Maria Papas talks to Susan Midalia about why it’s crucial to keep writing about family
Susan Midalia says families can be nurturing, or they can be really damaging, but most of us have them. Family plays a key role in her latest novel, Everyday Madness. Susan says the book is about the ways in which ordinarily rational people can become irrational due to certain personal or social circumstances.
She says she didn’t use the word ‘madness’ in a pejorative way but wanted people to think about the fact that depression is widespread and ‘everyday’ in that sense. Susan said, ‘It is becoming more readily diagnosed but the danger there I think is that sometimes people can assume because so many people have depression that it’s really just a case of the blues something we can easily recover from … the symptoms can in fact be really debilitating and frightening.’
In this podcast she jumps into the Love to Read Local hot seat for an interview with City of Fremantle Hungerford Award winner Maria Papas.
Love to Read Local is a statewide celebration of Western Australian stories, books and writers. Visit the Love to Read Local website to connect with other readers, tell us which local books you love to read and perhaps inspire others to read those books too!
Music: ‘Letter to a Daughter of St George’, from the Meat Lunch EP: Songs from Floaters. Written by Alan Fyfe. Performed by Trevor Bentley (guitar and vocals – @trevormb) and Chris Parkinson (harmonica). Produced by Blake Carnaby of Nuglife studios with impresario work by Benjamin P. Newton.
Producer: Claire Miller
Mastered and edited by: Aidan d’Adhemar
This podcast was produced in Walyalup in Whadjuk Boodja, on the lands of the Noongar people.
