Amy &

Welcome back to Academia Month!

This week, we talk through two fascinating academic articles, 'The Australian Convict Prostitute Romance', and 'Conflict and Colonialism in 21st Century Romantic Historical Fiction: Repairing the Past, Repurposing History' by one of our podcast favourites, Professor Hsu-Ming Teo, with a shoutout to Dr Paloma Fresno-Calleja too! Prepare for a raucous discussion, a mysterious disappearance by our very ...

Welcome to Academia Month, where the vibes are casual but the thoughts are deep 🧠. In this episode, Amy is joined by Justina, Millie, and special return guestie Kathleen Stanley to talk all things academia. Tune in to hear all about their TEXT special issue, how being an academic is both scary and fun, and why you don't have to justify being a romance researcher anymore! Our Book of the Month is An Academic Affair by Jodi McAliste...

Not ready to say goodbye to Western month yet? Good! Neither are we! It's the last week of our cast takeover and we’re lucky enough to have a cheeky fifth Thursday – which means it's time for Amy & After Dark! These are the late-night episodes where we get cosy and yap about all the things that don't fit into our regular podcast schedule.

At the behest of Amy, our holidaying host, we tucked into some popcorn and s'm...

Our amazing host is off galavanting in the mountains and in her absence we read Amy Barry's latest release, Seven Brides for Beau Mcbride. ⋆˖°.𖤓𓄀🂾𐚁𓃗.°˖⋆

Beau Mcbride might just be Amy Barry's most swoon-worthy cowboy yet — and we are so ready to catch the next train to Montana. Join us as we discuss why we (genuinely) love these books, and just how easily the Mcbride siblings have lassoed our heart...

SPOILER ALERT! Cast takeover month continues as Abby, Harry, and Payton interrogate— I mean interview bestselling author Amy Barry about her latest release and our July book club pick, Seven Brides for Beau McBride! Learn what Harry REALLY thinks about this book, why Abby fantasises about getting stuck on fences, and whether or not Payton is a brown-noser, this week on Amy &.

Mentions:

• The McBrides of Montana by Amy ...

Put on your cowboy boots and grab a partner for the square dance, because we ain't finished talkin' cowboys just yet! ⋆˖°.𖤓𓄀🂾𐚁𓃗.°˖⋆

In this episode we are joined by writer, social media manager, cowboy enthusiast and boot scootin' professional, Bee Saint James, as well as academic and Christmas romance (occasionally on a ranch) expert Kathleen Stanley, to talk all things contemporary cowboy romance novels.

Should we br...

Howdy! Amy is off on holiday so we (the collective & of AMY &) have taken this opportunity to do a sneaky takeover of the pod 😈 Welcome to WESTERN MONTH! Yee, and I cannot stress this enough, haw 🤠 🌄🐎🌾🐄🌵

We’re keen as a tin of hot beans to deep dive into all things both country and western, from cowboy heroes to spirited heroines, rugged outlaws to lonesome ranchers, the wild mountains of Montana to small deser...

Hi Booklovers! This week, Amy & the podcast team sat down to chat about Melanie Saward's novel, Love Unleashed, for Pride Month! We discuss the boundaries of genre, bisexual representation, the sheer quantity of layers and depth that Melanie has weaved into this narrative, relationships and love, and the importance of community.

Melanie Saward is a proud Bigambul and Wakka Wakka woman. She is a writer, editor, an...

In this third week of Pride month, Amy & Justina and Harry interview THE Patrick Lenton, author of In Spite of You, who joins us for a wildly honest chat about queerness, the chaos of writing, and the unexpected beauty of Gimli and Legolas. We dive into craft, community, and smile with equal delight about the splendour of the romance community!

Patrick Lenton is a journalist and writer who lives in Melbourne. He is an amazing c...

In this second week of Pride month, Amy & Justina, Payton, and Millie try to talk broader queer fiction, get distracted by queer romance again, but ultimately persevere to talk first queer classics, genre fiction with incidental queers, and their hopes for future queer fiction.

LINKS

• Watch the full episode on YouTube: @AmyAndPodcast
• Follow the Amy & Podcast on IG: @amyandpodcast
• Join the Amy & Bookclub: ...

Must there always be a boy one and a girl one? Is there only one way to write a queer HEA? What's the difference between representing queer people and queering the genre itself? Amy & Harry, Abby, and Justina are kicking off Pride Month with a discussion about all of this and more.

Mentioned: Female Masculinity and The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam.

LINKS

• Watch the full episode on YouTube: @...

Amy & the podcast team don their oodies and pyjamas to sit down After Dark and have a conversation about the topics that don't make it into our four-week schedule. This week, as part of smut month, we discuss the rise in dark & taboo romance novels. What is dark romance? Why are these narratives more popular now more than ever? Should we be concerned about the easy access to these novels as they are sold and distributed by ...

Hi Booklovers! This week, Amy & the podcast team sat down to chat about Christina Lauren's Beautiful Bastard and all things smut-tastic! Where are the lines between romance, erotica and porn? What makes sex in a rom-com novel 'good'? We explore the length, width and depth of this very slippery topic!

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings...

Amy & Harry talk with special guests, the legendary duo Christina Lauren! Through the laughs, we discuss the upcoming re-release of their 'Beautiful Series', we talk all things smut, its place in our day and age (hint, it's still incredible and we all love it), and where the unsexiest place is in an office for...

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and La...

Amy & series regulars, Payton Hogan and Justina Ashman, are joined by (soon-to-be) Dr. Georgia Nicholls to discuss sex in the rom com novel, where we ask questions like: What is smut? Does smut offer positive sex education? Are male modes of sexual pleasure being privileged in the rom com novel? And why are romance heroes so Big and heroines so smol?!

LINKS

• Find Aya de Léon here: ayadeleon.com
• Watch the Live Bo...

It’s officially smut month! Amy and series regulars Millie Heffernan and Abby Guy are joined by our special guestie Izzie Duffield (who also writes as Elizabeth Stevens as well as many other names). Come with us as we dive into fantasy smut! What is smut in romance and what happens when you add guys with huge wingspans into the mix? 

Find Izzie’s work here.

Our theme music is by Mass Wisteria. Stream their single &...

Amy & the podcast team sit down to discuss Aya de Léon's romantic suspense novel, Side Chick Nation, as part of our Climate Fiction month! 

Aya de León is an acclaimed writer of poetry, prose, stage, and screen. She teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley and is the 'acquiring editor for a new climate justice fiction imprint Fighting Chance Books, which will publish stories of people taking collecti...

Amy & Justina chat with Jennifer Mills, a celebrated writer of climate fiction and dystopian novels and author of The Airways (2021), Dyschronia (2018) and Gone (2011). Her latest book, Salvage, is out on May 27. Join us as we chat about ambiguous utopias, the ethics (or lack thereof) of space billionaires, and the responsibility we have to each other and the world in the face of climate emergency. 

Pre-order Salvage&...

Amy & Payton talk with special guesties Dr Alex Cothren and Dr Rachel Hennessy about climate-fiction writing and scholarship – but we’re fun nerds, I promise. You can find Alex’s satirical short stories in basically any literary mag you could possibly think of, and by August 2025, his debut anthology Playing Nice Was Getting Me Nowhere will be published by Pink Shorts Press. Rachel Hennessy is an award-wi...