VATE Podcasts

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Channel • 2 Shows

Education

Education

Updated 06/13/2022
Education

Education

Updated Monthly

12/07/2025

Summer Reading with Mark Smith

his episode includes a discussion of summer reading recommendations that includes: Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan Gary LonesboroughGraham AkhurstJared ThomasSalt River Road by Molly SchmidtOver This Backbone by Ya ReevesArborescence by Rhett DavisDusk by Robbie ArnottAndrea Nekic Is NOT Fine by Violeta BagiaWe Saw What You Started by Carla SalmonGus and the Burning Stones by Troy HunterCatch by Sarah BrillThis Stays Between Us by Margot McGovernThree Boys Gone by Mark SmithDiary of a Young Doctor by Ezzideen ShehabThe Hiding Place by Kate MildenhallI Am Nannertgarrook by Tasma WaltonPictures of You by Tony BirchSouthsightedness by Gregory DaySeed by Bri LeeThe episode also contains discussions around: Teachers benefit from reading YA themselves, not just for curriculum use but to stay connected to student interests, identify engaging texts, and model genuine enthusiasm for reading.Reading for work vs reading for pleasure, and how hard it is to balance the joy of reading with the obligations of reading for reviews, panels, writing, or teaching.YA in Australia is growing in diversity but still needs more representation, especially stories that reflect the rapidly changing demographics of Australian schools.Teachers should prioritise student engagement when selecting texts. Page-turners matter, reluctant readers need accessible books, and educators sometimes overthink “how to teach” a book before considering whether students will actually read it.Reasons why Three Boys Gone, Mark Smith's debut adult novel, will resonate with anyone working in schools today, and having to navigate the near-impossibility of perfect duty of care.

12/07/2025

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34 min
12/08/2024

Summer Reading with Emily Gale

Karys McEwen is a school librarian, children’s author, bookseller, vice president of the Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and education advisor for the Melbourne Writers Festival. She is passionate about the role libraries and books can play in the wellbeing of young people, and she is currently writing a Substack newsletter for educators and parents called I Read A Lot. Her debut middle grade novel, All the Little Tricky Things, was published by Text Publishing in 2022, and her second middle grade novel, The Paperbark Tree Committee, is coming out on 1 April, 2025. Emily Gale has worked in the children’s book industry for 25 years in various roles including in-house editor, consultant to a literary agent, children’s book buyer, reviewer, freelance manuscript assessor, and as a writer-in-residence in a high school library. Some of her books for various ages from YA to early readers include I Am Out With Lanterns, The Other Side of Summer and Aussie Stem Stars: Gisela Kaplan. Her latest novels are Elsewhere Girls and Outlaw Girls, with Nova Weetman, and The Goodbye Year. You can find Emily on Series 3 of Story Tools, creative writing videos to inspire and instruct children in the art of storytelling. And she has a Substack newsletter called Voracious. This episode includes a discussion of summer reading recommendations including: Some Shall Break by Ellie Marney Eleanor Jones is Not a Murderer by Amy Doak This Camp is Doomed by Anna Zobel The Midwatch by Judith Rossell The First Summer of Callie McGee by A L Tait The Wedding Forecast by Nina Kenwood Thunderhead by Sophie Beer Sandwich by Catherine Newman The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller Also discussed are: This year's Davitt AwardsGirl books and boy books (and how outdated that concept is)Illustrated novels for olders readersThe importance of adults reading what kids are reading

