Fully Lit
Fully Lit
Podcast Description
Welcome, or welcome back, to Sydney Review of Books podcast - now known as Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, presented by Anna Funder.
Over eight episodes, you'll hear the work of writers like Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Patrick White, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Christina Stead and many more, with interviews and discussion from writers and critics like John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Lane, Anita Heiss and others.
What is Australian literature today?
How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? Where is it headed?
Fully Lit is brought to you by Sydney Review of Books, Impact Studios, and the UTS Writing and Publishing program.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes of Australian literature, its connections to both recent and ancient histories, and its evolving nature. Notable episodes include discussions on prominent Australian authors like Alexis Wright and Patrick White, as well as critical commentaries on contemporary challenges in publishing and storytelling.
What is Australian literature today? How does it connect to its roots in our recent and ancient pasts? And where is it headed?
Welcome to Fully Lit: a podcast about Australian writing, where you’ll hear a new conversation between authors, critics and readers each fortnight.
Our original eight-part series, presented by Anna Funder, includes readings and conversations with John Kinsella, Nicholas Jose, Jeanine Leane, Anita Heiss and other luminaries of Australian letters as they dissect the work of Alexis Wright, Peter Carey, Patrick White, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Christina Stead and many more.
Fully Lit is brought to you by the Sydney Review of Books, Impact Studios, and the UTS Writing and Publishing program.
What do we owe to the people we love? And how do we carry each other’s stories through time?
In this episode of Fully Lit, Chinese-Australian writer Isabelle Li joins acclaimed novelist Gail Jones to discuss The Northern Tomb, a sweeping and deeply humane novel about family, memory, obligation and belonging.
Set in northern China and spanning decades of personal and political history, the novel follows an ageing former government official, his family, and Sister Fu, the quiet carer whose compassion and attention bring their stories into focus.
Together, Li and Jones explore kinship, care, ageing, grief, friendship and the responsibilities we hold towards one another. They discuss the power of storytelling, the role of memory in shaping identity, and the ways literature can deepen our understanding of lives beyond our own experience.
At the centre of it all is a simple but profound question: how do we learn to care for one another?
This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at Gleebooks on Gadigal land in Sydney.
Voices
Isabelle Li is a Chinese Australian writer and translator whose works include the short story collection A Chinese Affair and the novel The Northern Tomb.
Gail Jones is one of Australia’s most acclaimed novelists, the author of eleven novels, whose work has been translated widely and recognised with numerous major literary awards.
Credits
This episode was recorded on Gadigal land at Sydney’s Gleebooks – for more literary events like this one, see the Gleebooks events page.
Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.
Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.
Recorded by Gleebooks.
Mixed by Regina Botros.
Further Reading
The Northern Tomb by Isabelle Li (Puncher & Wattman, 2026)
A Chinese Affair by Isabelle Li (Margaret River Press, 2016)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The Selected Stories of Lu Xun
Gail Jones’ latest novel is The Name of the Sister (Text, 2025)
For more conversations about fiction, storytelling and contemporary Australian writing, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.
Disclaimer
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