Hoops of Steel

Jane Harper speaks with Julie Arnold at the ETAQ State Conference about all things gothic and crime, story and language. From her debut The Dry to her popular forward catalogue of the Aaron Falk and standalone novels, we learn about what makes her tick as a writer and how English teachers can make the most of popular fiction in the senior English classroom.
Bio:
Jane Harper is internationally bestselling author of the The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors. Her books are published in forty territories worldwide, and The Dry has been adapted into a major motion picture starring Eric Bana. Jane has won numerous top awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year, the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, and the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year. Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.
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Joanna Erskine talks with Mel about why we must bother with the Bard and lifts the curtain on the emerging Bell Shakespeare method — a joyful, practical, deeply human way to engage students with English’s most revered playwright’s oeuvre. If you’re ready to ditch the 40‑slide PowerPoint and teach Shakespeare with purpose and power, this one’s for you.
Joanna Erskine (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, producer, speaker, teacher and arts education specialist. Joanna is the Head of Education at Bell Shakespeare, working with the company for 18+ years overseeing artistic direction and delivery of its renowned national education program.
Show notes:
Plays mentioned: The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello 
For all things Bell Shakespeare including the National Teacher Mentorship and the Bell Shakespeare method, head to the education section of the Bell Shakespeare website.
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Why do big feelings matter in English, and what happens when teachers make space for them?
In this episode of Hoops of Steel, Mel is joined by educator and researcher Alice Elwell to explore the transformative potential of emotional inquiry in the English classroom. Alice frames affect not as something to manage or minimise, but as a vital force. Students’ (and teachers’!) emotions can be an energy that fuels student agency, deepens interaction, and opens up new pathways for learning about human experience.
This episode invites English teachers to step boldly into affective work, to refuse dispassionate analysis, and to recognise that in English, thinking and feeling are never separate.
Bio:
Alice Elwell is a full-time school leader who teaches Language and Literature, Global Politics, and Theory of Knowledge at The Queensland Academies Creative Industries — known locally as QACI. She is a PhD candidate whose work explores emotional inquiry through literature in the classroom.
Show notes:
Elwell, A. (2023). "Student Voice, Choice, and Agency: The Benefits of Co-designing English Curriculum." English in Australia 58(2): 47.
Elwell, A. (2021). Critical affective literacy, feminist pedagogies, and democracy: exploring possibilities for the high school English classroom. In New perspectives on Education for Democracy (pp. 138-152). Routledge.
Macmillan, D. (2025). Every brilliant thing. Bloomsbury Publishing.
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Why do gothic and speculative stories grip young people, and what do they offer students in uncertain times?
In this episode of Hoops of Steel, Melanie Ralph is joined by Brisbane writer and academic Kim Wilkins, also known as Kimberley Freeman. Kim has published more than 30 books in over 20 languages and is a Professor of Writing and Associate Dean of Humanities Research at the University of Queensland.
Together, they explore gothic literature and speculative fiction as ways of pushing back against narrow ideas of learning, success, and creativity. Drawing on haunted houses, headstrong girls, monsters, and the Australian landscape, Kim reflects on why gothic stories endure, not as escapism, but as transportation: a way of stepping beyond the mundane and opening up space for uncertainty, imagination, and possibility.
This emphasis on possibility runs through Kim’s thinking about teaching and writing, especially at a time when creativity is often measured by outputs rather than process. As she explains:
“Writing isn’t just about outputs, it’s about process. And it’s in the process that we learn things.”
This episode invites English teachers to reclaim gothic and speculative fiction as powerful tools for imagination, defiance, and hope, and to help students imagine lives that are more than merely probable.
Shownotes:
Connect with Kim Wilkins (also published as Kimberley Freeman):  https://kimberleyfreeman.com/
Books and texts mentioned in this episode
Paradise Lost by John Milton (Books I & II)
Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings
Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings
The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
The Well by Elizabeth Jolley
Queersland (anthology)
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
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Turn closed questions into open doors: Marcus Luther shows how to fuel thinking, talking, and learning.
In this episode, Julie Arnold speaks with Oregon-based English teacher and podcaster Marcus Luther about building classrooms where curiosity crackles and every student’s voice matters. From quick wins that draw even the quietest students into conversation, to feedback moments that shift self‑belief, Marcus shares practical strategies wrapped in warmth and optimism. Along the way, Marcus champions the purpose of public education, celebrates the communities we build in our rooms, and offers a hopeful vision for what students can do when we trust them.
Marcus Luther has taught high school English in Oregon for 14 years and co‑hosts The Broken Copier, a podcast and resource hub that centres teacher voices and shares practical tools for the classroom. His work is grounded in reflective practice, inclusive culture, and keeping collaboration at the heart of English teaching.
Shownotes:
More strategies and resources from Marcus on The Broken Copier.
Kagan, S. (2013). Kagan Cooperative Learning. Kagan Publishing.
Thompson, M. Annotation processes and questioning frameworks
Gallagher, K. (2006). Teaching Adolescent Writers. Stenhouse Publishers.
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