Words and Nerds: Authors, books and literature.

Dani Vee and Mohammed Massoud Morsi chat about his new novel The Hair of the Pigeon, the importance of humanity in dark times and interesting pathways to publishing.

The Hair of the Pigeon is an epic tale of exile, survival and love. They talk about the character development, how we respond to violence when we have no control over our world.

Mohammed shares his self-doubt as a writer and an interesting pathway to publication.

Mohammed Massoud Morsi is an Egyptian-Danish-Australian photographer, journalist and writer. His work has been published in all three of his traditional languages. His work is enriched by his photographer’s eye for detail and a passion for speaking out for those suppressed, challenging and breaking common narratives all at once.

New Episode #796

Dani Vee and Helena Pantsis discuss her unique and dark collection of short stories Mother Salad.

They talk about the chaos and complexity of being a woman, the fact that women should not comply to society’s expectations and the challenging the perceptions of women.

They talk about vibes, how to write short stories and the path to publication.

Mother Salad unravels the image of the woman in shambles, identity fractured and exploring a world which has long abandoned the creature it so carefully constructed.

Helena Pantsis is an editor, writer and artist with a fond appreciation for the weird, the dark, and the experimental.
Helena has won Going Down Swinging’s micro-microfiction challenge in 2021, has been shortlisted in WigLeaf’s top 50, nominated for Best American Short Stories and Best Short Fictions, and was the 2022 recipient of the H B Higgins Scholarship. In 2024, her debut short story collection GLUTT was published by Grattan Street Press. Today we chat about her surreal collection of short stories, Mother Salad.

Listen now!

Dani Vee and Frances Whiting , a senior feature writer and award winning journalism chat about the brilliant The Nocturnals.

They chat about:
⭐️ The power of nostalgia.
⭐️ How far would you go to protect the people you love?
⭐️ How does a career in journalism impact writing fiction?
⭐️ Whether they were cool, gla or dangerous as teenagers.
⭐️ Working full time and writing.

From the bestselling author of The Best Kind of Beautiful, Frances Whiting, comes an endearing, wise and witty novel of love and friendship, which asks, how far would you go, to protect the people you love?
 
In the summer of 1997, five high school students meet. Nina, the Good Girl. Beatrice, The Poetess. Harriet, the Ghost. Cosmo, the Professor. And Hunter, the Golden Boy. In their last year of school, they become inseparable, five sides of the same star, until a fault line cracks between them, scattering them to all corners of the globe.
 
Now, fifteen years later, Hunter has called them with his conch shell lips to return to the place where they lived and laughed and cried together, before secrets were whispered, and promises were broken. No-one knows why he has assembled them, but there is no question they will go. Because to outsiders, they might be, in turns, a little bit weird, a little bit glamorous, and a little bit dangerous. But to each other, they are, and always will be, The Nocturnals.
 
From bestselling author Frances Whiting comes an irresistible, witty, darkly delightful and utterly endearing novel of friendship - and the lengths we will go to protect those who we love.
 
‘Joyous, deep, funny and so bloody gripping. Hooked me, heart and soul. Whiting’s words are so full of life. Aching, puzzling, heartbreaking, magnificent life.’
Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Gravity Let Me Go

🩷 NEW EPISODE 🩷

Catch this brand new episode with Dani Vee and Zoe Gaetjens, not her first time on the Words and Nerds podcast (she was part of a Takeover with Amy Adeney back in 2024.

This time Dani chats to Zoe about her new YA novel Drawing Nudes While Making Other Plans published by Penguin Random House.

They chat about:
⭐️ Continuing to reinvent who you are.
⭐️ The path to publication in a career built on rejections.
⭐️ The importance of firsts.
⭐️ The power of art (and drawing nudes!)
⭐️ The writing process.

Cleo would have loved to spend the summer before year 12 hanging out with her sister Emmy, who had a plan for dealing with every situation. Instead, Emmy is gone, and Cleo is attending a life drawing class with a bunch of random teenagers. Without Emmy’s plans to guide her, Cleo navigates new friendships, wonky penises and maybe even first love, discovering who she is and what she is capable of.
A novel about finding yourself . . . in a room full of strangers, drawing naked people.

Dani Vee and award winning investigative journalist Louise Milligan chat about her new book Shellybanks. A novel about buried secrets and unimaginable trauma. Published by Allen and Unwin.

They chat about the impact of cross-generational relationships between women, and working through trauma through a feminist lens.

Louise chats about her Irish influence, humour and the impact of trauma as an investigative journalist.

Listen now!