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Fully Lit

Fully Lit

Written by: Impact Studios and The Sydney Review of Books
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 What is Australian literature today? How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? And where is it headed? Welcome to Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, where you'll hear a new conversation between authors, critics and readers each fortnight. In our original eight-part series, presented by Anna Funder, presents you'll hear from John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Leane, Anita Heiss and other luminaries of Australian letters as they dissect the work of Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Patrick White, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Christina Stead and many more. Fully Lit is brought to you by the Sydney Review of Books, Impact Studios, and the UTS Writing and Publishing program.Copyright 2026 Impact Studios and The Sydney Review of Books Art Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 29. Vrasidas Karalis on Patrick White

    29. Vrasidas Karalis on Patrick White
    May 7 2026

    In this episode of Fully Lit, recorded live at Gleebooks in Sydney, we turn to one of the most formidable figures in Australian literature — Patrick White.

    Nobel Prize–winning, fiercely private, and allergic to sentimentality, White remains both towering and divisive. But what does it mean to read him now?

    Writer and translator Vrasidas Karalis joins journalist and biographer Helen Trinca for a searching conversation about White’s life, art and legacy. From the quiet, enduring presence of his lifelong partner Manoly Lascaris to White’s metaphysics, irony and suspicion of tidy plots, the discussion traces both the intimate and intellectual worlds that shaped his work.

    They revisit the war years, White’s complicated “salvation” in Australia, his artistic obsessions, and the enduring challenge of adapting his novels for the screen.

    Along the way, they reflect on why Voss, Riders in the Chariot and The Vivisector still feel urgent — and unsettling.

    Patrick White distrusted comfort. He rejected easy narratives. He believed the novel should disturb rather than console.

    So how do we read him in an age that prizes clarity, speed and reassurance?

    Voices

    Professor Vrasidas Karalis is a writer, translator and Professor of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney. A prolific scholar of modern Greek literature, culture and cinema, he has published extensively on migration, identity and modernism. Karalis is also a leading interpreter of Patrick White’s work.

    Helen Trinca is a journalist and literary biographer. She is the author of Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John and Looking for Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Harrower.

    Credits

    This episode of Fully Lit Live was recorded on Gadigal land at Sydney's Gleebooks - for more literary events see the Gleebooks events page.

    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.

    Edited and mixed by Siobhan Moylan.

    Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

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

    Further reading

    Karalis' On Patrick White's Dilemmas: A Personal Essay, is available at Gleebooks and other good booksellers.
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    53 mins
  • 28. Isolation, Place and Truth: Verity Borthwick and Judi Morison in conversation with Claire Corbett

    28. Isolation, Place and Truth: Verity Borthwick and Judi Morison in conversation with Claire Corbett
    Apr 22 2026

    In this episode of Fully Lit Live, UTS alumni Judi Morison and Verity Borthwick join writer and academic Dr Claire Corbett to discuss their debut novels at the 2025 UTS Writers’ Festival.

    Verity Borthwick’s Hollow Air is a psychological thriller set at a remote mining site in Far North Queensland, using isolation and an often-unseen industry to explore power, fear and uncertainty.

    Judi Morison’s Secrets is a family saga spanning six decades, centred on a matriarch facing the end of her life — and a truth she has carried for sixty years — illuminating histories of incarceration, racism and intergenerational trauma.

    The authors reflect on the importance of place in their storytelling, on isolation and truth-telling, and on the role UTS played in helping them develop their voices and navigate the path to publication. The episode also features readings from both novels.

    Voices

    Dr Claire Corbett is a writer, critic and lecturer in Creative Writing at UTS, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction. Her work spans literary criticism, essays and teaching, with a focus on contemporary literature, feminism and narrative form.

    Judi Morison is a writer and UTS alumna whose debut novel Secrets is published by Bundyi, Simon & Schuster’s First Nations imprint.

    Verity Borthwick is a writer and UTS alumna whose debut novel Hollow Air is published by Ultimo Press.

