Bertie Blackman, Jonathan Seidler and Sam Vincent reflect on their memoirs, each exploring the complex bonds they had with their fathers. Bertie’s Bohemian Negligence depicts the magic and vulnerability of growing up as the daughter of famed artist Charles Blackman. Jonathan’s It’s a Shame About Ray: a memoir confronts his family’s history of mental illness, his father’s suicide and his own bipolar diagnosis. Sam’s My Father and Other Animals: How I Took on the Family Farm recounts how he left his inner-city life to take over the family farm and came to better understand his father. Hosted by Cassie McCullagh.
Jonathan Seidler (Australian)
Jonathan Seidler is an author, creative director and culture critic. His work has been published frequently in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Monocle and GQ. Jonathan co-founded the long-running music blog One A Day, launched two nationally syndicated fiction series for Broadsheet and recently commissioned, edited and published an Unyoked anthology of nature writing. Jonathan wrote and performed the score for Snare, shortlisted for SXSW and Tribeca 2019 and more recently was music supervisor on the SBS series Latecomers.
Bertie Blackman (Australian)
Bertie Blackman is a multidisciplinary storyteller. Her work as a writer, musician and artist weaves between the real and unreal, illuminating her unique universe and inviting us to explore worlds within worlds. Bertie is an ARIA–winning musician, and is the daughter of iconic Australian artist Charles Blackman. Bertie's debut children's book, Mica the Star Sailor, was published in 2020. Her memoir, Bohemian Negligence, was published in 2022.
Sam Vincent (Australian)
Sam Vincent's writing has appeared in The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review and The Best Australian Essays. His first book, Blood and Guts, was longlisted for the Walkley Book Award and in 2019 he won the Walkley Award for longform feature writing. He runs a cattle and fig farm in the Yass Valley, NSW, and supplies fruit to some of the best restaurants in the Canberra region. Sam's memoir My Father and Other Animals: How I Took on the Family Farm was published in 2022.
Cassie McCullagh (Australian)
Cassie McCullagh co-hosts The Bookshelf with Kate Evans on ABC Radio National, a weekly review of the latest Australian and international fiction, and presents RN’s The Weekend. Cassie has also presented ABC Sydney’s Focus program, and RN’s flagship social affairs program Life Matters, and reported on books, arts and popular culture. Prior to joining the ABC, Cassie worked in print journalism as a feature writer, news reporter and columnist.
