Fully Lit

About Fully Lit

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.

Publisher

Impact Studios and The Sydney Review of Books

Category

arts · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Nov 2020

Latest episode

22 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

50 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Oct 2026

   42. For Better or for Worse: Christian Gelder, Eda Gunaydin and James Jiang on varieties of therapeutic experience

   Has therapy come to define modern life? In this special episode of Fully Lit, Sydney Review of Books Editor James Jiang is joined by writer and scholar Christian Gelder and award-winning essayist Eda Gunaydin to probe the depths of contemporary therapeutic culture. Together, they consider how different therapeutic practices shape our ideas and language around identity, responsibility, and personal transformation, while also reflecting on the promises and limitations of therapy itself. The conversation offers perspectives from both the psychoanalytic and cognitive behavioural traditions, while touching on the best-selling book The Body Keeps the Score, the links between therapy and literature, and what our fascination with therapy tells us about our politics. At its psychic core, this episode asks how contemporary culture has come to understand itself through a therapeutic lens. Voices James Jiang (https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/writers/james-jiang) is Editor of the Sydney Review of Books. Christian Gelder (https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/623863-christian-gelder) is an ARC DECRA Fellow in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne whose research focuses on psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioural therapy and the history of therapeutic culture. Eda Gunaydin (https://edagunaydin.com/Home) is an award-winning essayist, a lecturer in politics at the University of Wollongong, and the author of Root and Branch: Essays on Inheritance. She is the current Parramatta Laureate in Literature. Credits Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS (https://impactstudios.edu.au/), the Sydney Review of Books (https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/), and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program (https://www.uts.edu.au/for-students/communication-and-social-sciences/writing-and-publishing), and is produced by Regina Botros. Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang. Recorded and Edited by Regina Botros. Recorded at 2SER FM studios. Further Reading The Body Keeps the Score (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_Keeps_the_Score) by Bessel van der Kolk Against Understanding by Bruce Fink What Is Madness? by Darian Leader "Self Unhelped" by Christian Gelder (Sydney Review of Books) "Where Have All the Addicts Gone (https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/reviews/where-have-all-the-pithiatics-gone)?" by Christian Gelder and Rob Boncardo (Sydney Review of Books) Root and Branch: Essays on Inheritance (https://unsw.press/books/root-branch/) by Eda Gunaydin For more conversations about literature, ideas and contemporary culture, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.

2. 

   8 Oct 2026

   41. Dorr-e Dari Artistic Group: A Journey into Theatre and Poetry

   What does home feel like when you've spent your life searching for it? And how do stories help us make sense of identity, belonging and displacement? In this special episode of Fully Lit, recorded live at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival, members of Dorr-e Dari present an evening of storytelling, poetry and conversation exploring Afghan Australian experiences. The event opens with a powerful personal story from Zeynab Noori about travelling to Afghanistan for the first time and confronting the realities of life under Taliban rule. Writer, director and producer Kobra Sayyadi shares original reflections on travel, courage, beauty and self-discovery, while the performance celebrates the richness and diversity of Afghan culture beyond the narratives that so often dominate public discussion. In conversation with writer and broadcaster Sheila Ngoc Pham, the group reflects on questions of home, migration, memory, identity and artistic practice. Together, they discuss what it means to belong across multiple countries and cultures, the challenges of representation, and the role of art in creating space for community voices. This is a conversation about storytelling and the many ways people carry home within them. Voices Kobra Sayyadi is a Hazara-Afghan theatre-maker, writer, and interdisciplinary artist blending theatre, poetry, film, and audio. Her work explores feeling, belonging, and the spaces in between. Zeynab Noori is an Afghan Hazara actor, born and raised in Iran, whose cross-cultural upbringing informs her artistic voice and perspective. Jawad runs a plastering business, providing his services on construction sites all over Sydney. He was a member of ensemble PYT Fairfield for three years and made his debut as a performer at Griffin Theatre in the premiere production of PYT’s Tribunal. Mahdi Mohammadi trained as a theatre director at Kabul University, where he co-founded Papyrus Theatre. Under his leadership, the company was awarded First Prize at the Afghan National Theatre Festival and toured internationally to India and Sweden. Sheila Ngoc Pham (https://www.sheilatakeabow.com/) is a writer, editor, producer, curator and researcher. Sheila previously co-directed the Addi Road Writers' Festival (2021-2023), and her other curation work includes an exhibition of Đông Hồ paintings (2019) for the State Library of NSW, and most recently, MÌNH (2023) for Fairfield City Museum and Gallery. She is the 2025 Imago Fellow at the State Library of NSW. Credits This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival (https://addiroad.org.au/writers-festival/) on Gadigal land in Sydney. 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 and mixed by Daniel Wiggins.

3. 

   24 Sept 2026

   40. We Carry Each Other's Stories: Isabelle Li with Gail Jones

   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 (https://isabelleli.com/) joins acclaimed novelist Gail Jones (https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/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 (https://isabelleli.com/) 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 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 (https://gleebooks.com.au/pages/13876-Events). Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS (https://impactstudios.edu.au/), the Sydney Review of Books (https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/), and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program (https://www.uts.edu.au/for-students/communication-and-social-sciences/writing-and-publishing), 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 (https://puncherandwattmann.com/product/the-northern-tomb/) by Isabelle Li (Puncher & Wattman, 2026) A Chinese Affair (https://newsouthbooks.com.au/books/a-chinese-affair/) by Isabelle Li (Margaret River Press, 2016) One Hundred Years of Solitude (https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-au/products/books-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-marquez-gabriel-garcia#9785396265233) by Gabriel García Márquez The Selected Stories of Lu Xun (https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-au/products/selected-stories-of-lu-hsun-rare-book-lu-hsun-1773651643dpb) Gail Jones' latest novel is The Name of the Sister (https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-name-of-the-sister-9781923058538) (Text, 2025) For more conversations about fiction, storytelling and contemporary Australian writing, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.

Who has been a guest on Fully Lit

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Geordie Williamson
• Anne Casey
• Yumna Kassab
• Sienna Brown
• Zahra Newman

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 29 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

58

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

Contact Fully Lit

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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