Through discussions and interviews with writers, artists and health professionals, author friends James McKenzie Watson and Ashley Kalagian Blunt explore the big questions: how do books get written? How do people navigate life with chronic illness? And just what are you reading?
Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the author of Dark Mode, an internationally published psychological thriller. Her earlier books are How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, collected fiction and essays. Her writing appears in the Sydney Morning Herald, Overland, Griffith Review, Sydney Review of Books, and more. Ashley is an enthusiastic teacher of writing and creativity. Originally from Canada, she has lived and worked in South Korea, Peru and Mexico. Find her on Twitter and Instagram or visit her website.
James McKenzie Watson is the author of Denizen, which won the 2021 Penguin Literary Prize and was shortlisted in 2023 Ned Kelly Awards for Best Debut. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and the Newtown Review of Books. He has appeared at events including the Sydney Writers Festival, Newcastle Writers Festival and BAD Crime Sydney. He works as a nurse. Find him on Twitter and Instagram or visit his website.
Dec 10, 2024
It's that time of year again - the annual Bed on a Plinth Awards, in which James and Ashley discuss the best books they've read in the last twelve months! Use this particularly eclectic list to gather Christmas gift ideas, or simply top up your own 'to be read' pile.
Books & authors discussed in this episode (spoilers below!):
- Red River Road by Anna Downes
- The Last Trace by Petronella McGovern
- An Ambush of Widows by R.W.R. McDonald (audiobook)
- Seventeen Years Later by JP Pomare
- Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor
- The Pulling by Adele Dumont (interviewed in episode 93)
- Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
- Not Everything Counts but Everything Matters by Ivan Cleary & Andrew Webster
- Fragile Creatures by Khin Myint (interviewed in episode 101)
- Ghost Cities by Siang Lu (interviewed in episode 99)
- Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra
- Sociopath by Patric Gagn
- The Writer’s Room by Charlotte Wood
- Tyranny of the Minority by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Upcoming events
- Ashley is teaching Year of the Novel for Writing NSW beginning on Wednesday evenings starting 26 February 2025
- The Cold Truth tour is happening in February! Sign up for Ashley's newsletter here for full details
Learn more about Ashley's thrillers, Dark Mode and Cold Truth, and get your copies from your local bookshop or your library.
Learn more about James' award-winning novel Denizen and get your copy from your local bookshop or your library.
Get in touch!