This episode our featured book is brought to you by Text Publishing and we’re so excited to talk to TARA CALABY about her debut novel HOUSE OF LONGING. Tara Calaby lives in Gippsland with her wife and far too many books. She is currently a PhD candidate at La Trobe University, researching the social worlds of women in Victorian lunatic asylums. Her speculative and historical short stories have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. Tara recommends A Million Things by Emily Spurr. (Note: You will cry!!)  You can find Tara on her website, Twitter and Instagram. Kate and Katherine discuss:  The cover reveal for The Hummingbird Effect On Waiting, from Madeline Dore's newsletter Inconceivable: Heartbreak, Bad Dates and Finding Solo Motherhood by Alexandra Collier  Motherhood by Sheila Heti  The Swift Dark Tide by Katia Ariel  Till Death Do Us Part (article in The Good Weekend) by Fenella Souter  Yo'ure Welcome podcast with Hilary Rushford Collyer (these three episodes)  Musician, writer and advocate, Eliza Hull (editor of We've Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents) has a new single out - Running Underwater - fab video clip featuring Roya the Destroyer   Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

Katherine drops some very exciting news! And Kate and Katherine catch up on reading recommendations, more on authors and money and how they feel about AI.   Our Featured Book this week is The Rush by Michelle Prak and the segment is brought to you by Simon & Schuster.    Michelle Prak (known to some of you on socials as Prakky!) is a professional communicator with a thirty-year career in corporate communication, social media, politics and journalism. Writing has been the backbone of much of her work and she has written several short stories and self-published commercial women's fiction titles. She lives in Adelaide and lectures in public relations and social media at the University of South Australia. The Rush is her first thriller. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

We are thrilled to present this conversation with Australian literary legend - Tim Winton. This is a conversation Kate has been hoping to have since...well, since she was sixteen years old. The interview covers Winton's latest project - the television documentary Ningaloo - along with his writing life and environmental advocacy.  Tim Winton has published twenty-nine books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia. Winton is the 2023 recipient of the The ABIA Lloyd O’Neil Award - presented for a lifetime of distinguished and outstanding service to publishing and literary culture.  Tim’s latest project is a three-part documentary series Ningaloo premiering in Australia on Tuesday 16 May at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

Kate's been wanting to speak to New York Times and internationally bestselling authorAmie Kaufman for ages! Not only has her multi-award winning work been translated into nearly thirty languages, and is in development for film and TV, but Amie is incredibly experienced in talking and teaching about writing and the strange world of BEING a writer. Raised in Australia and Ireland, Amie has degrees in literature, law, history and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. Her series include The Illuminae Files, The Aurora Cycle, the Other Side of the Sky duology, The Starbound Trilogy, the Unearthed duology and The Elementals Trilogy. Her work has taken home multiple Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, a Gold Inky, made multiple best-of lists and been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Check out Amie's podcasts Amie Kaufman On Writing and Pub Dates with Kate J. Armstrong and her newsletter Finding North. Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

This season we are returning to our first-time roots! We hear all the time from listeners who’ve gone from thinking about writing a book to starting to write a book to having their own debut author experience. One of the things that these new authors say is that they’ve gone back and listened to the episodes that cover off the various milestones. So this year we’re going back too. We want to capture that first time again ourselves... We’re going to being follow a first time author across the year, catching up multiple times along the way. Our very first Follow a First Timer is Megan Rogers, author of The Heart is a Star. The theme of this FOURTH episode is Megan's publication week feels, including her first festival experience, her big Melbourne launch and some jam-packed days of bookshop visits.  This episode is brought to you by Harper Collins. Check out show notes on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod). You can support us and the making of Season Six via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!