Shankari Chandran was once told that her stories weren't 'Australian enough.' She later went on to win the prestigious Miles Franklin Award - an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". Here at Missing Perspectives, we are huge fans of Shankari - it's actually  the second time we've hosted her on our podcast (be sure to listen to our episode on her last book, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens). This week, Shankari joins Hannah to talk about her incredible new book Safe Haven that is making huge wave ..read more

Everyone. We know we say that every episode of Booksmart is special, but this one is PARTICULARLY so (we promise). And it's poetry too, so even better. This week, Hannah Diviney got to sit down with proud Wiradjuri poet Jeanine Leane to discuss her new work of poetry titled Gawimarra: Gathering. We don't want to spoil the collection, or this discussion, but here's the poetry in a nutshell: 'Gawimarra: Gathering' moves from deeply tender meditations on Country, culture and kinship, to experimental archival poems dissecting the violence and destruction of the settler-colony. Jeanine Leane’s po ..read more

CW: Discussion of sexual assault It's been described as the game-changing book about sex and consent that every woman - and man - should read. In 2021, Chanel Contos posted on Instagram asking people to share their stories of sexual assault during their schooling years. This post unexpectedly went viral, and almost 7000 people sent in testimonies describing behaviour that constitutes rape. Virtually none of these instances were reported, and almost all of them were by people they knew. How and why is this happening in an era of growing equality? In her new book, Chanel argues that when it co ..read more

Is there a better way to kick off this year then chatting with the author of one of the most buzziest books of 2023?! Madeleine Gray is an arts writer, book critic, a PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Manchester (what can't she do!?) and the author of The Green Dot. The book has been described witty, profound and painfully relatable debut novel exploring solitude, desire, and the allure of chasing something that promises nothing. It's also REALLY funny.  Maddy sat down with our Editor-in-Chief Hannah Diviney to discuss the writing and publishing process, and what s ..read more

Sara M Saleh is a writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants.  Her poetry is not only an inherently political act, but a deeply personal one. We could not think of a better person to join Hannah for the final episode of Booksmart of 2023. With her first full-length poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat, Sara introduces us to the lives of girls and women as they come into being amidst war, colonial and patriarchal violence, and exile and migration. This searing work interrogates and represents the complexity of ..read more

Sara is a writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants.  Her poetry is not only a inherently political act, but a deeply personal one. We could not think of a better person to join Hannah for the final episode of Booksmart of 2023. With her first full-length poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat, Sara introduces us to the lives of girls and women as they come into being amidst war, colonial and patriarchal violence, and exile and migration. This searing work interrogates and represents the complexity of Arab-Aust ..read more

In the (highly) unlikely chance that Hannah Ferguson isn't on your radar, then we want to change that ASAP. Hannah  is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cheek Media Co, an independent Australian news commentary platform providing informed, progressive opinions on subjects that sit at the intersection of feminist, social and political issues. Cheek aims to make difficult topics accessible and entertaining, and to model hard and important conversations, mobilising changemakers in our community (so basically, go and follow them NOW). We're obsessed with Hannah's new book Bite Back - a book that wi ..read more

This week, Alicia Vrajlal from Missing Perspectives sits down with journalist Elfy Scott to discuss Elfy's book The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About. Elfy grew up in a household where her mother’s schizophrenia was rarely, if ever, spoken about. They navigated this silence outside the family home too; for many years, this complex mental health condition was treated as an open secret. Over the past two decades, we have started talking more about common mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. But complex conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis have been lef ..read more

We know we say this about every episode of Booksmart...but this is a really special episode. This week, social worker and former Wayside Aboriginal Cultural Centre Manager Cassandra Ashcroft interviews Amani Haydar about her incredible book, The Mother Wound.   Amani Haydar suffered the unimaginable when she lost her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence perpetrated by her father. Five months pregnant at the time, her own perception of how she wanted to mother (and how she had been mothered) was shaped by this devastating murder. After her mother's death, Amani began re ..read more

Welcome to a very special episode of Booksmart! This week, we invited athlete and equal pay advocate Lucy Small to interview Chloe Dalton about her new book Girls Don't Play Sport. Girls Don't Play Sport is a fierce manifesto for supporting female athletes at all levels, exploring how we got to this point, and where we need to go next to embrace the untapped potential of women's sport. Chloe is one of Australia's few triple sport elite athletes, and is also the Founder of the [female] athlete project - the fastest growing women's sport platform in the country (just casually). We really hope y ..read more