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Ramona Koval

 

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Ramona Koval



 
 
Ramona Koval (born 1954, Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
) is an Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n broadcaster, writer and journalist.

Koval is known for her extended and in-depth interviews with significant writers. She has had a long and varied career on air in Australia on ABC Radio Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as the ABC, is Australia's national Public broadcasting.With a budget of Australian dollar840 million annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Net...
. She was presenter of the Radio National
Radio National

ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide radio network broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with programs including news and current affairs , arts, music, society, science, drama and comedy....
 Drive program and the morning presenter on Melbourne's 3LO (now 774 ABC Melbourne) through the late 1980s and early 1990s. She became a fixture in the literary world after joining ABC Radio National's Books and Writing in 1994.






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Ramona Koval (born 1954, Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
) is an Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n broadcaster, writer and journalist.

Koval is known for her extended and in-depth interviews with significant writers. She has had a long and varied career on air in Australia on ABC Radio Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as the ABC, is Australia's national Public broadcasting.With a budget of Australian dollar840 million annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Net...
. She was presenter of the Radio National
Radio National

ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide radio network broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with programs including news and current affairs , arts, music, society, science, drama and comedy....
 Drive program and the morning presenter on Melbourne's 3LO (now 774 ABC Melbourne) through the late 1980s and early 1990s. She became a fixture in the literary world after joining ABC Radio National's Books and Writing in 1994. Ramona now presents The Book Show
The Book Show

The Book Show is a Australian Australian Broadcasting Corporation program for the discussion of everything relating to the written word. It is broadcast live around Australia on Radio National with a daily weekday morning show which is then replayed nightly and also has a sunday evening show....
, introduced by ABC Radio National in 2006 to consolidate its various book programs. The Book Show is the world's only daily radio program devoted to the books, writing and publishing.

Biography


Koval has written several books, including a novel, Samovar, and a cookbook Jewish Cooking, Jewish Cooks. She has written for many newspapers and international journals, and her interviews have been published in book form. Her latest collection of Radio National interviews is Tasting Life Twice: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, published by ABC Books (2005).

Koval has travelled overseas extensively and brought home fascinating conversations with some of the most exciting and respected authors writing in English, and she has made several radio documentaries. She is an active participant in the various Australian literary festivals, and has been invited to take part in the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Edinburgh International Book Festival

The Edinburgh International Book Festival, is a book festival that takes place in the last three weeks of August every year in Charlotte Square, in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland?s capital....
 for the last 7 years, and Montreal's Blue Metropolis
Blue Metropolis

Blue Metropolis, the Montreal International Literary Festival, known as Blue Met, is the world?s first multilingual literary festival and is held annually in Montreal since April 1999....
 literary festival for the past 3 years.

In 1995 Koval won the Order of Australia
Order of Australia

The Order of Australia is an Order established by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Monarchy of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"....
 Media Award for a series of radio programs entitled "Writing from the Centre" and broadcast on ABC Radio National.

Koval has served on the board of the Australian Book Review, and has served on the Victorian Premier's Literary Award Advisory Committee
Victorian Premier's Literary Award

The Victorian Premiers of the Australian states Literary Awards were created by the Victoria Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia publishing industry....
, and the Asialink Awards Literary Committee. She has judged the radio section of the Walkley Awards
Walkley Awards

The Walkley Awards are an Australian journalism award given out annually. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board consisting of prominent journalists and photographers....
 twice, and been a judge of non-fiction for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards twice, once as chair of the committee. Her interviews are regularly published in transcript in Australian Book Review
Australian Book Review

Australian Book Review is an Australian magazine of literary review and comment. A monthly publication, it contains reviews of books, magazines, journals and exhibitions, diaries and travel writing....
, among other publications, and on the Web.

In 2002 Koval was elected to the position of staff-elected Director on the ABC Board
ABC Board

The ABC Board is the body responsible for the operations of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is made up of five to seven directors chosen by the Federal Australian government, a Managing Director appointed by the Board itself, and until 2006 a staff-elected director....
. She held this position during a period of intense controversy, until the position was abolished in 2006 following an amendment to the ABC Act by the Howard Government.

In 2006 ABC Radio National pooled its considerable literary expertise to create The Book Show and asked Koval to be the presenter.

In 2008 she was invited to be one of 1000 people taking part in the Australia 2020 summit to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future" .

Works

  • Eating Your Heart Out - Food, Shape and the Body Industry. Penguin 1985.
  • One to One. ABC Books 1993.
  • Too Many Walnuts. Heinemann 1993.
  • Samovar. Minerva - Heinemann 1996.
  • 'Thighs and Whispers'. In The Greatest Game, edited by Ross Fitzgerald and Ken Spillman. William Heinemann Australia 1988.
  • Jewish Cooking, Jewish Cooks. New Holland Press 2001.
  • 'The Sarajevo Haggadah'. Brick Number 70 Winter 2002.
  • 'Pythagoras and The Turtle'. In The Giffith Review. Summer 2003-2004.
  • 'The Sarajevo Haggadah'. In The Best Australian Essays. Edited Robert Dessaix. Black Ink 2004.
  • Tasting Life Twice - Conversations With Remarkable Writers. ABC Books 2005.
  • In Praise of the Common Reader - Overland Lecture. Overland Number 189 2007.* (Transcript)