What remains after loss? How do we carry the people, places and versions of ourselves that are gone? And can art help us make sense of what endures?

In this episode of Fully Lit, writer and broadcaster Sarah Runcie is joined by poet Vaughn Upward Garcia, musician Helen Franzmann, and writer and artist Judith Nangala Crispin for a wide-ranging conversation about grief, creativity and survival.

Garcia reflects on recovery, reinvention and the journey behind his debut collection Poems from the Afterlife. Franzmann discusses the making of Jay Marie, Comfort Me, an album shaped by the death of her sister and the search for comfort in grief. And Crispin explores death, Country, memory and belonging through her remarkable verse novel Dingo’s Noctuary.

Together, they consider what remains after loss, how art helps us navigate absence, and why love and grief are often inseparable. Along the way, they discuss sobriety, family, music, landscape, First Nations knowledge, and the stories we carry from one life into the next.

At its heart, this is a conversation about transformation, and the ways creativity can help us make meaning from what endures.

This episode was recorded live at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival.

Voices

Sarah Runcie is a writer, broadcaster and arts journalist whose work spans literature, music, theatre and cultural commentary.

Judith Nangala Crispin is an award-winning poet, visual artist and conservationist, and the author of the verse novel Dingo’s Noctuary.

Helen Franzmann is a singer-songwriter, musician and member of Mess Esque, whose work blends intimate lyricism with dreamlike, atmospheric soundscapes.

Vaughn Upward Garcia is a Queanbeyan-based poet and performer whose debut collection, Poems from the Afterlife, explores class, recovery, mortality and belonging.

Credits

This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival on Gadigal land in Sydney.

Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.

Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.

Recorded and mixed by Daniel Wiggins

Further Reading

Poems from the Afterlife by Vaughn Upward Garcia

Dingo’s Noctuary by Judith Nangala Crispin

Jay Marie, Comfort Me by Mess Esque

For more conversations on poetry, storytelling and contemporary Australian literature, explore the Fully Lit back catalogue.