NT Writers Radio

8 Sep 2025, 2:06pm NTWF 2025 – When Cops Are Criminals – Veronica Gorrie Veronica Gorrie, editor of the anthology When Cops Are Criminals, shares accounts of police brutality and corruption from survivors and academics. What do testimonies of racism, homophobia, and institutionalised violence tell us about the structures that are meant to keep our communities safe? And who is left behind? This podcast includes topics some may find distressing. The conversation discusses violence and deaths in custody.  This project is supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund.  

8 Sep 2025, 2:01pm NTWF 2025 – Queerstories Vulnerable and fierce, hilarious and heartbreaking, Queerstories celebrates the culture and creativity of the LGBTQI+ community one true story at a time; unexpected tales of pride, prejudice, resilience and resistance. An institution around the country, Queerstories has played to crowds big and small for the last ten years, from Mudgee to Murwillumbah, Albury to Adelaide, Brisbane and beyond, with an award-winning podcast featuring an archive of nearly 400 queer tales. Hosted by Maeve Marsden with Daniel Browning, Sam Elkin, Marilena Hewitt and more.

8 Sep 2025, 1:44pm NTWF25 – Closer To The Subject – Daniel Browning Cultural critic and media personality Daniel Browning has spent almost three decades as a journalist, radio broadcaster, critic and interviewer, with conversations with the likes of the late Archie Roach, Doris Pilkington, and Vernon Ah Kee. Join the winner of the 2024 Prime Minister's Literary Awards in Non Fiction to explore his life's work. Facilitated by Meredith Lake.

8 Sep 2025, 1:38pm NTWF 2025 – Past Perfect What myths about the past prevail? How does the past inform our present? And how do writers contextualise their work in time? In Sharlene Allsopp's essay Glitter and Guts the author butts up against the erasure of Aboriginal ANZACs, while Winnie Dunn's story Sissies and Bros time-travels to an adolescent's shift at a pizza shop, firmly planting the story in place and time with cultural references and language. Join these Griffith Review contributors as they explore their works in recent editions of the journal, in conversation with editor Carody Culver. Generously sponsored by Griffith Review.

8 Sep 2025, 1:24pm NTWF 2025 – We Are The Stars – Gina Chick Gina Chick knows how to be at home in the wild. The winner of the first Alone Australia describes how an unconventional childhood led to an extraordinary life in her memoir, We Are the Stars. A somatic dancer, bushcraft teacher, and nature lover who talks to lakes and platypuses, Gina Chick treats us to tales of rebellion, grief, transformation, and how she listens to the land. 

8 Sep 2025, 1:17pm NTWF 2025 – Disrupting Literature   Australian literature is being faced with interventions that challenge old ways of doing. Indigenous authors write back to mainstream publishing and archives, and create new forms inspired by old traditions. In a time when universities and arts organisations are being increasingly censored, speaking out against genocide is crucial. Join Sara Saleh, Sharlene Allsopp, Theresa Penangke Alice, and Marie Elena Ellis speak about disrupting traditional forms of power. Facilitated by Kathryn Gilbey.   This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.   Supported by Meanjin.  

8 Sep 2025, 12:55pm NTWF 2025 – Oil and Water Here in the NT, we are deeply dependent on groundwater to live. What is our relationship to water like? How are fossil fuel interests influencing the government's decisions on water protection? And what are traditional owners saying about these threats to our existence? Join storyteller and water justice campaigner, Maureen Nampijinpa O'Keefe, journalist and author of Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil, and art book maker Marilena Hewitt in conversation with Arid Lands Environment Centre's Alex Vaughan.

8 Sep 2025, 12:31pm NTWF 2025 – Our Stories Heal Us Writing can help us move through grief, pain and trauma – and can be a way to make sense of the past. Gina Chick's memoir We Are the Stars is a bold story of connection to nature and grief at the death of a child; Bebe Oliver's If This Is the End is a powerful poetry collection about queer identity and recovering from endings; and Emma Trenorden writes a deeply thoughtful, poetic response to the Black Summer fires in High Fire Danger. Don't miss this conversation about using narrative as a means to come to terms with our greatest struggles. This project is supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund.

