Will Dean

But when it's advice for a writer, what does that mean?

And what does it mean to read as a writer?

Well, novelist and academic Belinda Castles has edited a collection of 25 essays called Reading Like an Australian Writer.

And she joins us now here on the bookshelf.

Hi, Belinda.

Now also with us are two contributors to that collection.

Deborah Adelaide is a novelist and essayist who also taught writing at universities for many years.

Deborah, hello.

Nicholas Jost is also an academic and novelist.

Hi, Nicholas.

Now, can I ask all of you first, what does it mean to read as a writer?

So Belinda, how would you answer that question?

Respectful awe, I like that.

Now, having read this collection, I think everyone has answered this question in different ways, but Nicholas Jotes, what does that question mean to you, reading as a writer?

Now, Deborah Adelaide, what would you add to this idea of reading as a writer?

What else?

So, Nicholas, can you tell us what you selected as your focus for this collection and why?

Deborah, the novella you selected, Kate Jennings' Snake, it's one you've used a lot in teaching creative writing.

Can you introduce us to that story and what makes it such a good tool for thinking with or writing with?

Please.