Read This

Michael Williams, host

Michael Williams is the current editor of The Monthly. After beginning his career in book publishing, he’s worked across various parts of the world of books ever since – as an editor, in a literary scout’s office, in manuscript assessment – before taking a role as part of the team setting up Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. He was their founding Head of Programming and then their Director and CEO for over a decade, working with the writing community to create a cultural institution devoted to talks about and inspired by books.

He also has a background in broadcasting, in particular as a Breakfaster on 3RRR and on ABC Radio National. A regular interviewer and host for literary events at writers festivals from Ubud to Edinburgh, Byron to Dunkeld, he also spent two years as interim Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival, working out what live events looked like in a global pandemic.

Sarah McVeigh, founding producer

Sarah McVeigh is the co-creator of Read This and Schwartz Media’s head of audio. Prior to joining Schwartz, Sarah worked in new show development at Gimlet Media. Resistance, a show she co-created, was named as one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker, The New York Times and Vogue and recognised for excellence in trauma reporting by the DART Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. She was also a founding producer on New York magazine’s podcast The Cut On Tuesdays where she reported and produced stories from across North America. She also created, reported and hosted the ABC podcast How Do You Sleep At Night? and reported from across Australia for triple j’s Hack.

Clara Ames, producer

Clara Ames began her career as an assistant and editor at McSweeney’s Publishing, working closely with writer Dave Eggers on his novel The Circle . In 2016 she became an editor at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, before returning to Australia in 2019 to run the Stella Prize, a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing. Prior to joining Schwartz Media she worked at Spotify as Gimlet Media’s content operations manager.

Zoltan Fecso, mixing and compositions

Zoltan Fecso is a musician, composer and artist. His work with sound and the philosophies of listening have seen him invited to perform, exhibit, talk and take part in residencies nationally and overseas. His first podcasting project earned him an Australian Podcast Awards nomination, creating the original score and sound design for Childers in 2020. Since then, he has contributed to over 20 podcasts either as a producer, editor or composer. He is passionate about food and co-hosts his own podcast, What Artists Eat.