The Secret Life of Writers by Tablo

Ali Cobby Eckermann on grief, finding family, solace in the desert and afternoon tea with Gloria Steinem

Episode Summary

Featuring: the life-changing literary award, healing through mentoring, standing inside your story, where 'Ruby Moonlight' came from, Australia’s first Aboriginal writers’ retreat and poetry readings. Ali Cobby Eckermann is a poet and artist from South Australia whose work has been published and celebrated around the world. Her poetry collections include 'little bit long time', 'Kami' and the award-winning collection 'Inside My Mother'. Her verse novels are 'His Father’s Eyes' and 'Ruby Moonlight' which won the first black&write! Indigenous writing fellowship, the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, a Deadly Award and was named the New South Wales Book of the Year. She’s also written the memoir 'Too Afraid to Cry'. In 2013 Ali toured Ireland as Australia’s Poetry Ambassador and in 2017 she received the Windham-Campbell Prize from Yale University which is only given to a select group of the world’s greatest writers. She’s described herself as ‘a dreamer, a gardener, a reader and a nomad’.