The Bookshelf

Kate and Cassie on stage at the 2025 Brisbane Writers Festival with authors Eric Puchner, Toni Jordan, Patrick Holland, and Zeynab Gamieldien, discussing their most recent novels and the books and writers who inspire them. This discussion was recorded in front of a live audience, just ahead of our Top 100 Books of the Century.It was first broadcast on Friday 17 October 2025GUESTSEric Puchner, novelist, academic, and short story writer, whose books include the collections Last Day on Earth and Music Through the Floor, and the novels Model Home and (his latest) Dream StateToni Jordan, a writer whose novels include Nine Days, Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, Prettier If She Smiles More, Dinner with the Schnabels . . . and her latest, TenderfootPatrick Holland is a writer and academic, and author of eight books, including the novel The Mary Smokes Boys and — his latest — Oblivion. He lives between Hong Kong and BrisbaneZeynab Gamieldien is a writer whose first novel, The Scope of Permissibility, won the inaugural WestWords/Ultimo Prize (for emerging writers from Western Sydney); and her second novel, Learned Behaviours, has just been publishedBOOKS MENTIONED BY ERIC PUCHNER•    James Salter, Light Years•    Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad•    Joy Williams, works•    Willa Cather, My Ántonia•    Jhumpa Lahiri, A Temporary Matter•    Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping•    Evan S. Connell, Mrs. Bridge•    César Aira, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape PainterBOOKS MENTIONED BY TONI JORDAN•    Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones•    Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe•    Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall•    Zadie Smith, White Teeth•    Alexis Wright, Carpentaria•    Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet•    Richard Ford, CanadaBOOKS MENTIONED BY PATRICK HOLLAND•    Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country•    Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights•    Ernest Hemingway, 88 Poems•    Leah Swann, Bearings•    Felix Calvino, works•    Brian Castro, works•    Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse•    Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian; All the Pretty Horses•    Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of GenjiBOOKS MENTIONED BY ZEYNAB GAMIELDIEN•    Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake•    Tara June Winch, The Yield•    Hisham Matar, The Return; My Friends•    Anne Enright, The Gathering•    Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn; Long Island•    Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These•    Sally Rooney, IntermezzoOTHER BOOKS AND WRITERS MENTIONED•    J.G. Ballard, works•    Graham Greene, The Quiet American•    David Malouf, works•    Patrick White, works•    Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell•    David Mitchell, worksCREDITS•    Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh•    Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett•    Sound engineer, Steve Fieldhouse + Harvey O'Sullivan•    Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

The Bookshelf's Kate Evans and the Book Show's Claire Nichols joined forces onstage at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival — with a panel of international writers — to talk favourite and influential books from the 21st century, in the lead up to the inaugural Top 100 Books countdown of the twenty-first century. This live broadcast happened in May 2025 — with Emirati poet Afra Atiq, English chronicler of gay lives, Alan Hollinghurst, Argentinian purveyor of all things dark and surprising, Mariana Enriquez, and New Zealand novelist with a dystopian edge, Catherine Chidgey.This discussion was first broadcast live on Friday 23 May 2025For more details of the final Top 100 Books of the 21st Century countdown, follow the link hereBOOKS MENTIONED in this programALAN HOLLINGHURSTAlice Munro, RunawayDavid Szalay, All That Man IsPeter Carey, True History of the Kelly GangBryan Washington, LotClaire Keegan, Small Things Like These; FosterMARIANA ENRIQUEZCormac McCarthy, The RoadDennis Cooper, The SlutsJorge Luis Borges, worksHoracio Castellanos Moya, SenselessnessCATHERINE CHIDGEYJoan Didion, The Year of Magical ThinkingJohn D'Agata and Jim Fingal, The Lifespan of a FactMelissa Lucashenko, EdenglassieAnna Smaill, The ChimeOTHERSPaul Lynch, Prophet SongKate Grenville, The Secret RiverSarah Winman, Still LifeMarkus Zusak, The Book ThiefMelissa Lucashenko, Too Much LipDonna Tartt, The GoldfinchAnn Patchett, Bel CantoHilary Mantel, Wolf HallPip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost WordsTrent Dalton, Lola in the MirrorRobbie Arnott, LimberlostAmor Towles, A Gentleman in MoscowGeraldine Brooks, Year of WonderMin Jin Lee, PachinkoVirginia Woolf, To the LighthouseCREDITS•    Presenter: Kate Evans, Claire Nichols•    Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett•    Sound engineer: Emrys Cronin, Hamish Camilleri, Harvey O'Sullivan•    Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Why aren't you reading more poetry? Perhaps you don't know where to begin — in which case, listen here, for a guide.Join Kate Evans, as she is joined by acclaimed author and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke, Stella Prize-winning poet and academic Sarah Holland-Batt, much-loved broadcaster and author Daniel Browning, and best-selling author and journalist Julia Baird to discuss and read some of the poems that have shone brightest for each of them this century, as well as how the art-form has evolved.This event was presented at the State Library of NSW in partnership with Red Room Poetry.This event was first broadcast on 3 October 2025POETS AND POETRY MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE•    Warsan Shire, Home•    Adam Zagajewski, Try to Praise the Mutilated World•    Graeme Dixon, Six Feet of Land Rights•    Gwen Harwood, In the Park•    Anonymous Rose, Broken World•    Zora Howard and Joshya Bennett, Still Life with Police Sirens•    Ali Cobby Eckermann, works•    Simon Armitage, The Shout•    Evelyn Araluen, decolonial poetics (avant gubba)•    Candy Royale, works•    Max Porter, worksCREDITSPresenter, Kate EvansProducer, Kate Evans, Lisa NeedhamSound engineer, Ann Marie Debettencor + Harvey O'SullivanExecutive producer, Rhiannon Brown

Colm Tóibín onstage at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival with The Bookshelf's Kate Evans — on fiction, fridges, rain, hinges, melodrama, reading, and why he can't write American dialogue so every character he writes has to be Irish (except, of course, when they're Thomas Mann and family). This is a conversation that begins in his hometown of Enniscorthy, site of his novels Nora Webster, The Blackwater Lightship, Brooklyn and Long Island — and the site of his memories and overheard conversations — and moves on to his bookshelves, writing, and the story of a tongue. Really.

In the year of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, this lively and thought-provoking discussion explores her life, legacy, and literary brilliance — her novels are charming, sure, but also radical, political, witty, and entertaining.Presented in partnership with the State Library of NSW, this event brings together Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh from The Bookshelf, with Scott Stephens from Radio National's The Minefield, and Sophie Gee, English Professor at Princeton, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow in the humanities at the University of Sydney, and co-host of the Secret Life of Books podcast, for a conversation that delves into Austen’s sharp observations on friendship, ambition, money, love, power, and equality.This program was first broadcast on 12 September 2025CREDITSPanellists: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh, Scott Stephens, Sophie GeeProducer: Kate Evans, Amanda RobertsSound engineer: John JacobsEditors: Muditha Dias, Rhiannon Brown