Jane Rawson

Some random videos

Me and Ben Walter talking about why anyone would bother writing books when the world is ending, at Wild Island in Hobart, Tasmania

Probably the most-fun panel moderation I’ve ever done – pandemic-era online chat with Laura Jean McKay, James Bradley and Chris Flynn about writing about animals, for Write Around the Murray

Deep in the time of lockdown, a way-too-revealing discussion with Belinda Castles at Sydney Uni about Writers at Work

On the radio

• ABC Radio with Myf Warhurst – 5 November 2018 – There’s nothing better than having a story read to you aloud – but the fun shouldn’t have to end once we’ve grown up. Story Time for Adults is a short story reading club for older readers. Authors Jane Rawson, Rose Mulready and Patrick Allington are all huge fans of the short story.
• ABC Radio National ‘The Bookshelf’ – 2 November 2018 – Realist novels, fantastical and historical – the bookshelf is split on this week’s show, although tentacles of ideas reach out and touch each book and reader. Novelist Jane Rawson (From the Wreck) loves her reading to be surprising and genre bending, and ideally to include an octopus, while writer John Tesarch (Dinner with the Dissidents) prefers realism. Literary academic and Victorianist David Ellison looks for clever, complex immersion.
• Radio Adelaide – 10 August 2018 – Jane Rawson has once again pushed the boundaries of speculative fiction. Her new novel From The Wreck is a masterful blend of historical fiction and extra-terrestrial dispossession, and is the first book to win the Aurealis Award for Science Fiction and also be listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.
• ABC Radio National ‘The Hub on Books’ – 17 July 2018 – A group of friends who believe the Australian short story is undervalued gather a few times a year and read aloud their favourite short stories. It’s a short story club called Story Time for Adults. It’s held at writer, Jane Rawson’s, house in Melbourne’s west, and yes, tea, cheese and wine are consumed. Producer, Barbara Heggen went along to one of their gatherings.
• ABC Radio National ‘Book Hub’ – 5 June 2018 – The Great Debate: Write What You Know – Arguing on the affirmative team: Mark Brandi, Claire Coleman and Bram Presser. And on the negative team: Jane Rawson, Graeme Simsion and Michelle Aung Thin.
• ABC Canberra – 24 May 2018 – Canberra-born and raised author Jane Rawson’s latest science fiction novel, From The Wreck is on the long list for the Miles Franklin and has already won the Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel.
• ABC Radio National ‘Books & Arts’ – 29 March 2017 – Weird fiction sits on the outer reaches of the speculative fiction genre but it’s not as well known a term in Australia. Michael Cathcart speaks to three Australian writers who embrace this moniker.
• 3CR ‘Published or Not’ – 9 March 2017 – Jane Rawson takes us on a psychological and metaphysical journey in ‘From the Wreck’.

Podcasts

• Catastropod – January 2019 – In this episode of Catastropod, Marlee Jane Ward and I chat about my non-fiction work ‘The Handbook of Surviving and Living With Climate Change’. Is climate change apocalyptic?
• Meanjin– November 2018 – In the November episode of the Meanjin podcast, Jonathan Green hosts Miles Franklin–longlisted author Jane Rawson and naturalist Harry Saddler in a discussion about the dark reality of climate change for animals.
• The First Time – October 2018 – Annabel and Jane collaborate on the fabulous blog series What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Book. We begin our conversation talking about Annabel and Jane’s first publication experiences. Annabel’s ran kind of like a dream and Jane’s first published book was not the first she wrote (a phenomenon that might be familiar to many of our listeners!).

Adelaide Writers Week 2018 – audio

• Seeking Refuge – In Claire G Coleman’s novel Terra Nullius, she creates a world where the Settlers are eager to settle the savages. In Jane Rawson’s From the Wreck a mysterious creature survives the 1859 sinking of the Admella and attaches herself to a young boy. Join them for a conversation about how the fantastical helps make sense of Australia’s colonial past.
• Invented Histories – This session brings together two writers who have taken moments in Australian history and imagined them into stories of blood, bonds and memory. In Storyland Catherine McKinnon connects Flinders’ voyage to Illawarra to a 19th century farm and then well into the future. In From the Wreck, Jane Rawson connects the sinking of the steamship Admella with a creature seeking refuge on earth.
• On Bees & Birds (chair) – One time metaphor for sex, the birds and bees are increasingly a harbinger of doom. In Harriet McKnight’s novel Rain Birds, two women in a remote community find themselves at odds over a flock of cockatoos. In Maja Lunde’s novel The History of Bees, a century of beekeepers is lost to the future. For both writers nature is a place to consider our future.

At the Wheeler Centre – video

• Science Fiction Addiction – 27 Oct 2014 – Is there such a thing as Australian science fiction – when you’re dealing with other worlds, does the nationality of the writer (and the setting) matter? Are there any questions or issues that Australian science fiction is uniquely positioned to address? And what’s so good about science fiction, anyway? Doug Hendrie talked to Jane Rawson, Lucy Sussex, Andrew Macrae and Max Barry about why they read and write in the genre, and what it means to be an Australian sci-fi writer.
• The City of the Future – 13 Feb 2013 – In 30 years, Melbourne’s CBD will have another 220,000 new residents. A ‘second CBD’ has been proposed for Melbourne’s west, along with a third runway for Tullamarine airport – and more green wedge land for housing. Can a big Melbourne remain beautiful – let alone liveable or sustainable? Can we have it all, or do tough choices lie ahead? Part of our second Ideas for Melbourne series, Jane Rawson led a panel comprising Alan Davies, David Nichols and Roz Hansen.
• On Politics and Conservation – 12 Nov 2012 – interviewing Tim Flannery about his Quarterly Essay.