12/08/2024

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31 min
06/22/2025

Erin Gough on Into the Mouth of the Wolf

Erin Gough is a fiction writer living on Gadigal land in Sydney, whose award-winning work has been published globally. She is the author of three books for young adults: The Flywheel, which won the Ampersand Prize, Amelia Westlake, winner of the Readings Young Adult Book Prize and the NSW Premier’s Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult Fiction, and Into the Mouth of the Wolf, recently shortlisted for the DANZ Children’s Book Award for Young Adult Fiction and the CBCA Award for Older Readers. This episode includes a discussion of Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough, as well as reading recommendations including: An Open Swimmer by Tim Winton The Flywheel by Erin Gough Amelia Westlake by Erin Gough How to Survive 1985 by Tegan Bennett Daylight Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit Also discussed are: The power of audiobooks from a very young age (pre-independent reading)The importance of validating Australian literature by including it on the curriculumFinding the right story (and the right voice) as a writerThemes of social justice, climate justice, power and privilege, community, and loyalty and trust in young adult fictionProcessing grief about what's happening to the environment through literature, and realising that "the way through is together"The process of world-building when it comes to a familiar yet dystopian settingThe things an author writes that don't end up in the novel, and some techniques for developing character outside the pages of the bookThe changing nature of the young adult literary landscape in Australia over the last few years

06/22/2025

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39 min
09/09/2020

VATE hosts CBCA Vic Judges

Erin Wamala and Karys McEwen share their insights from their tenure as judges in the Older Readers category for the CBCA awards.

09/09/2020

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47 min
05/25/2025

National Reconciliation Week with Dr Lilly Brown

This episode includes a discussion with Dr Lilly Brown, CEO of Magabala Books, as well as reading recommendations including: My Place by Sally Morgan Love Unleashed by Melanie Saward Dr Anita Heiss Story About Feeling by Bill Neidjie Desert Tracks by Linda Wells and Marly Wells Bindi by Kirli Saunders Black Cockatoo by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler Hairy Holes 2 by Brenton E McKenna Also discussed are: Books being more than just booksThe history and mission of Magabala Books, Australia's leading First Nations publishing houseEnsuring that schools are safe learning places for all kids, through the literature we teach and the values we uphold in the English classroomRacial literacy and tips for building educator confidence when it comes to teaching First Nations textsThe importance of National Reconciliation Week post-referendum, and how to meaningfully acknowledge this in schools The difference between cultural responsibility and the colonial burden

05/25/2025

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40 min
07/27/2025

Chemutai Glasheen on I am the Mau

Chemutai Glasheen is a sessional academic at Curtin University, as well as a teacher and author. She writes fiction aimed at young readers, drawing inspiration from her background and passion for human rights and education. Her short story collection I am the Mau and Other Stories was published by Fremantle Press in 2023. Her creative work has appeared in various publications: Unlimited Futures, Meniscus Volume 9 Issue 2 and ACE: Arresting Contemporary Stories by Emerging Writers. She has held a writer-in-residence position at the Centre for Stories and has been invited to speak or present at events such as the Perth Writers Festival, the Disrupted Festival of Ideas, In Conversation: Human Rights, and the Great Big Book Club Tea Party. This episode includes a discussion of I am the Mau and other stories, as well as reading recommendations including: Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black FictionCarpentaria by Alexis WrightAmal Unbound by Aisha SaeedI Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina LambChinua AchebeA Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong'oAlso discussed are: Identity formation through connections with other people The value of stories about minority communities Themes of place and displacementThe appeal of the short story format for young readers (and the difficulty of the format for writers!)Exploring the balance between respecting and protecting cultural practices, while also accepting change when it is necessaryThe ways in which reading fiction can change opinion and help develop empathy and understanding

