ABC Radio National Books and Drama

20-27 February 2009

(Andrew's interruptionn: Could I point you to POETICA firstly - this one is a good one, I've heard it as a podcast;The Monkey's Mask on AIRPLAY - Dorothy Porter's famous PI verse novel; How Fiction Works with James Wood on 26th at 10am. A great week on ABC radio!)

POETICA
21/2/2009 15:00
26/2/2009 15:00
Blackwater: the poetry of Robert Adamson
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/stories/2009/2471246.htm
Since childhood, poet Robert Adamson has had a strong connection with the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney. Producer Libby Douglas and Sound engineer Phillip Ulman travelled to the Hawkesbury and spent two days with Robert, his wife and photographer Juno Gemes. They recorded Robert in his home and on his boat, reading his poetry and talking about his life.


LINGUA FRANCA
21/2/2009 15:45
26/2/2009 15:45
Ka-NAIF = KNIFE
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2009/2495596.htm
Marking International Mother Language Day with Alexei Bayer on translating to and from his native tongue, and how he pronounced the very first word he learned in English, ‘knife’, as Ka-NAIF.


SUNDAY STORY
22/2/2009 08:30
Sean by Annette Trevitt
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/shortstory/stories/2009/2496831.htm
When his father leaves, Sean does not know who to blame.


AIRPLAY
22/2/2009 15:00
26/2/2009 19:00
The Monkey's Mask (Part 1), by Dorothy Porter, featuring Deborah Kennedy, Jeanette Cronin, Jessica Napier, Kelly Butler, Neil Fitzpatrick, Nicholas Eadie and Steve Vidler, music by Lesley Sly, produced by Libby Douglas
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/airplay/stories/2009/2471227.htm
Airplay celebrates the work of the late poet Dorothy Porter who passed away late last year with the most famous of her verse novels, The Monkey's Mask.
Jill Fitzpatrick is a tough streetwise private investigator on the trail of a missing person. Along the way she encounters cars going out of control on mountain roads, murder, deception and an unforgettable femme fatale. The Monkey's Mask has been described by reviewers as 'A tour de force that manages to be a complex thriller, a state-of-the-gender sexual novel and a convincingly lyrical on-rush of poetry'.


THE BOOK SHOW
Monday to Friday 10:00am (repeated at midnight)

The secret world of ghost writing (10.05)
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2495925.htm
It's the publishing world's dirty little secret and it's booming. It's ghost writing. We delve into the world of anonymous scribes who make a living writing other people's stories.

23/2/2009
Writer's Rooms: Mem Fox (10:25)
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2497062.htm
Have you ever wondered where writer's write; where novels are crafted; where classic lines are penned? In the first of our writer's rooms series, we take a guided tour of the private writing space of Australian children's author Mem Fox.

26/2/2009
How Fiction Works
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2497071.htm
James Wood talks about his new book How Fiction Works an account of character, point of view, and what he calls lifeness.

THE BOOK READING
Monday to Friday 2.00pm
9/2/2009 - 27/2/2009
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookreading/stories/2009/2260727.htm
Flann O'Brien's surreal comic novel The Third Policeman is a kind of rural Irish Alice in Wonderland where people and bicycles swap identity, police stations exist in other dimensions and eternity is reached by taking a lift downwards in a forest.


FIRST PERSON
Monday to Friday 10.45am
23/2/2009 - 11/3/2009
American Journeys, written and read by Don Watson, produced by Justine Sloane-Lees
URL: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/firstperson/
As an outsider, and travelling by rail, Don Watson investigates the meaning of the United States: its confidence, its religion, its heroes, violence, material obsessions, landscapes and people. From the window of the train he peers out to the landscape and history unfolding on the other side of the glass, while within he shares encounters with cowboys, political lobbyists, artists, Christian aid workers, shock jocks, and many other ordinary and extraordinary people. Through them he discovers the incomparable genius of America – its optimism, sophistication and riches – and also its darker side, its disavowal of failure and uncertainty.