Biographers in Conversation

Carl Rollyson: The Life of William Faulkner

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with veteran biographer Carl Rollyson about his two-volume biography of William Faulkner, a giant of 20th century literature who won the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes: The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead and The Life of William Faulkner: This Alarming Paradox. Carl also published William Faulkner Day by Day, which provides a unique insight into the minute of Faulkner’s daily life and relationships.  
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
 The meaning of The Past Is Never Dead and This Alarming Paradox.
 Why Carl chose to end The Past Is Never Dead in 1934. 
 How Carl oriented Faulkner within the historical, social and cultural context of his time.  
How Carl crafted a portrait of the whole human being by balancing Faulkner’s public, professional and personal lives with literary criticism. 
How Carl reconciled the contradictory aspects of Faulkner’s behaviour.
 Why Carl crafted William Faulkner Day by Day and why he wrote the narrative in present tense. 
Why Carl argues that Faulkner deserves to be reread as a literary figure and a still-relevant force, especially in relation to issues of race, sexuality and equality.
Carl’s views on the role of a biographer.
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Sarah George: GAMU: The Dreamtime Stories, Life and Feelings of Big Bill Neidjie

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Sarah George, who wrote GAMU: The Dreamtime Stories, Life and Feelings of Big Bill Neidjie. Known as Kakadu Man, Aboriginal elder Big Bill was instrumental in the establishment of the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park and he was deeply committed to preserving his land, culture and mother tongue. 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
You’ll meet Indigenous elder Big Bill Neidjie 
The role of Dreamtime stories in Aboriginal spirituality and culture
Why Big Bill wanted Dreamtime stories recorded and shared for future generations of Indigenous people. 
Why it is crucial for non-Indigenous people to understand the cultural and spiritual significance of Dreamtime stories. 
The meaning of the Indigenous word GAMU and why Big Bill chose this title for his book.
Why Sarah structured GAMU around 240 photographically illustrated pages of Big Bill’s Dreamtime stories, personal history, and his thoughts and feelings regarding problems faced by Aboriginal communities.
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Ann-Marie Priest: My Tongue Is My Own. A Life of Gwen Harwood

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Ann-Marie Priest chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing her award-winning biography My Tongue Is My Own. A Life of Gwen Harwood, the first biography of Gwen Harwood, one of Australia’s most distinctive poets. My Tongue Is My Own follows Gwen from her childhood in 1920s Brisbane, to her final years in Hobart in the 1990s. 
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Ann-Marie Priest felt inspired to write Gwen Harwood’s biography.
The meaning of the book’s title: My Tongue is my Own.
How Ann-Marie chose to present Harwood’s many conflicting personas and contradictions.
How Ann-Marie represented the historical, social and cultural context in which Harwood struggled to forge a career as a poet.
How Ann-Marie portrayed Harwood’s behaviour as a chameleon and a rebel, one who adopted several pseudonyms and staged several literary hoaxes to highlight entrenched discrimination against female poets. 
The ethical decisions Ann-Marie made when deciding whether to reveal secrets and sensitive information contained in previously unpublished letters.  
How Ann-Marie balanced Harwood’s professional, personal and interior lives.
The extent to which Ann-Marie believes she captured the truth of her subject.
The literary devices Ann-Marie employed to craft compelling narrative.
How Ann-Marie reconciled Harwood’s refusal to be bound by conventions, yet at the same time, lived a conventional life as a wife and mother to four children. 
How Ann-Marie balanced Harwood’s human story with literary criticism.
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Mark McKenna: An Eye for Eternity. The Life of Manning Clark

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the historian Mark McKenna chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing An Eye for Eternity, the biography of Australia’s legendary historian, Manning Clark.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
The meaning behind the book’s title: An Eye for Eternity.
How Mark McKenna navigated Manning Clark’s painstakingly curated archive of letters and diaries, which included detailed notes and instructions for Clark’s  future biographers. 
Mark’s meticulous research strategy and how he narrowed the biographical scope given the avalanche of primary sources he accessed.
How Mark reconciled conflicting views of Clark.
Why Mark included details of Clark’s adulterous behaviour. 
What ethical choices Mark made about information to include, emphasise and suppress given the potential effects of these revelations on Clark’s living children and grandchildren.
Why Mark made Dymphna Clark, Manning’s loyal wife, a central character in An Eye for Eternity and why he represented her point of view so comprehensively. 
The extent to which Mark was able to capture the truth of his subject versus the version of the truth Clark wanted him to represent. 
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Nancy Hurrell: The Egan Irish Harp

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Nancy Hurrell, an acclaimed harpist and harp historian, chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while crafting The Egan Irish Harps: Tradition, Patrons and Players. Nancy also plays Carolin’s Concerto on her 1820 Egan Irish Harp.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Nancy opened the book with a dramatic scene in 1813 involving the discovery of an ancient Gaelic harp buried in a peat bog.  
Nancy’s painstaking research strategy, where her research took her and her incredible discoveries along the way. 
Nancy’s portrayal of John Egan, the nineteenth century musical instrument maker who designed and crafted the Egan Irish Harp.  
The historical, social and political context in which John Egan invented the Irish Harp and how this was vital to the harp’s success. 
How Nancy crafted a vibrant narrative from complex technical and musical  information. 
Why Nancy ended The Egan Irish Harps with an epilogue about museum objects of  historical relevance. 
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Brett Mason: Wizards of Oz