8 Sep 2025, 11:27am NTWF 2025 – State Capture – Royce Kurmelovs Join investigative journalist Royce Kurmelovs on a journey through Australia's toxic relationship with Big Oil. From the government's historical choice to ignore warnings of fossil fuel's devastating impacts, to activists standing up against powerful companies, this is an essential look at how the oil and gas industry captured Australia- and how people power fights back.

8 Sep 2025, 10:47am NTWF 2025 – Language Is Power What does it mean to reclaim a language? In the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages, determined leaders are revitalising and cultivating languages in their communities. Join Barada, Yiman, Gangulu and Gureng Gureng linguist Gari Tudor-Smith, co-author of Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New, contributor to Words to Sing the World Alive, Cheryl Leavy, and Samantha Penangka Armstrong, a "Language Nest" co-ordinator at the Pertame School, in conversation with Arrernte linguist Camile Dobson. This project is supported by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund. Strong language warning.

8 Sep 2025, 10:17am NTWF 2025 – Angkwerre-iweme – Healing in the Winds of Change Immerse yourself into the festival altyerre-theme with a deep exploration of Angkwerre-iweme | healing in the winds of change. This is an Arrernte word and practice that describes the traditional healing method to clear and cleanse. This concept is threaded through the festival, and offers healing, justice, strength and renewal. The altyerre was chosen in a collaborative process by Arrernte Elders and First Nations Peoples consultants, in workshops facilitated and coordinated by Running Waters Community Press. Listen to those involved talk about this process and what it means to them. Listen to those involved talk about this process and what it means to them.

2 Dec 2024, 10:41pm NTWF 2024 – Aftermaths – The Ethics of True Crime How do you pick up the threads of an unsolved mystery and weave them into a compelling story? How do you navigate the trauma and emotions of those living in the aftermath of terrible crimes? What are the ethics involved in telling other peoples stories, especially when they are no longer around to speak for themselves? And to what degree do you become an advocate in cases of injustice? Join Walkley award-winning journalists, Caroline Graham, Dan Box, and Kylie Stevenson, for a deep dive into what it takes to write ethically considered true crime. This panel is facilitated by Jennifer Pinkerton. 

2 Dec 2024, 10:32pm NTWF 2024 – The Juggle Is Real Sleepless nights, teething problems, school runs, nappies. Juggling the demands and responsibilities of caring for children with creative pursuits is no mean feat! So how, amidst the pressures of parenthood, does one maintain an artistic practice? How to carve out space for solitude creativity, while being available for you kids? Join five inspiring artists for a candid discussion about the joys and challenges of parenting while pursuing a career in the arts.  This panel was curated by Melanie Mununggurr, is facilitated by Jess Ong, and features Ciella Williams, Emcille, Hope One, Juran Adams, and Melanie Mununggurr.

2 Dec 2024, 10:32pm NTWF 2024 – Murli la – Ngarukuruwala Women's Group In the remote Tiwi Islands, a 20-strong group of female Elders have been coming together to sing for decades, composing and performing songs that hold cultural, genealogical, geographical and spiritual knowledge passed down through thousands of years.  A joint project by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) and Hardie Grant, Murli-la is a beautifully designed book that shares these many lifetimes of sung knowledge. In this unforgettable book talk, members of the Ngarukuruwala Women's Group – Elaine Tiparui, Jacinta Tipungwuit and Mary Elizabeth Moreen – are joined by their musical collaborator and co-author, Genevieve Campbell, and ILF's Tictac Moore to discuss Tiwi culture and the process of creating this richly layered book. 

2 Dec 2024, 10:25pm NTWF 2024 – Living With The Past In a world where there are fewer shared rituals of mourning and we are frequently exposed to images of destruction online, how do we begin to properly grieve? How does personal loss become intertwined with public or communal loss? And how does the past continue to make itself felt in the present? This panel features Charlotte Wood, Debra Dank, Izzy Roberts-Orr, and Jacinta Halloran, and is facilitated by Rita Horanyi.  

2 Dec 2024, 10:20pm NTWF 2024 – After The Storm Cyclone Tracey was a cataclysmic event that destroyed 80 percent of Darwin and killed 66 people. The disaster changed the city irrevocably and, nearly 50 years on, its reverberations continue to be felt. In Tracy – 50 Years, 50 Stories, historians Derek Pugh OAM and Richard Creswick meticulously gather together 50 stories from those who were in Darwin when the cyclone hit. Featuring previously unheard testimonies, this compelling new oral history offers insights into the experiences of ordinary people under harrowing circumstances. Derek and Richard are joined Curator of Territory History at MAGNT, Jared Archibald, for a wide-ranging discussion about remembering Cyclone Tracy and its lingering impacts. This panel is facilitated by Kylie Stevenson.

