Season 2. Episode 20: Tony Birch

Secrets from the Green Room

Craig and Irma talk about books that have wowed them.
Then Tony Birch chats to Irma about the sensitivity around fictionalising family, the importance of First Nations writing, who has the right to tell certain stories, the problems with teaching writing at university, the rejections that have really stung, the time his mum threatened a radio host, and the famous writers who have snubbed him in green rooms.
About Tony
Tony Birch is an author of three novels, four collections of short stories and two collections of poetry – which have won or been shortlisted for many of Australia’s most prestigious literary awards – including winning the Indigenous Writers Award for both the NSW and Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. He was head of the Honours program for creative writing at the University of Melbourne before becoming the first recipient of the Dr Bruce McGuinness Indigenous Research Fellowship at Victoria University in 2015. In 2017, he became the first First Nations writer to win the Patrick White Award, and his most recent book is Dark as Last Night, a collection of short stories.