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Brett Mason chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing Wizards of Oz: How Oliphant and Florey helped win the war and shape the modern world. 
Wizards of Oz is an account of a friendship between two Adelaide men, the physicist Mark Oliphant and medical researcher Howard Florey and how their scientific discoveries profoundly impacted the course of World War II. It is a gripping tale of secret missions, international intrigue and triumph against all odds.
  Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Brett Mason chose to open Wizards of Oz with an electrifying prologue about Oliphant and Florey’s high stakes, top secret missions to gain political and financial support from the American government and U.S. businesses for their scientific projects at a critical stage of World War II.
Brett’s research strategy and how he narrowed the biographical scope after uncovering an avalanche of primary source material. 
How Brett learned about the intricacies of microwave technology, nuclear physics and penicillin research given his background in politics rather than science and medicine. 
How Brett translated complex scientific information into a propulsive narrative that keeps you as the reader on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next.
The extent to which Brett balanced scientific discoveries and advocacy with Oliphant and Florey’s human stories.
How Brett crafted a cohesive narrative from the experiences of two brilliant yet very different researchers who worked in disparate fields of science. 
How Brett presented Oliphant and Florey’s lives with immediacy, so you as the reader feel as if you are Oliphant and Florey experiencing their frustrations, fear and desperation to gain support for their scientific endeavours when the stakes were so high. 
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Joel Birnie: My People’s Songs: How an Indigenous Family Survived Colonial Tasmania

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joel Stephen Birnie chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while crafting My People’s Songs: How an Indigenous Family Survived Colonial Tasmania, his historical biography of his earliest known ancestral grandmother and her two surviving daughters. These three extraordinary matriarchs fought for the Indigenous communities they founded in Tasmania, sparking a tradition of social justice that continues in Joel’s family today.
 Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
You’ll meet Tarenootairer, Joel’s earliest known ancestral grandmother, and her two surviving daughters, Mary Ann Arthur and Fanny Cochrane Smith.
Why Joel felt compelled to write My People’s Songs and his goal in writing the book. 
Why Joel chose to structure My People’s Songs around three self-contained biographies of Tarenootairer, Mary Ann and Fanny and why he shared their stories from their perspective and in their voices. 
How Mary Ann’s fight for autonomy laid the foundation for contemporary Indigenous politics.
How he chose to portray Mary Ann’s role as a voice of self-empowerment for Tasmania’s Indigenous people. 
Fanny’s skilled and tenacious political advocacy despite intense opposition from Tasmanian politicians and some sections of the media. 
Fanny’s challenge to the false declaration of Indigenous Tasmanian extinction and why this was, and still is, crucial. 
Joel’s research strategy given that few archival records exist of Indigenous peoples’ lives in 19th century Tasmania and those that are available lack an Indigenous perspective. They are also tainted by colonial half-truths, interpretations and propaganda. 
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Nadia Wheatley: The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Nadia Wheatley chats with Gabriella about the choices she made while writing the biography of Charmian Clift, one of Australia’s most charismatic writers whose books were often decades ahead of their time.
 Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Nadia Wheatley’s reluctance to write Charmian Clift’s biography and the vigorous arm twisting that ultimately resulted in her agreeing to embark on the project.
Nadia’s reasons for opening the biography with her personal story.
The meaning behind the book’s title: The Life and Myth of Charmian Clift.
Why Nadia chose to interpret Clift’s life rather than repeat the mythical representations of earlier biographies.
The ethical dilemmas Nadia faced when revealing secrets about Clift’s personal life. 
How Nadia achieved a fine balance between portraying Clift’s conflicting roles as a talented author and wife of a prolific writer; a devoted mother; and a feminist decades ahead of her time.
The extent to which Nadia believes she accessed the truth of her subject.
Nadia’s exciting news about publishing an edited version of Charmian Clift’s, The End of the Morning, which includes Clift’s previously unpublished autobiographical novel and thirty of her essays.
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Kenneth Miller, Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep (Part Two)

In this episode, Gabriella continues her conversation with Kenneth Miller about his  group biography Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep.
As we learned in the previous episode, a century ago, sleep was widely considered a state of nothingness and a wasteful habit we could learn to overcome. Thanks to the four scientists Kenneth introduced us to in episode one, we now know the truth: that sleep is an incredibly complex phenomenon, central to our physical, emotional, and cognitive health.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
How Kenneth captured each character’s passion for research and their sense of scientific wonder.
How Kenneth portrayed each scientist’s quest to uncover the mysteries of sleep.
How Kenneth structured the narrative to create a gripping adventure of the human spirit.
Details of the famous cave experiment in 1938 when two sleep researchers retreated into the cavernous Mammoth Cave in Kentucky for 32 days to find out when they could switch to a 28-hour sleep cycle after being deprived of environmental cues. 
Kenneth’s meticulous research strategy and how he grasped complicated sleep science. 
How Kenneth transformed thousands of pages of complex scientific information into a propulsive and compelling biography of the quartet of individuals who revolutionised our understanding of why we sleep and how we can get sleep better.
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Kenneth Miller: Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep (Part One)

In this first of two episodes with Kenneth Miller, Gabriella asks about the choices he made while writing Mapping the Darkness, The Visionary Scientists who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep, the compelling biography of the quartet of researchers who revolutionised our understanding of why we sleep and how we can sleep better.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Kenneth suddenly became interested in the field of sleep science.
Why Kenneth opened Mapping the Darkness with the story of a man whose life unraveled because of a sleep disorder.
The cast of characters who created the field of sleep science at a time when no-one was interested in the topic and funding for sleep research was non-existent. 
The historical, social and political context in which the sleep scientists conducted their research. 
The unexpected opportunities that enabled the scientists to gain research funding and recognition for their discoveries.
Kenneth’s approach to balancing the scientists’ professional and private lives to create a kaleidoscopic rather than one-dimensional portrait dominated by their obsession with unravelling the puzzle of sleep.
The four scientists’ breathtaking discoveries that ultimately shaped the way we understand sleep and its role in our lives.
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