2 Dec 2024, 10:12pm NTWF 2024 – Queering The Narrative How are contemporary queer writers finding new ways to voice their experiences? How do they build on the rich history of queer writing before them, and how do they subvert different styles and genres? What still needs to be done to ensure better representation of the diversity of LGBTQIA+ experience in literature and publishing? Join three writers from the LGBTQIA+ community working across a range of forms for a broad-ranging discussion about how queer narratives are changing, and how they work to shift dominant cultural perspectives.  This panel features Benjamin Law, Clare Bizley, and Sam Elkin, and is facilitated by Cj Fraser-Bell.

2 Dec 2024, 10:03pm NTWF – The Future of Storytelling With the rise of AI, the popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, and the overwhelming amount of online content being produced, what constitutes 'literature' is changing. How are new technologies reshaping storytelling? What new forms are emerging? Join four panellists working in a broad range of genres and forms as they discuss what they think the future has in store for storytelling, canvassing everything from AI to animation.  This panel features Barry Jonsberg, Caroline Graham, Kate Mildenhall, and Timothy Parish, and is facilitated by Laura Lewis.

2 Dec 2024, 9:54pm NTWF 2024 – The Shadows of History Join Burruberongal novelist of the Darug Aboriginal Nation, Julie Janson, and historian of the colonial frontier, Robyn Smith, for a discussion about uncovering forgotten events, and the long shadows cast by history. Julie Janson's latest novel, Compassion, is the dramatised life story of one of her ancestors, who was put on trial for stealing livestock. It is a rollicking and violent tale of anti-colonial revenge that depicts the dangerous lives Aboriginal women were forced to lead in 1800s Australia. Robyn Smith's recently published history, License to Kill: Massacre Men of Australia's North, is a long overdue reckoning with the widespread violence of the NT frontier. It chronicles events that were wilfully forgotten, and reveals how they were part of a broader pattern of violence and dispossession that was repeated across the continent. Together, these authors discuss how the past has been memorialised and (mis)remembered, and the urgent need for truthtelling if our country is to move forward from its troubled history. This panel is facilitated by Meredith Lake.  Content warning: this conversation refers to historical events that some may find distressing, especially those who identify as First Nations.

2 Dec 2024, 9:48pm NTWF 2024 – Taking a Joke Taking a joke and running with it can be harder work than you think. So how do writers go about being amusing? Is it something you're born with or can it be learnt? How do you keep a room in stitches, and how do you introduce levity into heavier subjects? Join four funny storytellers as they spill the beans on what it takes to make people laugh, and why they use humour to share their message with audiences. This panel features Amy Hetherington, Barry Jonsberg, and Sean Guy, and is facilitated by Marieke Hardy.

2 Dec 2024, 12:21pm NTWF 2024 – Stone Yard Devotional – Charlotte Wood The author of seven novels and three books of nonfiction, many of which have won prestigious awards, Charlotte Wood is one of the country's most critically acclaimed writers. Her latest novel, Stone Yard Devotional, was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, making her the first Australian to be shortlisted since 2014. The novel is a moving and meditative exploration of grief, and the possibility of solace in a  time of looming climate catastrophe. Masterful and restrained, Stone Yard Devotional grapples with questions of morality, forgiveness and whether we can ever fully mourn what has been lost. Tune in to hear Charlotte Wood discuss the inspiration for her most personal work yet with writer, scholar and critic, Nicholas Jose. 

6 Oct 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – A Minor Chorus – Billy-Ray Belcourt A writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation, Billy-Ray Belcourt is a rising literary star. His debut book of poetry, This Wound is a World, won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize. His second collection of poems, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, and his collection of essays and vignettes, A History of My Brief Body, were both bestsellers. Joining us livestreamed from Vancouver, Billy-Ray discusses his brilliant debut novel, A Minor Chorus. An incisive and moving exploration of what it means to be queer and Indigenous today. A Minor Chorus weaves conversations, interviews and stories of grief and survival in a North Alberta community with lyrical existential reflections. A Minor Chorus explores how the self is entangled with the social, the sayable with what remains unsaid, and how we can breach the prisons we live inside. Billy-Ray is in conversation with Alyawarr scholar, Kathryn Gilbey.