07/27/2025

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31 min
05/30/2022

Malla Nunn on Sugar Town Queens

Listen in to Emma and Malla Nunn’s chat about her new YA release, Sugar Town Queens. Set in South Africa against the backdrop of a community grappling with the last impacts of apartheid and deep economic disparity, watch the friendship between three fiercely independent and uniquely individual young women blossom. Sugar Town Queens celebrates what it means to be empowered when the odds are stacked against you, the power of 'Ubuntu' and the sweetness of first love. In this interview for YA Book Stack, Malla shares some of the struggles she had with writing the text, the importance of celebrating the human experience and how all of her stories are, at the very core, tales of identity. For more on YA Book Stack, visit https://www.vate.org.au/ya-book-stack. Born and raised in Swaziland on the far edges of the British Empire, Malla Nunn attended a boarding school specially set up for 'mixed race' children. The students at the school spent their time learning the Bible, breaking the rules, and then lying about it. In common with most colonial institutions, stealing, fighting, and violence were commonplace. It was in this charged atmosphere that Nunn developed a fascination with bad behaviour, risk and punishment. After her family migrated to Australia to escape apartheid, Nunn graduated with a double degree in English and History and then earned a Master of Arts in Theater Studies from Villanova University. Faced with a life of chronic under-employment, she dabbled in acting and screenwriting. She wrote and directed three award-winning films, including Servant of the Ancestors, which won Best Documentary awards at film festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Zanzibar, and was shown on national television in Australia. She married in a traditional Swazi ceremony. Her bride price was eighteen cows. She now lives and works in a weatherboard house with a tin roof and an olive tree in the garden in Sydney, Australia.

05/30/2022

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1h 2m
08/17/2021

Gary Lonesborough on The Boy from the Mish

On the Mish, Jackson’s Aunty and his annoying little cousins spend another hot Australian summer. This time, his Aunty brings a mysterious boy with a troubled past, Tomas, to stay. Jackson and Tomas’ friendship evolves over the summer as they spend time together, work on an art project and bond over their shared cultural history and connections. For Jackson, spending time with Tomas forces him to confront the relationships he has with his friends and family, as well as his place in the community. A novel about love, identity and acceptance, Jackson learns to accept and embrace the young man he is becoming. In this YA Book Stack interview, Gary delves into the importance of the intersectionality of his text, of highlighting the experience of young, queer men and shares his insights on the way he sees his text being used for study in the English classroom. Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Growing up a massive Kylie Minogue and North Queensland Cowboys fan, Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in Aboriginal health, the disability sector (including experience working in the Youth Justice System), and the film industry. He was Bega Valley Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year, won the Patrick White Young Indigenous Writers' Award, and has received a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship. The Boy from the Mish is Gary's debut YA novel.

08/17/2021

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1h 2m
09/15/2021

Anna Whateley on Peta Lyre's Rating Normal

Peta Lyre is far from typical but she tries hard to appear so by following a series of well-crafted rules and routines dictated by her psychologist to assist with blending in. Through Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal’s stream-of-consciousness narrative, we accompany Peta as she navigates life seeking to be ‘normal’. As readers, we explore what it means to be normal, who and what is normal and ultimately, whether being normal is all that it is made out to be. With empathy and compassion, Whateley unveils what life is like for Peta who has multiple diagnoses and has undertaken years of therapy in order to assist with managing her triggers and we are asked to challenge the typical ‘rules’ of behaviour. Why would we want to be ‘normal’ and at what cost? In this interview for YA Book Stack, Whateley elaborates on the anxieties and uncertainties of living in a world that doesn’t suit how Peta’s mind works and shares the reasons for her many inspirations – from Frankenstein, to Romantic poetry, and Icelandic instrumentalist music. Anna Whateley’s debut #ownvoices novel Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal is shortlisted for the CBCA book awards. She also has an essay titled ‘Noisy Silence’ in Growing Up Disabled in Australia, edited by Carly Findlay. Her next novel, Tearing Myself Together, will be released early 2022 with Allen & Unwin. When coronavirus spread, Anna founded the bookish chat show #AusChat just to keep the community together, and the YouTube channel is now funded in part by the Australian Arts Council. She uses her YouTube and Twitch presence to collaborate and connect with the writing community and more broadly with composers, gamers, and interesting folk all around the world. Anna has a PhD in young adult fiction (literary criticism) and has taught sociology and YA/children’s literature to preservice teachers. She loves to attend writer events, conferences, twitter storms, and book launches, and is also a strong advocate for the neurodivergent community.

09/15/2021

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1h 3m
08/31/2020

Reading at VATE State Conference

Ernest speaks with leaders of the Reading stream at the upcoming State Conference

08/31/2020

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9 min

VATE's two podcasts, VATE Village and YA Book Stack, in one convenient place! For queries about either podcast, reach out to Emma at educationofficer@vate.org.au.

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