AustLit

'Audible Australia’s 2019 advertising campaign combined political satire with a quintessentially Australian brand of self-mocking. It used this lens to poke fun at Australian speakers and Australian slang – public figures like Magda Szubanski, and popular (and popularly derided) vernaculars. Think ‘yeah, nah, nah, yeah’. In broad terms, Audible’s ad promotes how audiobooks fit neatly around the edges of a busy life, while still upholding the intellectual superiority of books over other forms of cultural leisure.' (Introduction)

'It’s been a decade since acclaimed Australian filmmaker Phillip Noyce was first linked to a film adaptation of Tim Winton’s 2001 novel Dirt Music. Winner of the Miles Franklin Award and short-listed for the Booker Prize, the book was a prime candidate for the big screen, and the perceived cultural value of the project is reflected in the A-list names who became attached to it at different times during its long development history – including Rachel Weisz, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell and the late Heath Ledger.' (Introduction)

'This interview with some of the cast and crew of Belvoir Street Theatre’s 2016 production of The Drover’s Wife – including Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri writer and actor, Leah Purcell, director, Leticia Cáceres, and set designer, Stephen Curtis – was conducted via a series of emails, text messages, and transcribed phone conversations during 2018 and 2019. Inspired by my ongoing conversations with Leah’s manager and partner Bain Stewart, I have chosen to present these interviews as an overlapping Q&A session in order to capture the intensely collaborative nature of the production and bring together the various processes and values that informed the adaptation of this classic Australian text.' (Introduction)