ICYMI: Cover to Cover episode 603

Did you tune in to last night’s edition of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio? It was a rich exploration of change and place, and the intersections between the two, told through a selection of work from Elwood Writers. We’ve been receiving very good feedback on the show already. One listener got in touch last night to say it was our ‘best program yet’. And we’ve done twelve so far, so that’s a pretty neat endorsement.

We heard memoir pieces ‘Long Island’ and ‘Ellinbank Revisited’ from Margaret; a selection of poetry and haiku from Helen, including ‘The dish’, ‘In retreat’, ‘The magpie feather’, ‘Tink tink’, ‘Paradise’, ‘Moving day’, ‘Last orders’, and ‘Crossing the Fitzroy’. From Barry, we had short stories ‘Love Always, Adrian’, ‘Fragrant’, ‘Astronaut’, ‘The Sea Tower’, and ‘Front of House’.

As always, the glue holding the entirety together was Tim McQueen. Thanks to Tim and the VAR team for their support, allowing us once again the opportunity to read our own work on the air.

If you missed the broadcast, see you tomorrow at 1PM (AEDT) for the repeat. Listen online or on your wireless if you’re in Australia. All listening details can be found at the link here.

And if you miss Sunday’s repeat, we’ll share the program recording on this site next week. Or simply pick it up wherever you usually access your podcasts.

Do listen in.

Have a wonderful weekend!

On the air tonight: Stories of Change & Place

Not sure how to spend your Friday night? Too many choices? Not enough options? Or looking for a way to get out of a sticky social engagement? We’ve just the thing: the only event worth attending this Friday evening can be found on your transistor by tuning the dial to Vision Australia Radio at 8PM (AEDT) and settling in for this week’s edition of Cover to Cover. It’s another Elwood Writers special, our twelfth. The theme this time: ‘Stories of Change & Place’. With poetry from Helen, memoir from Margaret, and fiction from Barry, it’s sure to be a literary banger. All wrapped up in just under one hour.

Thanks as always to Tim McQueen and the team at Vision Australia Radio.

Vision Australia Radio can be heard in various ways: online from anywhere in the world, or on the radio if you’re in Australia. Details can be found at the VAR website, by clicking here.

And if you can’t join us this evening, the program is repeated Sundays at 1PM.

And if by Sunday you still haven’t had a chance to listen to this episode, fear not — podcasts usually come out on the Tuesday after the repeat. You’ll find those recordings wherever you get your podcasts, and we always share them here on the EW website. And then you can listen in your own time.

Isn’t it great when you don’t have to make a plan because someone else makes it for you? You’re welcome!

Happy listening,

Catch the repeat!

Listen up!

If you didn’t catch Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio (VAR) last night for ‘Elwood Writers presents: The Writers’ Choice’, there’s another opportunity to hear the program tomorrow afternoon. The repeat airs at Ipm Sunday in Melbourne, but you can check out local times at the VAR website, here. You don’t need a transistor radio, either: wherever you are, you can listen online at the VAR website – just click here and hit the ‘Listen live’ button.

We were moved by Margaret’s memoirs, unsettled by Barry’s ghost story, and carried to a place of peaceful introspection by Helen’s poetry.
EW

If you missed Friday’s broadcast, and you can’t make Sunday’s, don’t worry: we’ll be posting a podcast and recording of the program on this website sometime next week. Make sure you don’t miss any updates by clicking the ‘Subscribe’ button at the end of this post.

Happy listening!

Listen up!

🎧 Tune in to Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio this Friday evening – it’s another Elwood Writers special! 🎧

Elwood Writers presents: The Writers’ Choice, includes:

📖 Memoirs by Margaret McCaffrey
📚 A new short story by Barry Lee Thompson
🖋️ Selections of poems and haiku by Helen McDonald

Don’t miss this literary showcase!
Vision Australia Radio

Check varadio.org for program times near you. If you can’t join us on Friday, catch the repeat broadcast on Sunday. And if you can’t make that either, we’ll be sharing a recording or podcast of the program on this site next week. So if you haven’t already, subscribe to Elwood Writers below to stay in the loop – it’s completely free and will remain free forever. How fab is that!

Happy listening!

P.S. Do subscribe if you haven’t already – it’s a really good way to support our work, and we promise you won’t be disappointed. That subscribe button is coming up again at the end of the post. Here it comes …

Coming soon: Elwood Writers on Cover to Cover

Stories on your radio

from barryleethompson.com

I was enjoying a Marie biscuit and strong lungo yesterday morning when a new blog post from Barry’s website popped into the Elwood Writers mailbox. In the post – linked over there👉– Barry writes about an upcoming episode of Vision Australia Radio’s weekly literary program Cover to Cover, featuring the work of Elwood Writers. We don’t yet have a broadcast date for the program, but it’ll be sometime after the material goes to Cover to Cover‘s producer/presenter Tim McQueen in early October.

Elwood Writers has been contributing stories to Cover to Cover since 2015, featuring in roughly one special episode each year. Our first program, appropriately titled ‘Starting Over’, was broadcast in episode 38 of Cover to Cover on 11 January 2015. If you fancy a bit of a blast from the past, you can listen to that or any of the episodes featuring our work by clicking here. We’re always grateful for the invaluable support of Tim and the Cover to Cover team, and everyone at Vision Australia Radio.

