This episode aims to unpack the genre of narrative nonfiction, observing the traits and tricks of reading and writing this exciting and growing genre. With the help of industry experts including Arwen Summers, Emma Shortis, Emily Hart, Youjia Song and Emily Clements, the ideas and understandings of narrative nonfiction unfold.
Thanks to our guests:
RMIT alumni, author and editor Emily Clements published her memoir, The Lotus Eaters, in 2020. Her nonfiction has been shortlisted for the Feminazi Memoir Prize, the Ada Cambridge Prize and highly recommended for the Scribe Nonfiction Prize. Her fiction has been twice shortlisted for the Rachel Funari Prize and earned the Melbourne Young Writers Award.
Emily Hart is the commissioning editor at Hardie Grant Books in Melbourne, working on a variety of non-fiction titles.
Emma Shortis is a historian and lecturer at RMIT. Emma is the author of the narrative nonfiction title Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States.
Youjia Song is the 2020 Spark Prize recipient, awarded for her narrative nonfiction proposal 'The Pursuit of Impossible Dreams'. This is the story of a woman’s defiant decision to have a second child at the start of China’s One-Child Policy, told by the daughter who inherited her mother’s fearlessness.
Arwen Summers is Hardie Grant Books' nonfiction publisher. She has over 13 years' experience in publishing and has a particular interest in narrative nonfiction. She's published authors, both established and debut, including Alanna Hill, Malcolm Turnbull, Emily Clements, Clive Hamilton and Ginger Gorman. Discovering and nurturing fantastic emerging writers of narrative nonfiction is one of the highlights of her job.
Host: Joel Humphries and Sophie Newnham
Producers: Callie Beuermann, Joel Humphries, Sophie Newnham, and Mia Purvis
Supervising Producer: Carly Godden

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