In the early nineties Rachel sat in on a Women’s Show on 5UV in Adelaide and was so mortifyingly and audibly nervous she did not think she would ever have a chance in radio – but cut forward to earlier this century, when Rachel returned home to Tasmania and had a burning desire to talk about books, interview writers and have her own show. Thus, The Book Show with Paige Turner was born, and ran for nearly a decade on Edge Radio in Hobart.

Rachel has recently been working as a writer in residence at Risdon Prison in Hobart, working with a group of inmates with lower literacy, and running Slam Poetry workshops – a form of literacy by stealth, and an overt celebration of individual stories.

She says “The opportunity to apply for the National Features and Documentary Series came at just the right time, I’d started to record some of the blokes reading their poems and talking about the program, and NFDS provided me with the potential of a clear outlet and an incentive to progress with these recordings.

It is such a wonderful opportunity to work closely with experts and to refine the myriad skills required for producing these pieces and I particularly look forward to practising my interviewing skills and to really get stuck into the technical side of recording and editing to make excellent audio. I’m also really excited about giving these inmates, who are not only disenfranchised because they are incarcerated, but also because they struggle with basic literacy, the opportunity to express themselves through poetry.“