Karen and Irma debate whether AI is useful to break writer’s block.

Then they both chat to Fleur McDonald about pioneering the way in rural crime writing, how she built her profile over the years and then rebranded, connecting emotionally with readers, using imposter-syndrome to motivate her next book, how an imaginary character changed her life, fighting for your rights as an author and why she changed publishers, why making a difference with her writing is so important to her, how experts help inform her crime fiction, why she is refusing to use AI, the value of having an agent (especially when you’re having a hissy fit!), why she insists on being involved in planning the publicity campaign, and how meeting her writing hero left her speechless.

About Fleur

Fleur McDonald is a prolific bestselling rural crime author who lives in Western Australia. She’s published 26 novels and sold over a million books, with her 27th book out in April. She is an active public speaker and an advocate for rural women experiencing domestic violence. She has worked as a jillaroo, and then a farmer and parent, and is now a fulltime author.

Show notes

‘Should you use AI to break writer’s block?’ in The Conversation

‘AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief’ in The Guardian

DV Assist

Irma and Karen chat about the year ahead, and dive into their first Book Chat of the year, championing Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, and Colony by Annika Norlin.

Then Karen talks to Colombian writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras about how she coped with all the international attention after being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, how the violence of the Pablo Escobar era stimulated her curiosity as a writer, caring for yourself when writing from trauma, how she uses inherited stories and hauntings in her work, how she involved her family in fictionalising her childhood, how she hid microphones to collect her mother’s stories, using dreams in fiction, and why losing her memory was the best thing that’s ever happened to her.

(Karen met Ingrid at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2025)

About Ingrid

Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her memoir,
The Man Who Could Move Clouds won the California Book Award and was a
finalist in multiple awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. Her debut novel was Fruit of the Drunken Tree, and her essays and short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines. She lives in California.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Karen chats to Craig Leeson (impact filmmaker) about how growing up in Tasmania made him an environmental activist, how to find a hook to capture your audience, how to tell a story in few words, the importance of character development, how to keep an audience engaged, how to avoid overwhelming people when telling tough stories, and how hitting the lowest low of his career paved the way for the highest high.

Supported by the ACT Government

About Craig

Craig Leeson is an acclaimed Australian filmmaker, television presenter, explorer, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the director, narrator, and writer of the multi-award-winning documentary feature films A Plastic Ocean, and The Last Glaciers: Journey To The Extreme . He was the 2022 Tasmanian Australian of the Year and is an International Fellow of the Explorers Club.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Karen chats to Indian author, winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize, Banu Mushtaq about what drives her to write about the fundamentalist Muslim community in which she grew up, how she became an activist for women’s rights, how stories can change lives and culture, the process of working with her translator, how she injects humour into dark stories, the censorship she faces, and the meaningful impact of winning the Booker.

Supported by the ACT Government

About Banu

Banu Mushtaq is an Indian writer, activist, and lawyer from the Karnataka region of southern India. She is best known for Heart Lamp, a selection of her short stories translated by Deepa Bhasthi, which won the International Booker Prize in 2025. She has published six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection, and a poetry collection. Her work has been translated into Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and English.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Irma chats to German author, winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize, Jenny Erpenbeck, about the pros and cons of coming from a family of famous writers, why she mourns aspects of the German Democratic Republic and is driven to express this through writing, how she weaves the personal and political together, the translation process, the financial support available to German authors that we do not have in Australia, why the worst moment of her career was having one of her plays produced, and the best was finding out she’d won the Booker (while busting for the toilet!)

Supported by the ACT Government

About Jenny

Jenny Erpenbeck is an acclaimed German novelist, playwright and opera director born in East Berlin. She has been translated into over 20 languages and has won many prizes, including the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The End of Days and the 2024 International Booker Prize for Kairos.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Karen chats to Lech Blaine about how to shape a memoir and find a meaningful throughline within the truth, what it was like being edited by Helen Garner, how to decide what to leave out of a memoir, the ethical dilemmas of writing about trauma in relation to friends and family, how he found the voice for the ‘characters’ in his memoirs, how he scored his Quarterly essays and the way he approaches long-form essays, and what he loves and hates about the publishing process.

Supported by the ACT Government

About Lech

Lech Blaine is the award-winning author of the two works of creative non-fiction/memoir Car Crash and Australian Gospel and two Quarterly Essays Top Blokes and Bad Cop. He was the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence, and his writing has appeared in Good Weekend, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Monthly.

In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Irma chats to travel writer Nina Karnikowski about why she no longer wants to do a five-day trip to Paris and would rather opt for longer more immersive travel, tips for how to get started as a travel writer, why a luxury trip to Bali was one of her worst experiences, and how a moment with a polar bear in the Arctic changed her life, how she organises the various tasks that make up freelance travel writing, tips on how to pitch travel articles and why writing her memoir so quickly had huge benefits.

Supported by the ACT Government

About Nina

Nina Karnikowski is a writer exploring how travel can help solve social and environmental problems. Having reported from over 60 countries, her work weaves together storytelling, systems thinking and a deep respect for place. She is the author of three books about travel and creative living, and a deck of writing prompt cards. Based in Byron Bay, she also mentors purpose-driven creatives.

In this episode Irma and Karen chat about the 2025 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, painting a picture of the festival atmosphere and sharing some of the highlights.

Then they ask six authors at the festival – Clare Wright, Jenny Erpenbeck, Lech Blaine, Yves Rees, Craig Leeson and Virginia Haussegger – to share a green room story. They uncover Bryan Brown’s funny festival request, Thomas Keneally's unwitting green room 'theft', Jenny Erpenbeck’s props room catastrophe, Annabel Crabb’s near miss, David Attenborough's pub oration, and how Virginia Haussegger burnt a hole in a green room floor.

Supported by the ACT Government