Wednesday, January 28, 2009

11 February 2009



For our February show I’ll be talking with David Howard of The Otago University Press, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. Well talk about the humble beginnings of the press and how it has built into a notable publishing house which publishes around twenty books each year. We’ll talk about the kinds of books they publish and also about life in the publishing industry, particularly in these uncertain economic times, and with the effects of the digital age.


The second guest will be Kath Beattie, a Dunedin writer who has recently had her book published by Scholastic, titled My Story: Poor Man’s Gold: The diary of Reuben Radcliffe, Northland, 1899-1900. Kath was a guest on Write On Last year when we talked about a book she had self-pubished, titled Walking backwards into the future: coping with grief through continuing bonds. We’ll be talking about her new book which is about a boy working on the Kauri Gum swamps of Northland, and also we’ll talk about how the process of self publishing went for her, whether she thought it was worthwhile doing it and what advice she would offer to other people considering self-publishing their books.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

14 January 2009

I'm having a little summer break, so this show is a replay of one from earlier in the year.

Alison Ballance is a natural history writer and award winning wild-life documentary film-maker with Natural History New Zealand. Her 'days at the office' have included being in snow and ice trying to film tigers in Far East Russia, sitting inside gers in Mongolia to wading through leech infested waters in Thailand.

She has written many books, including Dancing with Cranes, in 2005, which tells of some of her film-making adventures, and most recently, the beautiful Southern Alps, which has been named as a finalist in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. We'll talk about her recent books, and adventures in a challenging industry.



Janet Frame is New Zealand's most distinguished writer. The recent publication of her novel Towards Another Summer, to critical acclaim, was a decision that had to be made by The Janet Frame Literary Trust. I'll be talking with Pamela Gordon, the Chair of the trust about Janet, and about the pleasures and difficulties in managing the literary legacy of such an important writer.


To listen to this show click here.