Helen Garner has a well established reputation as one of Australia’s best writers. A novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, Helen’s work spans fiction, non-fiction and reportage. Her latest book, Yellow Notebook Volume 1, is an edited selection drawn from her personal diaries spanning 1978 to 1987.

In this extended interview, Helen joins Backstory host Mel Cranenburgh to reflect on her practice, the craft of writing both fiction and non-fiction and the pleasure of ‘filleting the junk off the muscle that holds a good story together’.