Out on the Hustings…

BETTER READING PODCAST: Fiona McKenzie Kekic on Turning Real-Life Experience and Industry Sexism into Page-Turning Fiction

Fiona McKenzie Kekic is a recovering television professional with credits ranging from 60 Minutes to Married at First Sight. Television has always been cutthroat, but it was an especially tough road for a woman back in the eighties and nineties. After way too many scarring years in commercial news and current affairs, Fiona co-wrote Boned with her equally disgruntled colleague Jane Hansen. Boned was published in 2008. Now Fiona’s stepped away from that world to concentrate full time on writing and to make the most of life’s next stage. She believes absolutely that middle age is just the beginning and that women only get stronger as they age. There is a world of both figurative and literal mountains out there to prove it. Fiona lives in Sydney with her husband Murat, son Arley and their rescue cattle dog Vels.

Fiona talks to Cheryl about her parents, the real-life experiences that shaped her novel, her career in television, the groundbreaking book that exposed sexism in Australia’s TV and news industry, and the journey to publishing her latest work, Eva Reddy’s Trip of a Lifetime, which is out July 29, 2025.

Thank you to Cheryl Akle for the opportunity. It ended up being a whole lot of fun.