Celebrating books and readers, this is a monthly series of in-depth and relaxed conversations with authors about their latest work, and their body of work, their writing process and the ideas that inspire them.

Michaela Kalowski is an interviewer, moderator and curator for writers and ideas festivals. Highlight interviews include Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Michelle de Kretser, Amos Oz, Stan Grant, Holly Ringland & Etgar Keret. She's the curator of ABC RN’s on-air writers festival, Big Weekend of Books, now in its 4th year. In 2022 she was curator of International Author events for Brisbane Writers Festival. Michaela has conducted radio interviews for ABC RN’s The Music Show, Big Ideas & The Bookshelf, ABC Classic and has presented programs across ABC radio.

Our featured author: Cadance Bell

Cadance Bell is an Australian author, showrunner, producer, director and writer. Her memoir The All of It: A Bogan Rhapsody was published by Penguin in July 2022 to critical acclaim and shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year. She is currently writing Monster St. James, a neo-noir love letter to Sydney, and a follow-up memoir. In between writing as a show-runner and screenwriting, Cadance is also currently working on numerous scripted television projects and developing a feature film, Seouls. Her prior documentary films include The Rainbow Passage for Network 10 and Screen Australia, and Who I Am, the world’s first documentary exploring the intersection of gender diversity and autism. Cady is also the founder of Threeki, which seeks to promote mindful kindness and the annual Rainbow Day, which has raised almost $1 million for charitable causes. Her mission is to ‘unmake prejudice’ by encouraging audiences to know LGTBQIA+ stories and she was the first transgender person to become a champion of Women’s Health Week.

Her first fiction novel, Letters to Our Robot Son, is a modern science fiction epic. Out now exclusively to Audible, is an unexpected story of life, family, hope and redemption – at the end of the world.

‘Arto has a problem. For one, he's a robot. He’s awoken with no memory of who he is, with nothing but a mysterious letter, in a world bereft of those fleshy, talky things that made him. So why is he alone, and where have all the people gone?

He stumbles upon a lost, cheeky kitten and selects it as his best friend for the adventure of a lifetime, trying to make sense of all this existence stuff. Just as Arto begins to fear he's the only sentient thing left on the whole planet, a cantankerous robot falls from the sky.

She says she's his sister.

And that's the problem, because she might be the reason there are no more people.’

‘Cadance Bell has pulled off an extraordinary feat in Letters to our Robot Son: a terrifying, funny, profound and ultimately hopeful story of what makes us human - and why we must question that. A rollicking adventure with a heart-bursting character at its core that tousles with some of the biggest and most important questions of our time.’ - Kate Mildenhall

Letters to Our Robot Son (2024) Official Book Trailer by Cadance Bell