8 July 2009

Michael Harlow is a poet and the 2009 University of Otago Robert Burns Fellow. He has recently released his sixth collection of poetry The Tram Conductor's Blue Cap. We'll talk about his new collection, what it means to him to be the Burns fellow, and also be resident in Castleberg House.






Graham Bishop is a geologist, writer and poet and has published seven books. His latest is a biography of New Zealand geologist and telephoto lens pioneer Alexander McKay. We talk about the man behind the book, The Real McKay.

10 June 2009

Raymond Huber’s children’s novel Sting buzzed out into the world earlier this year. Raymond had previously written science books for school children, and this is his first work of fiction.We’ll talk about Sting and bees and the pleasures of combining art and science.






Joanna Orwin is the 2009 Otago University College of Education Children’s Writer in Residence. She is an award winning writer of many children’s fiction and non-fiction books. We’ll talk about her writing and the residency, and also about her more recent works including My Story, Kauri In My Blood. The Diary of Laura Ann Findlay. The Coromandel, 1921-24.

13 May 2009

Laurence Fearnley is a highly regarded writer who was the 2007 Robert Burns fellow at the University of Otago and has had two of her novels shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She has recently had released her 7th novel, Mother's Day, which is the final book in her Southern Trilogy.

We'll talk about the new book, and how it feels to reach the end of a themed trilogy and to be looking forward to something different.




Huberta Hellendoorn wanted to tell the courageous story of her daughter Miriam, who has Down Syndrome. Huberta has recently self-published The Madonna in the Suitcase, after being unable to find a mainstream publisher for the book. We talk about the pleasures and difficulties in writing such a personal tale about her family, and the difficult road to publishing it. Further details about the book, including how to purchase it can be found here.

8 April 2009

Sue Wootton is a poet and short story writer. She recently helped year 5 students at a local school with writing poetry, and they then went on to publish a collection of their work for the school fair. We recorded some of the students reading their poems, so you can enjoy listening to them on the show. Sue and I will talk about children and poetry, and also about Sue’s work, and her year as the 2008 Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago.




Philip Temple has recently had published his memoir Chance is a Fine Thing. We talk about the book and some of the stories in the life of this outstanding and respected writer in his long and fruitful career.

11 March 2009

Joanna Woods is the author of three biographies. In 2005 she was the Research Fellow at the National and Turnbull Libraries where she did much of the research for her recent book Facing the Music: Charles Baeyertz and The Triad. The Triad was a journal devoted to literature, art, science and music that Charles Baeyertz established in Dunedin in 1893. We chat about The Triad, and Charles - an amazing and almost forgotten character from out past.



I enlist the help of guest interviewer Tania Roxborogh to talk with me about my new novel The Ringmaster, by Vanda Symon. The Ringmaster is the second novel in the Sam Shephard detective series and is set in Dunedin.

We talk about the novel, and the importance of characters, particularly in crime fiction. Series enable an author to develop characters, so we talk about this and other advantages in writing a series.

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.

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.