Gleebooks: In Conversation with Toni Jordan

It was fantastic to speak with acclaimed Australian author Toni Jordan at the launch of her latest novel Tenderfoot.  She is the also the author of the international bestseller Addition, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and has been adapted into a feature film, in cinemas in 2026.

Tenderfoot is a story told by Andie, and set in 1970s Queensland. Her family’s religion is gambling; they raise and train greyhounds. We spoke about Andie, the voices that Toni found for Andie in this novel, writing about a family dynamic, and about becoming.

There’s a mercurial cloudy sub-conscious aspect of this story and Toni and I spoke about how these stories make us reflect on our own childhoods. This was a deep, thoughtful and joyful conversation about where ideas come from, about finding the voice for narrators and characters and about how Toni Jordan’s writing life has taken shape.