Until my coffee break was pleasantly interrupted by the happy ping of that email notification yesterday, October had felt a long, long way away. And now? Well it’s closing in, but is still six weeks away – and I remember the six-week school holidays used to go on and on and on. We’ll be sure to provide more info about the radio program between now and October. To stay in the loop, make sure you’re subscribed – it’s free, and means you’ll never miss any content.

Podcast: Cover to Cover | episode 510

The podcast for last week’s episode of Cover to Cover has just dropped, and you can access it by clicking here. It’s also available to stream wherever you usually get your podcasts, including over at Spotify. We’ve downloaded the episode from our preferred platform – you can too, but to save you the work the sound file can be accessed by clicking here. Why a sound file? Because podcasts are available only as long as the platform hosts them, whereas sound files are forever. Sort of. Anyway, there’s many ways to listen. (And very few excuses not to. But no pressure.)

This episode of Cover to Cover was broadcast on Friday 2 February, repeated Sunday 4 February. For information on the content of the program, visit our 23 January blog post here.

It’s a hugely entertaining program, and well worth your time.

Happy listening.

Sunday’s listening, sorted

Coming up in February: Elwood Writers on Cover to Cover

A quick reminder that in about 15 minutes you’ll have another chance to catch Friday’s episode of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, featuring work from Elwood Writers, including our stories published in the latest issue of 20 Artists magazine. That’s 1:00pm local time, but you can listen live wherever you are in the world (click here), unless you’re asleep or busy or not in the mood. There’s more info in the post linked above. Hope you can join us. You’ve just got time to make your favourite beverage.

And if you can’t join us today, don’t worry, there’s always the podcast, which we’ll share on this site as soon as it’s available.

Happy listening.

Now online: 20 Artists literary edition

In December, 20 Artists launched Handwritten Issue One, the inaugural literary edition of their magazine: 20 literary pieces by 20 Port Phillip artists includes work by all three Elwood Writers. This is 20 Artists’ fourth print publication – previous magazines have featured visual arts and photography.

The pieces from this latest issue are now available at the 20 Artists website. To read Helen’s poem ‘Behind the Mask’, click here. For Margaret’s ‘A Pocket Handkerchief at the Edge of the World’, click here. And for Barry’s short story ‘Portrait’, click here. You’ll find all 20 authors and their stories by clicking here.

20 Artists is supported by the City of Port Phillip Cultural Development Fund.

And a quick reminder: the Elwood Writers stories from the magazine will feature in this Friday’s episode of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio, produced and presented by Tim McQueen. In print, online, and on the radio – how good is that! Click here for more info on the radio broadcast.

Happy reading.

Coming up in February: Elwood Writers on Cover to Cover

It’s been a radio-themed start to 2024 for the group, and that looks set to continue into next month as a selection of our work features in the 2 February edition of Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio.

The lineup includes our pieces from the latest edition of 20 Artists magazine, published in December: Barry’s ‘Portrait’, ‘A Pocket Handkerchief at the Edge of the World’ by Margaret, and Helen’s poem ‘Behind the Mask’.

Also included in the program is a re-broadcast of Barry’s short story ‘Gray’ from Broken Rules and Other Stories (Transit Lounge), with a new introduction. And we’ll be sharing the hour with Julie Koh, whose story ‘On the Road’ is taken from New Australian Fiction 2023 (Kill Your Darlings).

As always, you can listen to Cover to Cover on the radio if you’re in Australia, or online from anywhere in the world. And if you happen to miss the show, we’ll be sharing the podcast the following week.

Tune in on Friday 2 February (repeated Sunday 4 February) – listening details can be found on the Vision Australia Radio website – just click here.

Thanks as ever to Tim McQueen and the team at Vision Australia Radio for continuing to support and encourage Australian writing in all its many forms.

More information on our stories in 20 Artists magazine can be found by clicking here.

Happy reading and listening and writing.

Elwood Writers and Cover to Cover: Happy 500th Episode!

On 24 November last year, Cover to Cover on Vision Australia Radio reached an important milestone: episode 500 of the program. In the introduction to that week’s broadcast, producer and presenter Tim McQueen points out that over the last ten years approximately 1500 stories have been read on Cover to Cover, by about 500 different authors.

Tim and the team are always keen to promote Australian authors, and Elwood Writers has enjoyed a tremendous amount of support and encouragement almost since the program began. We’ve created the material for a number of special themed episodes, starting with, appropriately enough, ‘Starting Over’ for episode 38. On many occasions we’ve had the opportunity to visit the studios and read our work on-air. And we even get a mention in this anniversary episode. And, our very own Helen McDonald gets her very own shout-out as the program’s most-read author in 2020. Quite an achievement – well done to Helen!

We wrote a blog post to publicise episode 500 last year but in the end-of-year festive flurry we neglected to share the podcast of the program after it had been broadcast. We’re remedying that right now – you’ll find all the links you need below.

Click here to go to the podcast of episode 500. You can listen directly, or download the audio file for later, should you so wish.

Click here for an audio file of the episode.

For more information about the work of Vision Australia Radio, click here.

If you’d like to revisit our November 2023 blog post about episode 500 of Cover to Cover, click here.

You’ll find recordings of all the themed episodes that Elwood Writers has created for Cover to Cover by clicking this link here.

Thanks as always to Tim and the entire team at Cover to Cover and Vision Australia Radio for all their valuable support – it means a great deal and is very much appreciated. And huge congratulations to you all on reaching 500 episodes. Here’s to many more episodes, and many more milestones.

Happy listening, reading, and writing to everyone.