S9 Ep4: Imagining the Past—Summer/Autumn Season—2025—Elisabeth Storrs in conversation with Mirandi Riwoe and Devika Ponnambalam.
Imagining The PastShow Notes
Mirandi Riwoe's The Sunbirds tests the identities and loyalties between Dutch and Indonesians in colonial Java on the eve of the Japanese invasion. Devika Ponnambalam's I Am Not Your Eve is an imagining of the life of Teha’amana, Paul Gaugin's Tahitian 'child-bride'.
Both authors join Elisabeth Storrs in discussing the complexities of bringing alternative perspectives to previously Euro-centric stories, and the research challenges experienced in delving deeper into such histories.
Imagining the Past is listed in the Top 25 Historical Fiction Podcasts.
More from Imagining The Past
Pip Williams launched her third novel, The German Ward, a breathtaking new novel from the author of global bestsellers The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho. A tale of love between enemies behind the lines of WW1 and the Australian artist who captures their secret. Pip was in conversation with Nicole Abadee at the Uniting Church in Paddington, Sydney.
At the sparkling new bookshop in Sydney’s Summer Hill, Rose Read, Malcom Knox launched the sequel to The First Friend, imaginatively titled The Second Child. He was in conversation with Shankari Chandran and Sid Chandran
Emily Maguire’s Rapture won the inaugural ARA History Novel Prize Reader’s Choice Award in 2025. Emily chats with Greg Johnston about writing and researching this breakthrough novel.
In September, Karen Brooks launched her new novel, The Extraordinary Florence Stoker, at the Peacock Theatre in the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart. She was joined by her publisher, Jo Mackay.
Elisabeth Storrs chats to Greg Johnston about her new novel, Fables and Lies, set in Germany during the Third Reich, and her A Tale of Ancient Rome Series.