Radio & Podcast Productions

Extinction Elegies

Extinction Elegies was a project devised by Red Room Poetry, in collaboration with Durham University. In this three-part radio series that I produced, six Australian poets share their poems, and reflect on losses of Australian animals significant to them; these poems are accompanied by commentary from three extinction experts. The poets featured in the project, and in my radio series, are: Michelle Cahill; John Kinsella; Mark Tredinnick; Bruce Pascoe; Ali Cobby Eckermann; and Stuart Cooke. The experts are Professor John Woinarski, Dr Thomas Bristow, and Dr Sarah Bekessy. Broadcast across Australia on the Community Radio Network in November 2019.

‘The Varatharajans’

An audio recording that was part of an exhibition at the 2019 Emerging Writers Festival, exploring the relationship between physical and digital realms. In the recording, I read a prose reflection from my collection Entries; the reflection addresses the maintenance of my relationship with my brother, using digital apps. The Future Truths exhibition was launched on 24 June 2019; you can listen to all the featured works here.

New Shoots Victoria

New Shoots Victoria was a project set at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Victoria, which asked ten Victorian poets to respond to plants in the gardens. The project was devised by Red Room Poetry in partnership with RGBV and the Melbourne Writers Festival. The poets featured in the project, and in my five-part radio series, are: Bruce Pascoe; Maria Takolander; Bonny Cassidy; Autumn Royal; Ryan Prehn; Elena Gomez; Duncan Hose; Chris Wallace-Crabbe AM; Carissa Lee; and Cameron Lowe. Broadcast across Australia on the Community Radio Network in 2018.

Vishvarūpa: The Poetry of Michelle Cahill

In this program, I adapt poems from Michelle Cahill’s poetry collection Vishvarūpa, which drops Hindu gods and goddesses into the contemporary India and Australia. The program features readings by the poet and by an actress, Georgina Naidu; creative sound design; and interviews with Cahill and with Professor Greg Bailey, a scholar of Sanskrit narrative literature. Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Earshot on 7 September 2016.

Memories of Suburban Hinduism

In this highly personal radio documentary, I attempt to locate the moment at which I (and my brother) drifted away from our family’s devotional Hinduism. In the program, I revisit my teenage years, a Hindu temple in Adelaide, and memories of visiting temples in Wollongong and in India with family. The program features my narration; interviews with my father, mother, and brother; and creative sound design, composed of music and location recordings. Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Earshot on 28 January 2016.

Maria Takolander

A creative radio feature on the poetry of Maria Takolander, featuring readings and commentary by the poet, and a rich soundscape made up of music and effects. Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Earshot on 6 May 2015.

A New Scheherazade

This bilingual program, with readings in English and French by Ming-Zhu Hii, features a selection of poems from Tales of a Severed Head by the Moroccan poet, Muslim activist and feminist Rachida Madani, with English translations by Marilyn Hacker. Tales of a Severed Head is a poetic adaptation of the ancient One Thousand and One Nights frame tale, focusing particularly on Scheherazade's experience as a prisoner in Shehriyar's palace, telling stories to save her life. Madani's poems also respond to the contemporary political situation in Morocco, beginning in the 1960s, under the authoritarian reign of King Hassan II. Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Poetica on 29 November 2014.

Rabindranath Tagore

A creative feature on India’s most famous modern poet, Rabindranath Tagore, who was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1913. The program features readings of Tagore’s poems by the actor Raj Sidhu, and an interview with Amit Chaudhuri about his book On Tagore: Reading the Poet Today (2012). Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Poetica on 8 February 2014.

Joan Margarit

I recorded this radio feature, on the Catalan poet and architect Joan Margarit, at the homes of the poet – outside Barcelona – and of his translator Anna Crowe, in St Andrews. The program is bilingual, and features the poet reading in Catalan, and an actor reading the English translations. There are also lengthy interviews with Anna Crowe about her translation, and with Joan Margarit – through the literary interpreter Julie Wark – about his life and work. The sound design is comprised of jazz music composed by Margarit and his son Carles, other music and effects, and sound I recorded in Barcelona. Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Poetica on 24 November 2012.

Jejuri

A 40-minute program on the late Indian poet Arun Kolatkar. The program contains a selection of poems from Kolatkar’s most famous book, Jejuri, set in a small temple town in the North of India; it also features an interview with the poet and critic Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Poetica, on 10 December 2011.

Poets on Poetry

A selection of Australian and international poems about poetry – about the reading and writing of poetry, its value, and the relationship between poetry and melancholy. It features the voices of Ted Hughes, W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Les Murray and Martin Langford reading their poems, as well as work by poets such as Archibald MacLeish, Kenneth Koch, Sylvia Plath and Kay Rozynski. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Poetica, on 6 November 2010.

Elvish Expanded

The final program in the constructed languages series. This program looks at the languages of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, especially as they are rendered in the films. The program features my interview with David Salo, a linguist who expanded Tolkien’s languages for the movies. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Lingua Franca, on 26 June 2010.

Dystopian Englishes

The third of a four-part series on constructed languages. In this program I look at the languages of two novels which are deviations of English: ‘Nadsat’ in A Clockwork Orange and ‘Riddleyspeak’ in Riddley Walker. The program features interviews with Antonio Lillo, an expert on cockney rhyming slang at the University of Alicante, Spain, and Russell Hoban, the author of Riddley Walker. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Lingua Franca, on 19 June 2010.

Klingon Qapla’

The second of a four-part series on constructed languages. This program features my interview with Marc Okrand, the linguist who invented the Klingon language for the Star Trek films. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Lingua Franca, on 12 June 2010.

Conlangs

The first of a four-part series on constructed languages. This program features my interview with Sylvia Sotomayor, inventor of the entirely verbless language Kēlen and a member of the Language Creation Society. It also features an excerpt from an interview with the author Russell Hoban, whose novel Riddley Walker features a corrupted version of English. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Lingua Franca, on 5 June 2010.

The Interior Landscape: Classic Tamil Love Poetry

A dramatisation of classical Tamil love poetry from the first three centuries A.D. in India, translated into English by A.K. Ramanujan and accompanied by music. The program features the voices of six Australian actors reading the poems. The program was first broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Poetica, on 5 December 2009.

Hopscotch: The Poetry of A.K. Ramanujan

A selection of poems by the late Indo-American poet A.K. Ramanujan (not to be confused Srinivasa Ramanujan, the applied mathematician). The program features sound recordings I made in India, as well as interviews with the poet Prathibha Nandakumar, short story writer Ashokamitran, and painter S.G. Vasudev. The program was broadcast in Australia and via the web on ABC Radio National’s Poetica, on 2 August 2008.