    Recorded at The UTS Writers' Festival held on November 7, 2025, to celebrate books by UTS Creative Writing staff, alumni, and students.

    Credits

    Fully Lit podcast 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 Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

    Mixed by Siobhan Moylan & Regina Botros.

    Fully Lit is made on Gadigal land.

    Further reading

    Critical/Mineral - Roslyn Jolly on the Australian Mining novel, a review of Verity Borthwick's Hollow Air.
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    42 mins
  • 27. The Long Game: Felicity Castagna and writing Western Sydney

    27. The Long Game: Felicity Castagna and writing Western Sydney
    Apr 9 2026
    In this episode of Fully Lit Live, Felicity Castagna joins writer and producer Sheila Ngoc Pham for a wide‑ranging conversation about writing, class, place, and longevity in the arts.The evening opens with poetry by Lebanese Australian multidisciplinary artist Charnel Rizk, whose work reflects on heritage, land, and survival. What follows is an expansive discussion tracing Felicity Castagna’s journey from early short story writing to award‑winning novels, teaching, and cross‑disciplinary creative work.Together, Felicity and Sheila reflect on Australian literature, the decline of literary study in universities, and the changing role of reading communities outside academia. They explore the idea of “Western Sydney literature” — who it serves, where it falls short, and how writers can resist being pigeonholed while still honouring place and specificity.The conversation also touches on class mobility, migrant identity, writing in dark political times, adaptation for stage and screen, and what it means to sustain a creative life over decades. Felicity shares insights into her upcoming novel Peaches, as well as her approach to teaching, collaboration, and staying creatively engaged beyond the book industry alone.The event was hosted by writer Yumna Kassab.The episode concludes with audience Q&A, considering creativity across disciplines, writing through rage and despair, and the value of slow, sustained artistic work.This event was recorded at the Parramatta Literary Salon #4 on Wednesday 11 March, 2026, an Arts & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta event.VoicesFelicity Castagna is a Sydney novelist, essayist, critic and teacher of creative writing. Her essays on books, art, suburbia, home and place are published both here and internationally on platforms such as The Sydney Review of Books, Electric Literature, LitHub, and ABC radio and television. When she’s not writing she spends most of her time talking about books and helping other people to write them. She’s taught everywhere from schools to festivals, art galleries and correctional centres and she has helped to establish, promote and run many writing and storytelling programs, particularly in Western Sydney. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing with The Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University.Felicity has published four novels for adults and young adults including her most recent book, Girls In Boys’ Cars, which received The Victorian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and is on its way to becoming a film. She is also the author of No More Boats, a finalist in the 2018 Miles Franklin Literary Awards, and The Incredible Here and Now, which won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Her next book, Peaches, will be released in 2027.Sheila Ngọc Phạm is an independent Sydney writer, producer and researcher. She writes for a wide range of Australian and international publications, and her work has been recognised with listings in the 2023 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, 2021 Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism and 2021 Woollahra Digital Literary Award. She has produced radio and podcasts for Monocle, ABC Radio National and SBS; worked on screen-based projects and series; and curated exhibitions for the State Library of NSW and Fairfield City Museum and Gallery. Sheila was the inaugural Imago Fellow at the State Library of NSW, examining Australian speculative fiction in the late 20th century, and is currently a researcher of refugee health at the University of Technology Sydney.Charnel Rizk is a Lebanese Australian multidisciplinary artist working across poetry, music, performance, theatre, and writing. She is the co‑owner of Parramatta Artists Studios and founder of the creative platform All The Rizk. Her writing has been featured on SBS and has received international attention. Charnelle is also a practicing speech therapist and is passionate about storytelling, identity, and community‑focused creative collaboration.CreditsFully Lit is made on the Gadigal lands of the Eora nation.Sevan Dermelkonian recorded this episode at the Parramatta Literary Salon #4 on Wednesday 11 March, 2026 and is an Arts & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta event.Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program.Producer: Regina BotrosExecutive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James JiangFind more episodes of Fully Lit wherever you get your podcasts.
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    1 hr and 12 mins
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