Bad Diaries Podcast
Diving into the world of diaries – the good, the bad and everything in between.
Writers Jenny Ackland and Tracy Farr are fascinated by diaries: their own and other people’s. They’ve curated more than 20 Bad Diaries Salons across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand since 2017, and now have a podcast to keep the discussion going. Join them as they chat with each other and with some of the nearly 80 authors who have read at Bad Diaries Salons.
Bad Diaries Podcast
S1E3: Other people’s diaries
In this third episode of Bad Diaries Podcast, we talk about the origin of BAD in Bad Diaries, and how, in our diaries, we can allow the badness – and the goodness – of our unedited lives to show. Jen coins the term ba-goodness, and we commit to making bad good (and making good bad).
We bring other people’s diaries to this episode of the podcast, raiding our bookshelves for a random selection of Not At All Bad But Really Very Good Diaries to discuss. Some are diaries that we love and have re-read a bazillion times. Others we’ve only dipped into, or haven’t quite got round to reading (no shame!), despite best intentions.
There’s some very heavy fan-grrrling on Helen Garner, and lots of love for Sylvia Plath, Katherine Mansfield and Derek Jarman (and Tracy’s decades-long obsession with his cottage and garden). Sarah Laing, in The Covid-19 Diaries, reminds us of The Bubble, but we can’t remember whether or not (or why) The Pillow Book was sexy. Different note-making and page-marking styles are revealed (Jen’s a corner-folder, top and bottom; Tracy’s appalled), we ponder crossings-out and missing facts in our diaries, and we talk about gaps and guilty pleasures (again, no shame) on our bookshelves.
As we often do, we talk about this (writing) life. We get into professional competition (and jealousy), writing relationships (spouses and parents and sibs, oh my), and the importance of sisters (and how sisters freak Tracy out).
Find full show notes for this episode on the Bad Diaries Salon website baddiariessalon.com, or get in touch via Instagram or Facebook – we're @baddiariessalon everywhere.
Thanks for joining us for Bad Diaries Podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review us, wherever you get your podcasts.
Bad Diaries Podcast is recorded and produced in Naarm Melbourne, Australia, on the lands of the Kulin Nation; and in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, on the iwi lands of Taranaki Whānui, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira. We pay our respects to Mana Whenua, and to Elders past, present and emerging, of these lands.
