Fiona Wright

Welcome to another episode of I’m a Serious Book Person. This time Robert sits down with the award-winning essayist, poet and novelist, Fiona Wright, to discuss her reading and writing life. From the shock of recognition she found in an Australian Literature course at Uni to her specific writing rituals at her local café, this episode dives into why stories are the ultimate machines for empathy and why we must stop being so self-deprecating about our creative pursuits. Grab a drink and settle into your favourite reading chair—just be prepared to fight the dog for it!

Fiona Wright is a writer, editor, poet and critic from Sydney. Her book of essays Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger won the 2016 Nita B. Kibble Award and the Queensland Literary Award for non-fiction, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the NSW Premier’s Douglas Stewart Prize. Her first poetry collection, Knuckled, won the 2012 Dame Mary Gilmore Award, while Domestic Interior was shortlisted for the 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry. Her most recent book of essays, The World Was Whole, was longlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize. She completed a PhD at Western Sydney University’s Writing & Society Research Centre. Her poems and essays have been published in The Australian, Meanjin, Island, Overland, The Lifted Brow, Seizure and HEAT. Her debut novel, Kill Your Boomers, was published by Ultimo Press in April 2026.

Follow Fiona

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Books

Kill Your Boomers (2026) Paperback | Ebook | Audio

The World Was Whole

Domestic Interior

Small Acts of Disappearance

Knuckled

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I'm a Serious Book Person is hosted by Robert Watkins and produced by Andrea Johnson and Murray Nance. 

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I'm a Serious Book Person is recorded and produced on the lands of The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge the traditional owners of this land and pay our deepest respects to elders past and present.