie Williamson is the author of the recent On Alexis Wright, part of Black Ink’s 'Writers on Writers' series. In this conversation with Ivor Indyk, Wright’s publisher and editor at Giramondo, we learn how to read Wright’s books on their own terms — with attention to rhythm, repetition, and scale rather than plot alone.

Moving through Carpentaria, The Swan Book, and Praiseworthy, the discussion centres on Wright’s idea of ‘all time’: a narrative field where ancestral, mythic, and present time coexist, and where people, animals, weather systems and spirits all speak.

What happens when we make space for Wright’s digressions and tonal shifts, and allow ourselves the time she demands?

GUESTS

Geordie Williamson has been chief literary critic of The Australian since 2008. He is publisher of the Picador imprint at Pan Macmillan, a former editor of Island Magazine and Best Australian Essays, and author of The Burning Library, a collection of essays on neglected figures from Australian literature. He lives in Hobart.

Ivor Indyk is the publisher of the Giramondo book imprint and Whitlam Chair in the Writing & Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney.

CREDITS

This episode is brought to you in partnership with our friends at Gleebooks. Head to the Gleebooks events page to discover more great literary events featuring some of Australia’s best and best known authors.

Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.

Executive Producer, Sarah Gilbert. This episode was mixed by Siobhan Moylan.

Find more episodes of Fully Lit wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode, we return to Roland Barthes’ famous 1967 essay, The Death of the Author. This influential text is often taught as an anti-authoritarian gesture, shifting the power of meaning from the author to the reader. But what happens when we consider Barthes’ ideas alongside the voices of anticolonial writers who, at the same historical moment, were mobilising literature to galvanise communities against oppression?

We explore what these debates reveal about contemporary writing’s tendency to blur authorial fact with fiction, and why questions of agency still matter today. The conversation is sparked by Michael Griffiths’ new book, The Death of the Author and Anticolonial Thought, and was recorded live at UTS’ Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges.

Michael Griffiths – Author of The Death of the Author and Anticolonial Thought, Michael is a scholar whose work explores intersections between literary theory and postcolonial studies.

Ben Etherington – Academic and writer with expertise in world literature and cultural theory.

Elizabeth McMahon – Scholar and author focusing on literature, identity, and critical theory.

Graham Akhurst – Academic and author whose work engages with Indigenous storytelling and creative practice.

Credits

This live event was recorded on Gadigal land, live, at UTS’ Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges on November 27.

The event was produced and recorded by Ben Etherington.

Fully Lit is an Impact Studios podcast, made in collaboration with the Sydney Review of Books.

Its producer is Regina Botros.

Executive producers are Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Recorded at the UTS Writers’ Festival on Friday, 7 November 2025, this episode of Fully Lit Live brings you Rebel Daughters, where you’ll hear acclaimed poet Anne Casey share readings from her latest collection, followed by a Q&A with award-winning poet and critic Sarah Holland-Batt, newly appointed Professor and Head of Creative Writing at UTS. Together, they explore themes of resilience, heritage, feminism, and the rebellious spirit that shapes contemporary Australian writing.

Anne Casey

Anne Casey is an award-winning Irish-Australian poet and writer whose work spans themes of identity, heritage, and resilience. Her poetry has been widely published internationally and translated into multiple languages. Anne is known for her evocative style and fearless exploration of social and cultural issues.

Sarah Holland-Batt

Sarah Holland-Batt is an acclaimed Australian poet, critic, and academic. She is the newly appointed Professor and Head of Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney. Sarah is the author of several award-winning poetry collections and a leading voice in contemporary literature. Her work often interrogates memory, mortality, and the complexities of human experience, earning her recognition as one of Australia’s most influential literary figures.