Introducing the up-and-coming industry professionals behind the Fremantle Press podcast: Katie McAllister
Katie is no stranger to presenting on radio, so it was always a given that she would be the one to get the book about a washed-up radio presenter: Afternoons with Harvey Beam by Carrie Cox. Katie is a writer, reader and student from Perth who grew up in Albany and Denmark. Studying English and Indigenous Studies at UWA, she also coedits Pelican magazine. This is her first podcast for Fremantle Press.
Where are you from?
I was born in Perth, but when I was five my parents decided that there was nothing else to do but buy an asparagus farm in Denmark. So I grew up in Denmark, then moved to Albany when I started high school. I’m very proudly from Minang Noongar country, but I love this place so much that I’m stoked to be back to do my degree on Whadjuk Noongar country here in Perth.
How did you come to be editor of Pelican?
After guest editing Westerly’s online issue about young Western Australian writing, I saw applications for Pelican editor were open. I coerced my good mate Josh Cahill into applying with me and here we are. We both have a lot of feelings about students having a voice and being taken seriously, so this was a ripper opportunity.
For those who don’t know, what is Pelican?
A way of life! It’s UWA’s student magazine, the second oldest in Australia. We cover stories relevant to UWA students and we are a space for emerging writers to try out their material.
How did you get involved in the Fremantle Press podcasts?
I was asked by the wonderful Claire Miller and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Carrie Cox is phenomenal.
What sort of things do you like to read?
Literally everything. Emails, news websites, podcast descriptions, zines, tweets, poetry, recipes. What writing is and where good writing can be found is changing so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up and be across everything.
Do you write? What do you write?
At the moment, a lot of emails and radio scripts. But I’m always writing aggressively mediocre poetry because I’m a young, white, middle-class woman studying an English degree and I have a lot of feelings. I keep starting and stopping a novel, but I guess right now I write mostly journal entries, to-do lists and texts to my friends.