Biographers in Conversation
Biographer Gabriella Kelly-Davies chats with biographers across the world about the myriad of choices they make while researching, writing and publishing life stories. In every episode, she explores elements of narrative strategy such as structure, use of fiction techniques, facts and truth, beginnings and endings and to what extent the writer interpreted the evidence rather than providing clues and leaving it to readers to do the interpreting themselves. She also asks how they researched their books; how they balanced a subject’s public, personal and inner lives; and ethical issues, such as privacy and revealing secrets.
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Episodes
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Matthew Lamb chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing Strange Paths, the biography of Frank Moorhouse, a celebrated Australian novelist, screenwriter and journalist.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Matthew chose to write Frank Moorhouse’s biography in two volumes.
Why Matthew refers to Strange Paths as a cultural biography.
The meaning of the book’s title, Strange Paths.
How Matthew distinguished between the legends, myths and facts of Moorhouse’s life.
How Matthew navigated the complexities of writing about someone he knew and who was alive during most of the project.
Matthew’s research strategy and how he narrowed the biographical scope given the tidal wave of primary research material he accessed.
How Matthew portrayed the historical, political and social context of the times and how he believes they influenced Moorhouse and his writing.
The ethical choices Matthew faced about revealing secrets.
How Matthew navigated the complexities of portraying sensitive information.
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Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
Wednesday Apr 10, 2024
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Gabriella chats with Bernadette Brennan about her choices while crafting A Writing Life. Helen Garner and her Work, a literary portrait of one of Australia’s most vital and revered authors.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Why Bernadette Brennan felt compelled to write A Writing Life.
Why Bernadette chose to craft A Writing Life as a literary portrait of Helen Garner rather than as a conventional biography.
Why Bernadette opened A Writing Life with a scene in which an agitated Garner is a panelist at a writers’ conference.
How Bernadette disentangled Garner’s human story from her writing given that Garner’s life and writing inform and shape each other.
Why Bernadette views A Writing Life as genre-bending.
Why Bernadette structured the portrait around literary analysis of each of Garner’s books, and why she thinks of the chapters in A Writing Life as rooms in ‘Garner’s house of writing’.
Why Bernadette ended A Writing Life with an email from Garner about her Bible reading group and her remark: ‘Our immersion in a (mighty) text brings everyone to his (or her) best self’.
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Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
Instagram: Biographersinconversation
Wednesday Apr 03, 2024
Wednesday Apr 03, 2024
In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Peter FitzSimons chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing The Opera House, the gripping biography of Sydney Opera House, one of the world’s most iconic buildings.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
Peter FitzSimons’s inspiration for writing the biography of Sydney Opera House.
Why Peter opened The Opera House with the Indigenous history of Bennelong Point, the site on which Sydney Opera House now stands.
How Peter researched the book and captured vivid sensory details that enabled him to reconstruct historically accurate scenes that make you feel in the scene.
How Peter grasped complex architectural and engineering concepts, then translated this complicated technical detail into a suspenseful narrative.
Why The Opera House includes so much dialogue and so many excerpts from parliamentary debates, minutes of meetings, correspondence and media coverage.
Why Peter wrote The Opera House in present rather than past tense.
Why Peter made ironic comments throughout The Opera House.
The novelistic devices Peter employed to create a propulsive narrative that keeps you as the reader turning the pages.
https://biographersinconversation.com
Facebook: Share Your Life Story
Linkedin: Gabriella Kelly Davies
Instagram: Biographersinconversation
Thursday Feb 29, 2024
Thursday Feb 29, 2024
Welcome to Biographers in Conversation, a podcast about the many choices biographers make while researching, writing, and publishing life stories.
If you like the sound of Biographers in Conversation, please subscribe, share the podcast with your family and friends, and leave a review.
Stay tuned for the launch of Biographers in Conversation on the 3 April 2024.
https://biographersinconversation.com
