The final 2014 episode of the Kill Your Darlings Podcast is here! Whether you’re hunting for gift ideas or ways to while away the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we’re here to get you in the ‘too many good things, too little time’ zone.

In this episode we speak with Alice Pung about her young adult novel Laurinda, ask Erik Jensen how you write a biography of a subject who lies to you, and find out what Meanjin editor Zora Sanders learned about international literary journals and translation on a recent research trip.

We also hear from Helen Razer on the stupidity of compassion, before the KYD team compassionately offer you our top picks of the year in the hope they make the next few weeks a little more bearable.

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• Alice Pung’s Laurinda, Erik Jensen’s Acute Misfortune, and Helen Razer and Bernard Keane’s A Short History of Stupid are all available now in independent bookstores.
  
• For more on Laurinda, see Danielle Binks’ interview with Alice Pung: Mean girls, bullies and private school privilege.
  
• For more on Acute Misfortune, see Carody Culver’s review Charmless Lives.
  
• For more Christmas recommendations, try Carody Culver’s Taking Christmas off the shelf.
  

Produced by Meaghan Dew.

The KYD podcast will return in 2015.