29 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Morning Meditations – Uti Kulintjaku Clear your mind and learn about the Pitjantjatjara concept of listening in this special presentation by Alison Milyika (Tjulapi) Carroll and Margaret Smith from the NPY Women's Council Uti Kulintjaku Collective. Be guided through a Pitjantjatjara meditation, and learn about the work of the collective and about the words ‘kulintjaku/kulintja/kulini’, which combine concepts of both listening and understanding. In Pitjantjatjara, uti kulintjaku means ‘clear thinking with an intention to understand'. The Uti Kulintjaku initiative brings together ngangkari, senior Indigenous women, and western health professionals to explore mental health concepts from both Aboriginal and western perspectives. Interpreter Kathy Tozer translated from Pitjantjatjara for this session supported by NPY Women's Council. This podcast contains the Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) of the nangkari (traditional healers) and senior women from Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands.Dealing with any part of this traditional knowledge for any purpose not authorised by the custodians may be a breach of their ICIP. 

22 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Horse by Geraldine Brooks Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist, Geraldine Brooks, joins us via livestream from Sydney to discuss her sweeping historical novel, Horse. Weaving together the tale of a painting discarded in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the true story of America’s greatest racehorse, Horse is a multi-layered novel that reckons with the corrosive legacy of slavery and racism in America. Revered for her ability to vividly evoke the textures of different historical eras, Geraldine appears in conversation with Alex Barwick. This event was presented in partnership with Sydney Writers' Festival.

15 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Solidarity and Survival In this powerful panel, three queer First Nations writers with ancestral connections to different continents – Ellen van Neerven (Mununjali Yugambeh), Victoria Alondra (Mestizx), and Billy-Ray Belcourt (Driftpile Cree) – discuss how they survive and resist oppressive social structures, finding love, joy and solidarity in community, culture and country, as well as through writing and art. This conversation is facilitated by Wiradjuri writer, poet and academic, Jeanine Leane. Billy-Ray Belcourt joins the conversation via videolink from Vancouver.  CW: This discussion briefly references suicidal ideation.

8 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Voices Of Nature How can we hear what the non-human world has to tell us? How can writers and storytellers translate this ‘voice’ into art, opening us up to new ways of listening and being attentive? And how might activists conceive of the voices of nature in order to defend the rights of the environment? This discussion features Yankunytjatjara poet Ali Cobby Eckermann, author Chris Flynn and journalist Maria Taylor. Facilitated by Kate Rendell. This panel was supported by Magabala Books. CW: This episode discusses the experience of a survivor of the Stolen Generations and instances of colonial violence.

1 Sep 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – Unsettling Narratives of the Past Three practitioners of historical fiction – Anita Heiss AM, Geraldine Brooks and Christopher Raja – discuss how their writing challenges dominant narratives of the past. Anita Heiss’ award-winning novel, BilaYarrudhalangdhuanggray, is an epic tale of love, loss, belonging, and the struggle for freedom, told through the eyes of a young Wiradyuri woman named Wagadhaany. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks’ latest novel, Horse, is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America. Christopher Raja’s forthcoming novel explores the experiences of Afghan cameleers in Australia, finding their way in a strange new place. Facilitated by Eleanor Hogan, with Geraldine joining from Sydney by videolink. This panel was sponsored by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

25 Aug 2023, 1:00am NTWF 2023 – The Voice To Parliament Handbook In this timely panel, author and Uluru Statement from the Heart campaigner, Thomas Mayo, is joined by esteemed journalist, Kerry O’Brien, to discuss their new book, TheVoicetoParliamentHandbook. Designed to answer common queries about how The Voice might operate, The Voice toParliamentHandbook is an accessible and engaging guide to this important topic. Facilitated by Wardaman woman and Executive Manager of Policy and Governance at the Central Land Council, Josie Douglas, this lively discussion is your chance to hear from advocates of The Voice and to learn more. This event was presented in partnership with NT Press Club.

23 Aug 2023, 4:59pm Acknowledgement of Country