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Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is the most banned book in the USA and now it's  being challenged in the courts in Australia. 

Banned Books is a new series that looks at what's driving book bans worldwide. 

This episode explores Gender Queer, an illustrated memoir which details Maia Kobabe's experience of coming out as non-binary and asexual. The book has been banned in school and public libraries across the US. In Australia, a conservative Queensland activist is seeking to have it banned and is taking the Australian Classification Review Board to the Australian Federal Court over it's unrestricted classification of the memoir.

Is the US book banning movement coming to Australia?

Crime writer Val McDermid investigates Scotland's most famous female character to reveal a very different Lady Macbeth. And Sydney writer Jonathon Seidler delves into the story beyond the happy ending and how breakups can define a relationship.

Crime writer Val McDermid investigates Scotland’s most famous female character to reveal a very different Lady Macbeth.  Queen Macbeth: Darkland Tales is part of a series where well known authors find the truth behind the legends commissioned by the historical fiction publishing house Birlinn.

Jonathan Seidler is no stranger to the complexities of modern relationships. A Sydney writer, journalist and columnist, his work is frequently published in journals and newspapers. He has also written a memoir exploring his family history of mental illness. Jonathan's latest is a novel,  All the Beautiful Things You Love which delves into the story beyond the happy ending  - how break-ups can define a relationship. 

Webfiction is a gargantuan platform for writers in China but authors of male to male fiction - known as the danmei or boyslove genre - are experiencing a censorship crackdown and some writers have been imprisoned for their writing. 

This episode is about Occupied by Tianyi – a boyslove/danmei novel whose author was sentenced to 10 years jail in China for indecency in 2018.

Banned Books is a new series that looks at what's driving book bans worldwide. 

Guests: 
Liang Ge - PHD candidate, Kings College London and expert on danmei/boyslove culture and fiction.
Megan Walsh - author of The Subplot: What China Is Reading and Why It Matters.

Alexis Wright has won the 2024 Stella Prize, for her novel, Praiseworthy. The novel is an Aboriginal fable, about a fictional town, a haze cloud, a haze cloud, land rights, global warming, and donkeys. Judges described Praiseworthy as 'genre-bending' and 'canon-breaking'. 

Alexis Wright previously won the Stella in 2018 for her non-fiction collective memoir Tracker. She also won the Miles Franklin for her novel Carpentaria.

Author of The Tiger's Wife Téa Obreht reterns with Morningside, a dystopian fairy tale, and Stella Prize-shortlisted author Emily O'Grady on the rotten characters in her novel Feast.

Téa Obreht won The Women's Prize for Fiction — then called the Orange Prize — for her debut novel, The Tiger's Wife and at the time she was the youngest ever winner of the award. It was a family saga, about doctors, death and the Balkan wars. She followed it up with a Western called Inland. With her new novel, Morningside, Obreht has shifted gears again with a dystopian fairy tale set in a flooded future version of what feels a lot like Manhattan.

The Stella Prize will be announced this week; it's an annual prize for Australian women and non-binary writers. One of this year's shortlisted authors is Emily O'Grady for her novel, Feast. The book is about an unconventional family meeting in a run-down Scottish castle and was described by the Stella Prize judges as a 'perfect jewel of a novel'.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie inspired riots in England and book burnings in India; death threats, murders and a fatwa; and ultimately, a devastating physical attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022.